Bathurst Bushrangers youngster Lucy Driscoll to represent youth girls Indigenous team

Driscoll is one of 20 players picked in the Indigenous squad, with the Central West also represented by Orange Tigers' Charli Hunter.

The match will be played at Tom Wills Oval, the training facility of the GWS Giants at the Sydney Olympic Park, with the players picked in the match a part of the AFL NSW/ACT's Indigenous Youth Girls Leadership Program and the Multicultural Girls Youth Leadership.

Brian Matheson, who co-coached Bushrangers youth girls in their 2022 premiership winning season, said Driscoll is a pleasure to work with.

"Lucy is a great player and she's a great player to coach," he said.

"She won both the league best and fairest and our club best and fairest.

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"She just loves her footy and is so dedicated. She listens to everything you tell her and takes it on board.

"She's a great team player. She'll basically play wherever I want her to play. If I say I need her to play in the backline, which she did normally play, she'd play there. If she had to play up forward, she'd excel up there. Even on the ball, she'll have a run around."

Matheson said Driscoll has been a part of the GWS Giants development squad this year.

"She's very experienced," he said.

"I think she started playing Auskick when she was about five or six, working her way through from there to the under 12s, under 14s and then youth girls.

"To win the youth girls best and fairest at 15 is a pretty big effort. She's also our captain, so that says a lot about her. She's just a real team player, which is what you want from your captain.

"I reckon she takes more bounces than I've taken in my whole footy career. She loves taking a bounce out of fullback."

Driscoll featured in the youth girls team that defeated Orange Tigers 3-9-27 to 2-2-14 in the grand final back in August, having played in 13 games throughout the season, kicking seven goals along the way.

She also made her women's first grade debut against Dubbo Demons on July 30, being voted the team's players' player for the match.

Sunday's Indigenous-Multicultural match is intended to inspire young Indigenous women aged 13-16, as they play in a talent identification match.

Players will come from across NSW and the ACT, showing their wares as they play against a side of multicultural players from NSW and the ACT.

These players are part of AFL NSW/ACT's Indigenous Youth Girls Leadership Program and the Multicultural Girls Youth Leadership program.

Through the program, players will learn about pre-match routines, mental health and wellbeing, and road safety.

The match provides an opportunity for the girls to represent their state and culture, and completes the diversity talent pathway for 2022. The program is scheduled to recommence in the first quarter of 2023.

Newly appointed AFL NSW/ACT's Indigenous Ambassador and Sydney Swans footballer Aliesha Newman is expected to attend the match, one of her first jobs in her new role.

"I'm so proud to help give back to the community I love through the game I love," she said.

"There have been so many amazing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island sportspeople who I've looked up to as an athlete, and I hope I can be a role model for Indigenous players at all levels across NSW and the ACT."

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