![BRIGHT FUTURE: Junior Marlin Taylor Smith, 15, is excelling in AFL, so much so that she has been picked to be part of the Sydney Swans Academy for three years. Picture: Ellie-Marie Watts BRIGHT FUTURE: Junior Marlin Taylor Smith, 15, is excelling in AFL, so much so that she has been picked to be part of the Sydney Swans Academy for three years. Picture: Ellie-Marie Watts](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/pHZcEtCHpLnAajcu3Rdcpx/9fc47770-2a4c-4364-9a3e-9574feaf2ef8.jpg/r0_0_5472_3648_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Taylor Smith's eyes are firmly fixed on the future.
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At just 15 years old, Smith knows that she wants to play professional AFL and is on the path to achieving that goal.
Giving up all other sports including netball and touch football, the Nelson Bay Marlins junior has focused her attention on AFL and was this year selected for the Sydney Swans Academy.
She is locked into three years with the talent development program.
"The path I am on with the Swans is a great start," Smith said. "Next I want to be selected for the Academy's Super 24 series and then hopefully the NSW/ACT Rams team. Playing well, developing my skills, getting into high quality teams, showing people what I can do will all help to get me to the AFL Women's."
The midfielder has played AFL with the Marlins for four years. She was part of the club's hugely successful girls team that won three consecutive premierships from under-12s to 15s and remains a Marlin.
Smith now plays for the club's under-17 side and said her team and coach, Shane Roach, is supportive of her Academy as sometimes she is required to play in Sydney on weekends rather than club games.
Following her selection into the prestigious Swans Academy, Smith debuted for the futures team in a winter series against the GWS Giants Academy. She was selected to play in all four games of the series, the last of which was held on June 26.
She hopes to next be selected for the Academy's QBE Super Series, of which 24 players are picked and sent to Albury for a four day development and mentorship program.
Last year Smith played in the Combined High Schools AFL competition and was selected in the NSW under-15 youth girls team.
However, she tore her MCL (medial collateral ligament) and PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) in her knee and could not play. The injury just made her more determined to work hard and come back stronger than before.
Smith's AFL journey is being supported by Sports 4 All, a group that aims to increase the participation of women and girls in sport across Port Stephens. Smith has been named a Sports 4 All youth ambassador.
"We see a lot of people leave the Bay to compete in sport at the higher level. What we want to do is make people, especially women and girls who face even more barriers to playing at the higher level, feel like they don't have to leave the Bay to play," Rose Potter, a Sports 4 All co-founder, said.
"Naming Taylor as a youth ambassador and supporting her on her AFL journey helps us encourage women and girls by showing them that living here doesn't have to be a barrier, that it's all achievable."
![Taylor Smith, 15, at Dick Burwell Oval, home of the Nelson Bay Marlins. Picture: Ellie-Marie Watts Taylor Smith, 15, at Dick Burwell Oval, home of the Nelson Bay Marlins. Picture: Ellie-Marie Watts](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/pHZcEtCHpLnAajcu3Rdcpx/d31a75b6-ee42-47e6-abc9-9fc7c102d72f.jpg/r0_273_4728_2942_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Smith said she plans to follow in the footsteps Craig Bird, Pippa Smyth and Lisa Steane, all of whom played for the Marlins before the AFL and AFLW.
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