There’s an ease about Mia Barwick that cricketers her age just don’t have.
It’s a warm Tuesday afternoon, and she’s participating in a net session at Bellerive Oval with the Cricket Tasmania pathways team, a collection of the state’s most promising up-and-coming female cricketers.
But it’s evident early that Mia’s ability is on a different level from the others, who try as they might, are struggling to lure her into a false shot or find the edge of her bat.
Mia Barwick was Identified by Cricket Tasmania as a future star at age 10. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)
The difference between Mia and the other batters is that she’s on the attack.Â
She’s all front foot.Â
She climbs into her shots, rather than waiting for the ball to meet her bat.
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It’s that trait those within Cricket Tasmania believe sets her apart, and that has the 15-year-old destined for greatness.
“Where we have to sometimes nudge some of our young players, with Mia, we have to put the bridle on,” says one administrator.
“The biggest thing with her is she has courage. She attacks the bowler and gets in the way of the ball. You don’t see that from players her age all that often,” they said.’Generational’ talent
A kid from the Tasmanian bush, born into a sports-obsessed family including older brothers, Mia Barwick is a teenage multi-sport phenom, whose otherworldly sporting talent has set tongues wagging in Tasmania
Such is her cricketing ability, her feats on the football field are often overlooked.
One senior Tasmanian football administrator labelled her as “generational”, and at least 3 AFLW clubs have made early enquiries.
It’s cricket, though, that has Mia’s heart, having quietly turned down an opportunity to join Tasmania’s elite football talent pathway despite the Devils being on the cusp of VFL and AFLW entry.
Identified by Cricket Tasmania as a future star at age 10, Mia had cracked North Hobart’s first-grade team by age 12.
She was still in primary school, and so young that her senior debut was scuppered by an administrative glitch.
“The first game I was meant to play in first grade, I wasn’t allowed because I hadn’t filled out a form, because I was too young,” she told the ABC.
That first senior match eventually came, and so did the accolades.
Mia Barwick will play in the Australian under-19 team for a tri-series against Sri Lanka and England. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)
In one senior one-day final, she took 5 for 41 with the ball to be crowned player of the match and help her Demons to the premiership.
A year later, Barwick bludgeoned 199 not out off 156 balls with the bat, earning her another premiership and player of the match performance.
At just 15, she was crowned the player of the tournament at the under-19 national championships while representing Tasmania.
Then, earlier this year, she made her professional debut for the Tasmanian Tigers in the WNCL.
Now she’s been named in the Australian under-19 team for a tri-series against Sri Lanka and England later this month.
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International career in sights
For Mia, who grew up on a farm at York Plains, in Tasmania’s midlands, a life in sport was her destiny.
“Everything was sport,” she said.
“Cricket didn’t start until I was about 9. My brother and cousins were playing for Glenorchy under-13 boys, and they needed someone to fill in.
“I was there and I filled in and never looked back.
“I remember I got a horse for Christmas, my brother got a cricket pitch, and I can’t say the horse got much use.
“I was competitive and wouldn’t go inside until I’d won.”
Barwick is almost certain to be offered a Women’s Big Bash League contract for this summer.
In the not-too-distant future, the Women’s Indian Premier League will probably beckon, as will England’s Hundred tournament.
If her trajectory continues, she will play cricket for her country, and those in the know both within and outside Tasmania have her touted as a future Australian captain.
And she’s no reluctant prodigy.
Marnus Labuschagne — the famously obsessive cricket ’nuffy’ who breathes the minutiae of the game, almost to a fault — is her favourite player.
“He just loves the game. Loves doing what he does. That stands out,” she says.
“I just love the game. Always at school, I’ve got the cricket on in the background on the computer, always watching some sort of cricket, trying to get better, watching the best players bat,” she said.
New era for sports stars
Efforts have been made to prepare her for the realities of life as a pro.
As a 13-year-old, she was included in the Hobart Hurricanes WBBL squad for their successful pre-season Spring Challenge tour.
She was also included in a Tigers squad that travelled to Abu Dhabi for a five-game T20 tournament.
As of today, Mia still isn’t even old enough to use social media, let alone drive a car, and she needs permission from her school to take days off to train.
She’s part of the next generation of female sporting stars, who won’t only make a living out of playing, but make megabucks while doing so.
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At the inaugural women’s Hundred auction last week, 18-year-old English spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman was bought by the Southern Brave for almost $200,000.
She’ll play a maximum of 10 games at the tournament, which will last less than a month.
“We’re moving out of this ‘try your best, do your best and we’ll all be happy at the end of the day’ phase”, says Lauren Gandini, a player agent at Stella Sports Management, who deals exclusively with female athletes.
“It’s stepping into this, ‘you’re getting paid to do a job, we need the job to be done’ phase.
“It does ask the athlete to step up into maturity and that’s why it’s important to have trusted people around them to make that jump” she said.
 Stella Sports management player agent Lauren Gandini deals exclusively with female athletes. (Supplied: Stella Sports management)
Gandini believes the steep increase in pay for professional female athletes has shifted the mindset of next-gen stars like Mia, who are becoming far more aware of their career prospects — and adult athlete responsibilities — at a far younger age.
“We’re going to see the effects of that in the next few years, and women are going to be able to dedicate full weeks and months to getting better at their craft, rather than having to go off to a part-time job waiting tables to make ends meet.”
“That will flow on to injury prevention, and how players transition into and out of the game,” she said.
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Not too fast, says cricket veteran
It could well be that Mia Barwick’s generation is the best prepared of any for life on the pro sports circuit.
She’s so young, and already such a part of the Cricket Tasmania furniture that she knows no other way.
But for Barwick’s WNCL captain, 36-year-old Elyse Villani, it represents a marked shift.
Elyse Villani captains the Tasmanian Tigers in the Women’s National Cricket League. (Instagram: Elyse Villani)
“Fifteen-year-old me was playing cricket as a hobby,” she said.
While she acknowledges Mia Barwick’s generation may be more discerning, she believes the step up into the pros must be approached with caution.
“The world is her oyster and you can see she is hungry for success, she has the talent.
“But we still want to make sure that kids are able to be kids, and we don’t fast track that too much.”
“It’s important kids like Mia don’t lose the love for the sport, so no matter what happens and where she goes, it’s so important she continues to love what she does because that’s why we all first started playing sport.”
Barwick insists that won’t be a problem, as she barrels towards superstardom.
“It’s all I’ve wanted to do since I picked up a cricket bat in the backyard,” she says.
“I’ve definitely sacrificed a few parties and a few hangouts, but it all pays off in the end.”