![\"West](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/d7927564f282e8de8f1a851f694c4280699220ba.jpg\")
Camera IconWest Coast\u2019s Lucia Painter celebrates one of her three goals on debut. Credit: Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\nWest Coast draftee Lucia Painter has described her incredible debut as \u201csurreal\u201d after a three-goal third quarter lifted the Eagles to a 15-point season-opening win over Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
Painter set the AFLW world alight with a remarkable third term, kicking 3.1 from four disposals to play a pivotal role in the 5.5 (35) to 2.8 (10) victory at Mineral Resources Park on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Drafted with pick No.7 last year out of the Bendigo Pioneers, big things were expected from the 19-year-old forward-midfielder, but not even Painter could have predicted the memorable start to her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t expect that,\u201d she told The West Australian.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hard work from all the girls rewarded me with the three goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was surreal to be out here with a bunch of amazing girls. And good competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
In front of family who travelled from regional Victoria to watch her run out for the first time, Painter showed her immense talent when she was rewarded a free kick at the top of the goal square early in the third term.<\/p>\n
From there she caught fire, booting two more to give the Eagles a 21-point lead into the main break.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt fell into my lap, that free kick and I was like \u2018don\u2019t miss this goal, you\u2019re right in front\u2019,\u201d Painter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is absolutely amazing. It\u2019s all the hard work from our midfielders and our forwards for creating space for me that it just fell into my lap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was reward for them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Painter finished with 13 disposals and five tackles, catching the eye in the second term when she was able to find space to have an impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got myself into good positions. It took me a little bit in the first (quarter) to get into it but once I got into it, I don\u2019t think there was much of me getting out of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen getting a bit physical with the Gold Coast girls and the support and lift from my teammates. I couldn\u2019t ask for a better quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eagles coach Daisy Pearce said Painter had put a lot of work in during her first pre-season to have an immediate impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cLu\u2019s an incredibly hard worker, she\u2019s super driven, got a lot of talent so when you see her from February to now, the work she\u2019s put in it\u2019s just great to see her go out there and get the reward,\u201d Pearce said.<\/p>\n
Camera IconWest Coast\u2019s Lucia Painter celebrates one of her three goals on debut. Credit: Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019d be the first to say that a lot of it came off the back of some hard work and other players around her playing their role.<\/p>\n
\u201cLu got the benefits of it tonight which is exciting for a kid on her debut. She\u2019s just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Coast draftee Lucia Painter has described her incredible debut as \u201csurreal\u201d after a three-goal third quarter lifted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,25912,64,63,55,639,588,85,7067],"class_list":{"0":"post-69044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-aflw","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australian-football-league","13":"tag-australianfootballleague","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-west-coast-eagles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69044","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=69044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}