VFL Women’s team of the year rover Jamie Lambert is expected to be selected early along with Steph Chiocci, who captained the Western Bulldogs in their recent exhibition game against Melbourne.įellow VFL Women’s stars including forward Bianca Jakobsson, and defenders Nicola Stevens and Hannah Scott are also expected to be high on Victorian clubs’ lists.Ībout 1300 players from across the country have nominated for the first AFLW draft. The Blues have pick three overall, but get first go at the players who have nominated Victoria. “I cannot do that any more, but it was fun while it lasted.”Īlison Downie played with Dandenong Rangers for 16 years. “There was seasons when I was playing both SEABL and footy and I’d come straight from a game and I’d have mud all over my knees and I’d jump straight onto the basketball court,” she said. I still want to be playing at that high level.”ĭownie was playing both football and basketball for several years. “I’m not ready to say I’m retiring from basketball but the way it’s going, it seems like footy is more suitable for me at this stage. “Everything is outside work hours because all the girls are working, it’s a shorter season, it’s exciting and I thought ‘why not, why not give this a go?’,” Downie said. She has toured Collingwood and has attracted interest from other clubs ahead of the draft. The 32-year-old played 326 games for Dandenong Rangers over 16 years but with a new job, playing in the WNBL this season proved too difficult and she made the decision to turn her attention to a new goal.ĭownie has been playing top-level football for the past five years and she made the VFL Women’s team of the year this season after an impressive run in the ruck for Diamond Creek. She is affiliated faculty for the Women's and Gender Studies and the Sustainability Studies programs, and serves as the advising coordinator for the Religious Studies Department.WNBL stalwart Alison Downie hopes to write the next chapter of her sporting career by being picked up in Wednesday’s landmark AFL Women’s draft. 18 (3):193-206.ĭownie teaches World Religions, Christianity, Philosophy of Religion, and Understanding the Bible she also teaches upper-level seminar courses in Christian Feminist Theology and Religious Autobiography. Her article on teaching World Religions was featured as the lead piece in Teaching Theology and Religious Studies 2015, Vol. Her paper on active learning in the classroom, presented at the PASSHE Fall 2012 Conference (Emerging and Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Practices to Ensure Student Success) was among those selected for the online monograph for this conference. 23(1): 55-70 and several book reviews, which have appeared in various academic journals.ĭownie has earned the Faculty Recognition Award in Content Pedagogy from IUP's Center for Teaching Excellence. This paper was also selected for publication in the forthcoming annual conference proceedings volume.ĭownie's previous publications include "A Spirituality of Openness: Christian Ecofeminist Perspectives and Inter-religious Dialogue," which appeared in Feminist Theology 2014, Vol. Most recently, she presented "Theological Anthropology and Severe Mental Illness" at the Mid-Atlantic regional meeting of the American Academy of Religion in March 2017, and "The Communion of Saints in Life Writing: American Catholics Nancy Mairs and Mary Karr" at the College Theology society in June 2017. She is also active in the scholarship of teaching and learning.ĭownie has regularly presented papers at several academic conferences. Her academic interests include ecofeminist theologies, disability theologies, religious understandings of self and memoir, religious themes in literature and film, and interfaith dialogues. Alison Downie earned her PhD in Systematic Theology at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) with a concentration in Christian Feminist Theology.