AFL Central West: Bathurst Giants forward Hailee Provest kicks most goals in women's league

With the AFLCW notifying clubs that the final round of the regular season for seniors would not be going ahead this Saturday due to the lockdown of regional New South Wales, it confirmed two achievements for Provest.

It means she and her fellow Giants have claimed another minor premiership, while for the first time Provest has snagged the women's leading goal kicker award.

It's an aspect of the game the soccer player, turned Giants defender, turned Giants small forward has worked hard on.

"I have been practicing a lot, this year I've focussed on getting the set shots instead of snapping every single ball like last year," she said.

"I've been pretty lucky, I've been taking the marks in front of goals, so I've had to learn to do a set shot and play on and run around the mark a little bit as well.

"I'd say this year there's only been a couple of those kicking off the ground goals I've got and that's mostly in the wet games, so that's a big difference to previous seasons I've played where I kicked a lot off the ground in that soccer style."

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Provest's official tally stands at 25 - easily bettering the 13 she kicked last year when she was the Giants' leading female goal scorer.

Her team-mates Olivia Johnson (17) and Elise Gullifer (14) ranks third and fourth respectively on the league's season tally with Bathurst Lady Bushranger Kelsey Richards (11) rounding out the top five.

"That's a lot more than I've kicked in other seasons ... but there are a couple that are not there actually, it should be 27," Provest said. "But it's been good that we've all shared them around."

As for the rest of the season, while the AFLCW is aiming for finals to go ahead, Provest thinks the current COVID-19 situation in Dubbo will make that hard.

Dubbo is the team the Giants have played in two of the past three grand finals and this year finished second in the minor premiership behind the undefeated Bathurst side.

Naturally she'd love the chance to win a third premiership medal, but if this is where it ends then Provest is satisfied.

"We haven't got on much lately with Orange forfeiting, the Orange lockdown and then the Dubbo lockdown, so I was a bit devastated at the start, but think there's a bigger picture at the end of the day," she said.

"I've kind of just ruled the season out in my head I think. With Dubbo, I think dealing with the COVID cases is more important than a football match, having family in Dubbo and out west, to me football is not the most important thing at the end of the day.

"You don't want to be unfair on Dubbo because they've put in a lot of hard work this season with both their men's and women's team.

"No-one wants to win a competition by default, by being at the top of the ladder at the right time, so I think call it, make it a COVID year. I think make it a minor premiers cup and call it a year."

In the men's tier one competition Giants' Sam Sloan (41) topped the kick scorers' list ahead of Bushrangers' Matt Archer (26).

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