Vice Captain, 2020-2023
Armitstead was born in Toowoomba and then spent some time living in Sydney before her family moved to Darwin in her early school years. She grew up in a rugby household and played netball and touch football. Her only real exposure to Australian Rules Football was some school football and Auskick. However, she represented the Northern Territory at open or junior level in indoor and outdoor netball, touch football and rugby sevens.
In 2014-15, Armitstead switched from touch football to Australian Rules football after some friends invited her to come to training with them. In her debut season, Armitstead won the Northern Territory Football League’s female Rising Star Award as a midfielder, playing for the Wanderer’s Football Club.
In late 2015, Armitstead injured her left knee in the AFLNT women’s All-Stars match at TIO Stadium, requiring a full knee reconstruction and she missed ten months of football. Armitstead was named to represent the NT against South Australia at Adelaide Oval in May 2016, but medical staff ruled her out due to complications with her recovery.
Armitstead was then drafted by AFLW club Adelaide with its seventh selection and pick No.55 overall in the 2016 AFL Women’s Draft. She made her AFLW debut in 2017 in Round Two against the Western Bulldogs but tore the meniscus in her left knee in the third quarter of the match and missed the remainder of the inaugural AFLW season.
In 2018 Armitstead played three more games for Adelaide in the AFLW but was delisted at the end of the season. She also played four games for West Adelaide that year before transferring to Norwood from 2019. Norwood greeted her arrival by saying that “Armistead is a quality decision maker and will complement the Redlegs midfield setup alongside guns Michele Reid and Monique Hollick.” In addition, good judges in the Northern Territory had noted that she had clean hands, a team-first approach and was a good decision maker with an exceptional work rate and a high degree of resilience through her rehabilitation after two serious knee injuries.
By 2020, her impact was already evident when she was appointed Vice Captain after just one season at Norwood. By season’s end, she had been awarded the Best and Fairest and Best Team Woman awards. In 2021, she again won the Best and Fairest and was also selected in The Advertiser SANFLW Team of the Year.
In 2022, Armitstead reached the 50 game SANFLW milestone against Sturt at Unley Oval. By now, she was playing defence as well as in the midfield. Another consistent year saw Armitstead come third in the Best and Fairest. But following another ACL injury to her left knee (again), she was forced to miss the whole of the 2023 season and the start of season 2024. However, after being Vice Captain since 2020, Armitstead was elevated to Co-Captain alongside Steph Simmonds, following the retirement of former Captain, Alison Ferrell. At the time of her appointment, League Coach Brad Ferrell said that “Simmo and Sophie really balance each other out well. They both have really good footy brains, and on top of that Simmo is great at hyping everyone up, while Sophie has a calming nature".
In response, Armitstead said “Being captain of the Norwood Football Club is a huge honour and one of my greatest achievements so far. Norwood has a rich history with both the women’s and men’s programs, so I don’t take this position lightly. I have been in the Vice Captain position for a few years now, so to step up is an honour – to fill Ali’s shoes is a big job, but with Simmo by my side it will be great.”
Chris Brown, October 2024