Inspiring midfielder going from strength to strength.
For most footballers – and especially ones on the verge of achieving the elite level – an ACL tear at the age of 30 would pose the kind of career questions no one wants to ponder.
Georgia Nanscawen isn’t like most footballers.
In a league that understandably has its lens fixed on a young talent pool that continues to grow with each passing year, it shouldn’t be understated how impressive Nanscawen’s improvement has been in what would typically serve as the twilight of most careers.
Since being signed as Essendon’s inaugural AFLW player in 2022 even after that knee injury, Nanscawen has managed to get better year-on-year and at the age of 33, is arguably in as rich a vein of form as any inside midfielder in the game.
External recognition came last year in the form of a berth in the provisional All-Australian squad of 42 after averaging 24 touches (13 contested) over the course of 10 games, kicking off a run that has continued into 2025.
Across the opening month this season, Nanscawen is pulling in a career-best 27 disposals per game – of those, nine are coming from ground ball gets, with her average of 14 contested possessions good for sixth best in the league.
Nanscawen racked up a career-high 32 touches and a whopping 15 tackles for 141 fantasy points in defeat to Geelong on Sunday, a workhorse in a Bombers midfield that were challenged all day.
A 10-vote performance from round three’s Dreamtime in Darwin fixture elevated Nanscawen to an outright No.1 in the AFLCA AFLW Champion Player of the Year leaderboard (where she now currently sits in the top four), reminding the W community of her standing as a legitimate A-grader.
Following Dreamtime, Nanscawen acknowledged the confidence she’s taken out of her form, but she isn’t one to get too caught up in individual accolades.
“It is nice to feel confident. It’s just the belief to do what I can do,” Nanscawen told essendonfc.com.au.
“The group around me and the coaching group have given me a lot of confidence to play my game and I don’t need to be anyone different but me.
“(I’m) rolling with that. I just love gameday, getting to run out with the group and the belief we’re building is really special.”
As the rotation of youngsters such as Amy Gaylor and Grace Belloni into the middle has bolstered the Bombers’ on-ball brigade, it’s also allowed the former Hockeyroo’s inside game to stand out even more.
In a one-two punch with Maddy Prespakis, Nanscawen has been able to play almost exclusively in-and-under and has powered her side’s mostly impressive start to its fourth campaign in the league.
It isn’t the first time Bomber fans have taken kindly to a No.5 in long sleeves, and should Nanscawen continue this form into the back end of the year, there’s every chance she could find herself on the receiving end of awards befitting of that comparison.