A highly talented athlete, Monique Conti has achieved so much in her sporting career to date.
Combining her two favourite sports, Football and Basketball, Monique excelled at both throughout her junior years representing Australia for Basketball at the U17 World Championships, taking home Gold and winning selection in the World Team. Before returning the following year in 2017 to represent Australia in the U/19 World Championships. In addition to this Monique was selected as part of the inaugural AFL Womens Academy, highlighting her talent across both sports.
After a terrific 2016/17 Basketball season culminating in Monique winning the WNBL Rookie of the Year, Melbourne Boomers signed Monique to a four year contract, showing just how critical the Year 12 student was to the team. At the conclusion of the Basketball season and immediately following her return from the U19 World Basketball Championships, Monique played a handful of games for Melbourne Uni in the VFL Womens competition highlighting her resilience. On the back of Monique's strong finish to the VFL Womens season, Monique was taken with the third pick in the 2017 Victorian AFLW Draft by the Western Bulldogs resulting in her playing at the elite level in both Basketball and Football.
In what has been a tremendous sporting year, Monique played off in the WNBL Grand Final Series for the Melbourne Boomers where they eventually went down in the third a final game of the series to Townsville. However, not allowing that to inhibit her ambitions, Monique went straight into the AFLW season where she instantly made her mark with her skill, speed, and agility, continually breaking the lines for the Bulldogs and sending them into attack. As the season went on, Monique continued to grow in confidence resulting in her taking home the Best on Ground Medal in the Bulldogs first AFLW Premiership in what was a game defining performance. As the celebrations continued on from the Premiership win, Monique was awarded Runners Up of the AFLW Rising Star Award and won the Western Bulldogs Best First Year Player.
In Season 2019, Monique again made a very quick transition from Basketball to Football, where here Basketball season finished with a finals loss in Adelaide on the Thursday, before flying back to Melbourne the following day, to only return to Adelaide to play the season opener against the Crows on the Saturday night. Monique started her season well, continuing her strong form throughout the season to win the Western Bulldogs Best & Fairest. At the conclusion of the season, Monique made the tough decision to leave the Bulldogs and join Richmond for their inaugural season in 2020.
Although the first two seasons were tough for the Tigers in terms of win/loss, Mon thrived in her new surroundings and has continued her rise to be arguably one of the AFLW’s best players. This has included her winning five Best & Fairest’s in a row (one at the Bulldogs, four at the Tigers), four All Australians, and the AFLPA MVP for Season 7 in 2022. Monique managed to back up her amazing season 7 by having an even better year in 2023. Monique won her first AFLW Best and Fairest, leading the league in clearances and being in the top-five for average disposals and metres-gained.
Mon has also continued her other passion of Basketball, featuring in the Southside Flyers Premiership in 2020 as well as suiting up for them in the 2022/23 season. For season 2023/24 Mon is heading back to her original club, Melbourne Boomers, where she is looking forward to acquainting herself with old team mates.
Outside of Sport, Mon is studying Psychology at Swinburne University. She is also an Ambassador for Puma, Swinburne University, and the AFLW.
Playing Honours:
· FIBA U17 World Team 2016
· U17 Australian Representative 2016
· WNBL Rookie of the Year 2017
· AFL Womens Academy 2017
· AFLW Premiership 2018
· Runner Up AFLW Rising Star 2018
· AFLW Grand Final Best on Ground 2018
· Western Bulldogs Best Young Player 2018 & 19
· AFLW All Australian 2019, 21, 22 (S6) & 22 (S7)
· Western Bulldogs Best & Fairest 2019
· Richmond Best & Fairest 2020, 21, 22 (S6) & 22 (S7)
· WNBL Premiership 2020
· AFLPA MVP 2022 (S7)
• AFLW Best and Fairest 2023