Inside and Out: A Story of Family, Self and Sport

Erin Phillips is a marquee player and co-captain of the Adelaide Crows AFLW team. In the inaugural AFLW season and again in 2019, Erin remarkably led the Crows to premiership glory, won best on ground at the grand final, captained the All Australian squad, and won both the Players’ Association MVP and the league best and fairest (she missed a lot of the 2018 season due to injury). Her 2019 grand final best on ground win was particularly impressive as she was on the ground for less than three quarters of the game due to an ACL injury. Her stats show that she is not only undoubtedly the best AFLW of all times, but she also might be one of the best AFL players of all times. As the daughter of SANFL and VFL legend Greg Phillips, Australian rules football was Erin’s first sporting love, but it wasn’t her first sporting career. After being told she had to give up footy, Erin instead played basketball. She attended the AIS and played in the WNBL and WNBA, winning a number of awards and winning two WNBA championships with Indiana Fever. She represented Australia and won medals in two world championships (gold and bronze), a Commonwealth Games (gold) and the 2008 Olympics (silver). She officially retired from playing basketball in 2018 and became assistant coach for the Dallas Wings. Erin and her wife, American basketballer Tracy Gahan, have three children. They split their time between Adelaide and Dallas, Texas, to allow Erin to pursue her two sporting careers.

Jess Stanley is an award-winning actor, writer, voice artist and marriage celebrant from Naarm/Melbourne. She has been the recipient of the Art Unbound Award (2021) for her ASMR-based show, “JSMR”, the Howard Fine Performance Project’s Best Actor Winner (2021), a Victorian Premier’s Award (2008), the Jennifer Francis Drama Prize (2008), and a scholarship to study at Monash University, where she completed her Bachelor of Performing Arts. Jess regularly tours Victoria with education theatre company, Complete Works.