Erin Phillips

Erin Victoria Phillips (born 19 May 1985) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide and Port Adelaide Football Clubs in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition, a radio host, and a former professional basketball player.

She played nine seasons in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for five different teams and is a two-time WNBA champion.

Erin Victoria Phillips was born on 19 May 1985 in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton to Julie and Greg Phillips.

She grew up with her two older sisters Rachel and Amy in Adelaide.

She represented South Australia Metro in the under-16 and under-18 Australian national championships, winning the Norma Connolly Trophy as a member of the under-16 championship team in 1999.

Her father was a professional Australian rules football defender who played most of his career with the Port Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), where he served as captain for three years, was an eight-time premiership player, and was named to the club's all-time Greatest Team in 2000.

He also competed in the Victorian Football League (VFL), which was later renamed as the modern Australian Football League (AFL), as a member of the Collingwood Football Club.

Phillips made her professional basketball debut with the Adelaide Lightning in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) in 2002 at age 17.

Phillips had earned an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship to join their WNBL team in 2003, but never played for them after being replaced before the start of that season.

Phillips was also a member of the South Australia under-20 championship team in 2004, where she won the Bob Staunton Award as the most outstanding player in the women's tournament.

Phillips emerged as a breakout star in her third year and was named to the All-WNBL Team (then known as the WNBL All-Star Five) at the end of the 2004–05 season.

Averaging 15.0 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game that season, she was second in the league in assists behind only her teammate Jennifer Screen who had 5.9 per game.

Phillips was drafted into the WNBA in 2005 by the Connecticut Sun.

She also represented Australia on the women's national basketball team, winning a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women and serving as a co-vice captain at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Additionally, Phillips has played five seasons in the AFLW with the Adelaide Football Club, in which she is a three-time premiership player and two-time league best and fairest.

Phillips's father Greg played professional Australian rules football for, where he was an eight-time premiership player and earned an induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Phillips played only Australian rules football until age 13, switching to basketball because of the lack of professional opportunities for female footballers at the time.

She made her debut in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) for the Adelaide Lightning, her hometown team, at the age of 17 and was named to the All-WNBL Team three times by the age of 22, finally winning a WNBL championship in 2008 in her last year with the team.

She played six consecutive seasons with the team through 2008.

Adelaide made the finals in all six of those years.

With the Indiana Fever, she established herself as a starter and won her first WNBA title in 2012.

She won another WNBA title two years later with the Phoenix Mercury.

During her basketball career, Phillips played both point guard and shooting guard, excelling at three-pointers and employing a physical style of play.

Following her retirement from the WNBA, she was also an assistant coach for the Dallas Wings, the last team she played for in the league.

With the launch of the AFLW in 2017, Phillips began her football career at age 31 as a co-captain of Adelaide.

Despite not having played competitive football in nearly 18 years, she quickly emerged as the league's best player and one of its biggest stars.

She won the AFLW best and fairest award by a wide margin in both 2017 and 2019, as well as the AFLW Grand Final best on ground as a member of Adelaide's premiership teams in both years.

Phillips plays as a midfielder and is also one of the leading goal scorers in the competition.

Her father was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2020.

Phillips has said she "wanted to be an AFL footballer since [she] could walk and talk, and wanted to be exactly like [her] dad".

Her father was impressed with her athleticism at a young age, commenting, "Some kids who are born with this gift just stand out and you could always see that with Erin."

Phillips began competing in football with the SMOSH West Lakes Football Club (then known as the St. Michael's Old Scholars and Hindmarsh Football Club) under-9 side, where she was the only girl on the team.

Her under-11 team won the grand final.

She was also named the best and fairest player on her under-13 team.

John Cahill, one of her father's coaches at Port Adelaide, praised Phillips's ability, saying she was "as good a 14-year old as I've ever seen play football" in comparison to Port Adelaide Hall of Famers such as her father, Russell Ebert, and Gavin Wanganeen.

Phillips had the opportunity to train with Port Adelaide on occasion while growing up.

Phillips began playing basketball at the age of 13.

She decided to switch her sporting focus from football to basketball at the age of 14 due to the lack of opportunities at the time for female footballers to play professionally.

Her father had also introduced her to Rachael Sporn, a member of the Australian national basketball team, around this time.

As a junior, Phillips played for the West Adelaide Bearcats.