AFLW trailblazer Erin Phillips has been inducted into the Adelaide Football Club’s Hall of Fame.
Erin Phillips, one of Australia’s finest female basketballers, returned home to South Australia from the United States to join the Adelaide Football Club late in 2016.
Her arrival instantly lifted the Crows, and her transition to a dominant AFLW force was immediate, setting high standards for the new women’s competition.
Phillips had won two WNBA titles, a FIBA Women's World basketball gold medal and played at two Olympic Games, winning a silver medal in 2008. But the opportunity to play football in a new national competition was irresistible.
Although Phillips had not played football regularly since her early teens, she was instantly a star in the AFLW and helped inspire the next generation of fans and players.
Selected to Co-Captain Adelaide for its inaugural season in 2017, by the end of the campaign Phillips was named best-on-ground in the Crows’ famous Grand Final win against Brisbane.
She then won the Club Champion award, the AFLW’s Best and Fairest medal and the AFL Players’ Association MVP.
Crows star Chelsea Randall, who shared the captaincy with Phillips, recalled.
“I know that she just wanted to be the best she possibly could and make the most of this childhood dream that she always wanted,” Randall said.
“Her impact across the entire competition, I don’t think you can measure it.”
Remarkably, Phillips repeated the treble of AFLW medal, best-on-ground in Grand Final medallist and Club Champion award in 2019.
After recovering from a knee reconstruction, she continued to be one of the competition’s best players and was an All-Australian for a third time in 2021 and a three-time Premiership player in her final season with the Crows (2022, Season Six).
Phillips then joined Port Adelaide when it entered the competition later that year.
Retiring in 2023, Phillips left the game as the most decorated player of the AFLW competition.
She was awarded Life Membership of the Crows in 2023, and inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2025, joining her father Greg, who had been a star in the SANFL with Port Adelaide and Collingwood in the VFL.
Crows career
Played 46 AFLW games and 50 goals for the Crows, 2017-22
3 x Premiership Player (2017, 2019 and 2022 S6)
3x All Australian (2017, 2019, 2021)
2 x AFLW Best and Fairest Medal (2017, 2019)
AFL Coaches Association AFLW Champion Player of the Year (2019)
2x Club Champion (2017, 2019)
Third Club Champion 2021
Co-Captain 2017-2020
2x Best-on-ground AFLW Grand Final medal (2017 and 2019)
2x AFC Leading Goalkicker (2018, 2021)
AFLW Goal of the Year 2017
AFC Life Member 2023
Australian Football Hall of Fame (2025)
