Svarc sisters aim for AFLW premiership glory

Corowa’s renowned sporting sisters Cathy and Ruby Svarc are aiming to play in their second AFLW Grand Final together this Sunday.

The talented sisters were part of the Brisbane Lions’ epic preliminary final win over Geelong at Brighton Home Arena on Saturday.

The efforts of the Svarc sisters greatly boosted their team’s overall performance, with the Lions scraping home to a 6.2 (38) to 5.4 (34) victory over a determined Cats outfit.

Cathy was among her side’s best players, racking up an impressive 12 possessions and 10 tackles, the second-most tackles of all players for the game. Svarc was instrumental in the midfield keeping the Cat’s talented trio Amy McDonald, Nina Morrison and Georgie Prespakis accountable, not allowing them to create space.

Not to be outdone, younger sister Ruby also gave a lion-hearted performance with seven possessions and some important touches during the game.

Sunday’s grand final match will be Cathy’s fifth grand final appearance, she played in the 2021 grand final win, which secured the club’s first premiership. That same year Cathy was named in the All-Australian Squad. She has since grown into one of the side’s most prolific midfielders, and hard to beat one-on-one. Cathy, now aged 32, has had another strong, consistent season, only missing one game in round nine.

If also named in Sunday’s team, Ruby now aged 30, will play in her second grand final in an effort to win her first premiership medal. After being picked in the 2020 NAB AFLW Draft, the fast-running outside midfielder has worked hard to be a regular player in the side over the last three seasons since making her AFLW debut during round three against Carlton in January last year.

After disappointing and close four-point defeats to Melbourne in season six and seven grand finals, the sisters will attempt to lift the premiership trophy together this Sunday.

Ruby and Cathy grew up on their family farm outside of Corowa with their three other siblings, playing a range of sports locally. Both are well known for their stellar A Grade netball careers playing for Corowa-Rutherglen. They last played together in 2014 before Cathy moved to Geelong for her physiotherapy career and Ruby moved to Melbourne to study nutrition and dietetics.

Cathy headed north in 2018 for her work career and played footy on the side for Wilston Grange. Shortly after, she caught the eye of selectors and was drafted by the Lions in 2019 with Ruby joining her 12 months later.

Brisbane and North Melbourne will face off in the 2023 NAB AFLW Season Eight Grand Final this Sunday at Carlton’s IKON Park.

The sold-out match will start at 2.30pm AEDT on Sunday, December 3 and will be broadcast on the Seven Network, Fox Footy and Kayo as well as live streamed on womens. afl and the AFLW Official app.

Sunday’s match will be the fifth time the Lions have qualified for a Grand Final in eight seasons.