{"id":231774,"date":"2025-10-22T06:11:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T06:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/231774\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T06:11:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T06:11:14","slug":"usher-super-grateful-for-support-after-frustrating-18-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/231774\/","title":{"rendered":"Usher “super grateful” for support after frustrating 18 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

ONE OF the brightest young talents to have ever graced a football field, Ava Usher<\/a> had \u2018future star\u2019 written all over her after an incredible double bottom-age campaign where she made a living breaking ankles and producing highlights that many would dream of being able to do.<\/p>\n

However life, and in her case, injury does not discriminate based on talent, and in a frustrating twist no one saw coming, she would not play a competitive match in the last 18 months of her junior career. It was March 7, 2024 with seven minutes left in training and in a familiar story to so many others, Usher\u2019s left knee gave way and scans revealed the dreaded anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).<\/p>\n

\u201cI got two practice matches in before the season started and then the training the week before our first game, did my knee seven minutes left of training,\u201d Usher told Rookie Me Central during the preseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit rough, you go through these patches, but I\u2019m 10 and a half months down now so I\u2019ve just been flying through working my absolute bum off, super keen to just get back to playing footy because it\u2019s what I love doing. I\u2019ve been working in secret but it\u2019s been really hard sometimes, but we all get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

>> AFLW Draft Preseason Q&A: Ava Usher<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately that excitement to return, much like her knee in the next instant, copped a bump which meant the talented pick one contender was to sit out her top-age season alongside her bottom-age one.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust had a little knock, it was more of a scare from my point of view,\u201d Usher said at the recent National Drat Combine. \u201cWith a bit of contact, it was unpredictable and uncontrollable, I had no idea it was coming. \u201cIt was a bit of a situation with me and just a bit more cautious of what was actually going on, nothing major came up at all, so just got it cleaned out and it was the best thing I ever did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation where you can sit out your last two junior football seasons and still be considered a draft prospect is rare, the fact that Usher is universally revered as the top prospect, near impossible. It is a position she did not expect to be in, but \u201cgrateful\u201d that injury has not ruined her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely a little relieved, grateful for the opportunities that I\u2019ve been given by the Suns back home and like I said with this group of girls everyone\u2019s so talented, so for myself to even still be even talked about is something to be pretty proud of,\u201d Usher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working my arse off all year, last year and even the year before when I was still playing footy. Just super grateful to still be in that position where I\u2019m still even getting talked about in the slighted bit, but I just can\u2019t wait to hopefully get my name called out in December.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Ava Usher representing Queensland at the AFLW U18 Championships in 2023. Image credit: Rookie Me Central<\/p>\n

For anyone who has seen the Queenslander play, Usher has that hunger to win the ball, and aggression to rip it back off the opposition. Fuelled by a return that never came, Usher had to keep herself involved as much as she possibly could.<\/p>\n

\u201cGot myself a little coaching gig with Queensland this year,\u201d Usher said. \u201cSo keeping myself involved, and with this group of girls, they\u2019re all my absolute best friends so I wouldn\u2019t want it any other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely love these girls and for me especially not playing, but thinking I was going to play and trying to come back for it. I worked my arse off all year and I even still do now because I can\u2019t wait for what 2026 holds and obviously not been playing I\u2019m super excited for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps scarily for any opponent she faces in the future, Usher has developed her off-field game and overall football understanding to a greater level than before, as well becoming dual-sided, working hard on her left foot kicking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a more mature player I\u2019d like to think seeing it from the other side of the line I\u2019ve come back and old Ava might have been in a couple of positions she might not have needed to be in, talking in a football sense,\u201d Usher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow these days I\u2019m not in those silly positions, and my brain has really developed so my footy IQ has definitely bumped up a little bit which is something really exciting, and football wise I can kick on my left foot, opposite foot now and my composure has really bumped up as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite injuring her left knee, Usher\u2019s desire to have a football in her hands at all times and her inability to lean on her left leg, meant she put the pressure on her right, and used her left foot. An aspect that she said could help her get out of a \u201csticky situation in a game\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ava Usher celebrating a goal for Bond University in the QAFLW where she won the Rising Star. Image credit: via Bond Uni AFL<\/p>\n

Working hard as ever, Usher is training at the Suns headquarters between \u201cfour to five times a week\u201d and training the AFLW side once in that time. She does outside gymwork, swimming and fitness, and having done surf lifesaving growing up, Usher will always be fond of the water.<\/p>\n

Sitting out the year was tough considering her drive from last season and over the preseason was to return to the field, and though that never happened, she was able to gain some pride and enjoyment out of seeing her Queensland teammates succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be more happy for them,\u201d Usher said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got such a strong group of girls in the whole draft let alone in Queensland. \u201cWe have like five girls which could go in the top 15 which is absolutely insane and I don\u2019t think our state has ever been talked about how it gets talked about this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts super exciting to see that, and not being the football state or Victoria in general, it\u2019s really cool to see. It could have come with a win with the national champs, but you know everything happens for a reason, and to watch my friends thrive is something I enjoy doing and obviously wish I was out there but couldn\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the National Draft Combine, Usher is kept busy by a plethora of club interviews, with teams outside the Suns doing their best to convince the Queenslander to nominate open pool, and attempt to be in a position to draft her. The Gold Coast-tied talent joked that maybe it was because she was a \u201cbig talker\u201d but it was still \u201cpretty cool\u201d to think clubs were keen on her despite her substantial time out of the game.<\/p>\n

The big question on everyone\u2019s lips around Usher and her draft nomination is whether or not she would consider opting for an open draft, or nominating the Suns and following that pathway through alongside a stack of other AFLW Draft prospects in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to weigh up and obviously as an 18-year-old girl if you do leave, you\u2019ll be moving out of home, and leaving your family behind,\u201d Usher said \u201cBut at the end of the day its whats best for me and my football career at the time whether that\u2019s at home or not at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just stuff you\u2019ve got to weigh up from now to December and I\u2019ve got a really good manager\u00a0Dylan Hodge\u00a0behind me as well. \u201cHe works his bum off to sort me out and I\u2019m just the player, and sit here, chat with the other clubs and just enjoy myself while I\u2019m here because its a once in a lifetime opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ONE OF the brightest young talents to have ever graced a football field, Ava Usher had \u2018future star\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,139587,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-231774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-ava-usher","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}