From Barca to the Bull Sharks

It is pretty rare to find a young footballer with dreams of making it to the elite level who isn’t a die-hard supporter of an AFL team - but Bond’s newest Riewoldt Family AFL Excellence Scholarship holder, Charlie Adamson is one of them.

The Bachelor of Sports and Exercise Science student didn’t even know AFL was a sport until a few years ago. 

She barracked for Barcelona in the Spanish La Liga and her ambition was to play for the Matildas. 

“Growing up my family didn’t support AFL… I didn’t even know it was a sport to be honest,” Adamson said.

Adamson grew up on the Gold Coast, and instead of Aussie Rules, excelled in equestrian and soccer.

“We used to live out on a farm and my mum was a horse breeder, so we had about 20 horses and I did high-level equestrian growing up,” she said.

“I also played competitive soccer in the national premier league and did some national representative stuff.”

In Adamson’s final year of school at All Saints she had a D1 scholarship on the table for an American university to play soccer.

However, when an opportunity arose with the female AFL team at All Saints the life trajectory shifted.

“I’d never played AFL before and wasn’t really allowed to play, but I just thought “I won’t tell anyone, and it will be fine,’” she said.

“And I absolutely loved it, I would sneakily play games on Friday and not tell my dad.”

While playing a game, Adamson was spotted by a Gold Coast Suns academy scout.

“He tried to convince me to go and play and I basically told him to ‘bugger off’,” she said.

“I eventually got some advice from my dad and ended up revisiting the offer.”

“The academy did a lot of intensive work, teaching me how to kick properly… it’s a little bit different to soccer.

“I don’t know what they saw in me, but they saw something.”

Adamson kept her intensive soccer training up alongside her AFL training to the point of burn-out.

It came to a turning point when Adamson was set to fly to America a week later to pursue her soccer career.

 “I wasn’t enjoying soccer, but I was loving AFL,” said Adamson

“I knew I had to decide between the two, so I sat on the decision a bit and I ended up picking AFL, to everyone’s surprise.”

Adamson went through the Gold Coast Suns Academy in 2023 and trained with the AFLW side, but did not get picked up in the draft.

She completed the 2024 pre-season last year with Bond, but unfortunately in a heartbreaking moment in a practice match, tore her ACL. 

“It was the first two minutes into the game, and I went in for a tackle, and fell off balance,” she said. 

“I was hysterical, it was probably one of the most painful things, you just know it’s over, I was a wreck.”

The midfielder has spent the last 11 months recovering her knee to full strength and has found a passion for helping athletes through their rehab, so when the applications for Bond University’s AFL scholarship opened, and Adamson realised she could study sport and exercise science, it was a no-brainer to apply.

“I love Andy (Andy Lovell, Director of AFL at Bond University), I’ve had a few coaches in my lifetime and he’s the top one I’ve ever had,” she said. 

“He’s just so personable and his knowledge of the game is unmatched. 

“This season will be my first full season; it will be good to put on my Bond guernsey and string some good footy together.”

Bond’s AFLW team are chasing a chance at redemption after falling short against Southport Sharks in last season’s Grand Final

“After our AFLW camp last weekend…I’m scared for the rest of the competition come round one. We are going to be unreal!” she said.