Runner Up, Best and Fairest - 2019
Hollick was an elite runner and a boundary umpire as a teenager. In early 2012, she had a personal best time of 2.07.20 for the 800m and to put this in context, the current national record (in 2024) is 1.57.78.
Hollick decided to take up playing football in 2016 whilst she was a student at the University of NSW. She joined the UNSW-Eastern Suburbs (Stingrays) Football Club and by the 5th of June that year she was representing NSW/ACT in the 2016 AFL Women’s Exhibition Series in a game versus South Australia at Adelaide Oval. Hollick wore guernsey number 54, and in that same team was future Norwood player Hannah Dunn wearing number 53. On the South Australian side wearing the number 14 guernsey was another future Norwood team mate, Leah Cutting.
Hollick completed her studies in 2016 when she became the first person to graduate from a Masters in Satellite Systems Engineering (at the University of New South Wales). In 2017, Hollick was returning to Adelaide to work at the Defence, Science and Technology Group in 2017 where she would operate Defence’s first Satellite in 50 years. Upon hearing of her return to Adelaide, the Adelaide Football Club drafted her at pick 136 in the inaugural AFL Women’s draft. Hollick played in Adelaide’s historic first ever AFLW team in Round 1 against Greater Western Sydney – which coincidentally also included Hannah Dunn playing her first and only game for GWS before she moved to the Gold Coast Suns. Hollick played three of the first five games for the Crows before having to miss the round six match due to her wedding. Unfortunately, she was unable to gain selection again and consequently missed out on being a member of the 2017 AFLW premiership side.
Hollick played just the inaugural season in the AFLW for the Crows, and in 2018 she joined Norwood. Her impact was immediate, as she won the Best and Fairest Award that year and was also selected in the Advertiser SANFLW Team of the Year.
In 2019, Hollick was offered the opportunity to be seconded as a Space Systems Engineer to France’s National Space Agency. In one of the rare instances of COVID-19 benefitting the Norwood Football Club, Hollick had to defer her career opportunity because of COVID-19. In this season, Hollick was again selected in the SANFLW Advertiser Team of the Year; and finished runner up in the League Best and Fairest Award to her Norwood team mate Najwa Allen. Hollick also finished third in the SANFLW Coaches Award.
For Norwood, Hollick was also runner up in the club Best and Fairest award and was the joint winner of the club’s Leading Goalkicker award with Jo Hill, with both ladies kicking nine goals for the season.
Hollick missed the first four rounds of the 2020 season whilst pursuing Athletics, but returned to the club from round 5. She retired from football at the end of the 2020 season at the age of 30. In late 2023, Hollick finally got her opportunity to be seconded to France’s National Space Agency, spending a year in Toulouse.
Chris Brown, October 2024