AFLW stars, small business entrepreneurs: The players pulling double duty on and off the pitch

The new AFLW season is just hours away from kick-off, turning national attention to the nation’s best footballers.

Yet for many of the league’s biggest stars, football is not the only game in town: entrepreneurs dot the league, as key players pursue business interests outside of the sport.

Maddi Newman, Seeing Double

When she isn’t representing the #17 guernsey for the Adelaide Crows, defender Madison Newman dons the hoodies, tees, and handmade garments offered by Seeing Double, the online boutique she operates with twin sister Hallie.

Formed in 2020, Seeing Double has morphed from a creative outlet for the twins to an enterprise offering limited-edition drops to a loyal and growing fanbase.

The label now boasts more than 10,000 followers on Instagram, guiding fans to a dedicated online store.

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A post shared by Maddi Newman (@maddinewman_)

While Hallie takes the lead on its hand-sewn items, Maddi says the operation gives her a chance to flex her own creativity through social media campaigns.

“It helps us live out our passion and dreams, mine growing up were footy and making videos so I feel very lucky that I can do both,” she told The Advertiser.

Nell Morris-Dalton, Validation

Key forward for the Western Bulldogs. Nurse. Skate apparel entrepreneur. Nell Morris-Dalton stays busy off the pitch with not one, but two side-gigs, including work behind the scenes on Melbourne-based Validation.

Driven by her love of skating, Validation offers high-end embossed hoodies, tees, and even a cheeky cross-code tribute in the form of a soccer jersey.

Skateboarder 🛹
Clothing entrepreneur 👚
AFLW player 🏉

Nell Morris-Dalton has to be one of the coolest footballers in @aflwomens! 👌 pic.twitter.com/Edt1FvtlHA

— WesternBulldogs AFLW (@BulldogsW) February 17, 2021

“I’ve always wanted to start my own clothing brand,” with the name Validation serving as a solid name and core ethos, Morris-Dalton said in a 2021 interview.

“Making something and being so proud of it, like ‘I made that’. It just feels great.”

Moana Hope, Utilities Traffic Management

After two seasons at Collingwood and one at North Melbourne, former AFLW player Moana Hope has since made multiple TV appearances, published her autobiography, and become an in-demand public speaker.

Between all of that, she also runs her own traffic control business, Utilities Traffic Management.

As of 2018, the business had about 80 employees. Speaking in an interview around that time, Hope noted that when she started working in traffic management, she was the only woman in the office.

“There were some people that didn’t like me, but that just encouraged me to know more,” she said.

“We’re the only traffic management company in Victoria that’s run by females – and were doing a pretty good job.”

Lauren Spark, CrossCoders

Before being drafted to the Western Bulldogs in 2016, Lauren Spark was busy championing the game overseas, based in London.

Having seen the potential to get more women involved with AFL on a global scale, she launched CrossCoders in 2018, a talent agency and sports education program aimed at bringing athletes up to a professional level.

Now retired from playing, Spark acted as a mentor for new players coming from overseas to join the AFLW league.

“That’s been my whole role in all of this,” she said in an interview with AFL Players.

“I know what it’s like and I can speak about the competition and the standards and expectations of what it’s all about,” she added.

“We’re going to keep campaigning and crusading to get more girls over from whichever sport and whichever country that may be to bring those elite behaviours from their own sports to the AFLW.”

CrossCoders shut up shop last year, with Spark declaring it is time to “pass the baton”.

“Women’s sport in Australia is finally starting to get the attention it deserves and thus the current and future players need full-time resources to support their careers (just as they hope to be fully professional in the not too distant future),” she wrote.

“And we know it’s time to see this happen.

“We were just glad to have played our part.”