Zippy Fish wins Lou Knitter best on ground medal in East Fremantle’s premiership after season-high 26 disposals

And she’s all East Fremantle’s.

On Saturday, the 17-year-old was the outright star of a premiership-winning engine room. When it mattered against Claremont in a grand final rematch, Zippy Fish won the Lou Knitter medal for best on ground with a season-high 26 disposals.

The prodigal midfielder finished with seven more touches than the highest-ranked Tiger and 14 more than her next-best teammate in the thrilling 12-point win.

Of all the moves that make a WAFLW premiership, operation ‘give it to Zippy’ was the masterstroke.

“I was trying to tell the girls pre-game to get the ball in Zippy’s hands because good things happen when Zippy has the ball,” East Fremantle premiership coach Steph Walding revealed. “I don’t think we did her justice in the preliminary final but once we started getting it to her, the game started to turn in our favour.

“The fact that she had 26 touches surprised me. I probably didn’t realise how much of an impact she had on the game until we watched it back as a group on Sunday.

“Even little moments like when she kicked off her left and set up Mylee Leitch’s goal in the final quarter. It looked so natural to her on the opposite boot.”

There were also instants where Fish dragged down much more experienced Claremont opponents or even got cleaned up herself. But she did it all with a smile.

Softly spoken yet hard to stop, Fish is one of the more introverted members of East Fremantle’s band of baby sharks. But an understated aura of confidence takes over once Fish hits the footy field.

“I spoke to her before the game and asked her ‘How are you feeling? Are you nervous?’ and she goes ‘nah … not really,’” Walding recalled.

“She just has this confidence in her own ability. And I think it maybe went to another level.

“She started getting stuck into some of the Claremont girls and getting involved in little scuffles here and there and that’s not really her thing. So that’s when we knew she was on.

“She can be quite introverted but she has a strong group of close mates who bring out the extrovert in her. If you get her and Georgie Cleaver together, you can’t shut those two up. But what she is sure of is her footy.

“She knows she’s good. But I’m not sure she knows just the extent of where she can go with it. She obviously has some goals she wants to meet like playing AFLW. But she probably doesn’t know that she could genuinely be a superstar at that level.”

Maybe it was the pre-game playlist? East Fremantle trialled a variety of game-day DJs throughout the season. But Fish won the right to arm the decks on grand final day.

“In the change rooms … I pump a bit of music up. But other than that, the girls get around you and keep you in a good head space,” Fish said of the pre-game routine that inspired a matchwinning display.

“It feels unreal. In this moment, I still don’t even believe it’s real. Experiencing it with this bunch of girls is so exciting. I have no words.”

Fish also credits her Sharks’ teammates for helping her make the step up to WAFLW football after debuting last season.

“I think it’s being able to learn from the more experienced players in my team. It’s very helpful. That betters me,” she said. “Looking forward to next year, I want to have another good season with the Sharks and then hopefully get drafted.”

That should be no issue for Fish, set to be one of the most sought-after AFLW draft prospects next year.

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“It’s only her second season of senior football but she’s been building all year,” Walding said. “She played wing last year but this season we started her off at halfback and she was doing so well for us down there. But she wanted to get into the midfield and we had a few conversations about how we could make it a seamless transition.

“In the end, we threw her in there around round six and we couldn’t take her out after that.

“We know we won’t have her for too much longer so we have to make the most of her star power while we have it.”