Lauren Bella (born 12 September 2000) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er playing for the Gold Coast in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

competition (AFLW). She has previously played for

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Early life

Bella was born in

Mackay, Queensland } Mackay () is a city in the Mackay Region on the eastern or Coral Sea coast of Queensland, Australia. It is located about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is described as being in either Central Queensland or North Queensland ...

. Her father,

Anthony Anthony, also spelled Antony, is a masculine given name derived from the '' Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descenda ...

, was a professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

player for the

South Queensland Crushers South Queensland Crushers was an Australian rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. In 1992 it was decided that the team would be admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League competition, along with three other teams, as par ...

, and her uncle,

Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

, also played rugby league professionally, representing

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

in State of Origin as well as

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in international competitions. Lauren began playing

as a child, but had to stop playing when the local competition no longer allowed girls to compete in mixed teams with boys. Bella then picked up

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

in high school, and excelled so much that she was placed in the 2017/18 Netball Queensland's Elite Development Program. Despite finding success in netball, she returned to play football for Bakers Creek in the local

AFL Mackay AFL Mackay is an amateur Australian rules football competition formed as the Mackay Australian Football League in 1970. It is headquartered in the city of Mackay, Queensland, Mackay with further clubs in Airlie Beach, Queensland, Airlie Beach a ...

competition in 2017, and accepted an invitation to join the

Gold Coast Suns Academy The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The ...

in 2018. She relocated to the Gold Coast in early 2018 to play club football for

Bond University Bond University is Australia's first private university, private not-for-profit university and is located in Robina, Queensland, Robina on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Since its opening on 15 May 1989, Bond University has primarily been a teachi ...

in the QAFLW competition and fulfil her academy commitments with the Suns. The decision paid off when the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

drafted her with the 45th pick in the

2018 AFL Women's draft The 2018 AFL Women's (AFLW) draft consisted of the various periods when the ten clubs in the Australian rules football women's competition could recruit players prior to the competition's 2019 season. As in the previous season, all player con ...

AFLW career

Bella made her debut in the Lions' round-one game against

Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, far western and the Blue Mountains sub-regions with ...

Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex is a sports field complex in Burpengary, a suburb of the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia, primarily for both Australian rules football and soccer. It was built and opened in 2013 and are managed by ...

on 3 February 2019. In April 2019, Bella joined expansion club Gold Coast. In an interview she disclosed she is legally blind and requires a customised pair of contacts to see. Bella had a breakout season in 2021, leading the league for hitouts up until the finals, as well as the average for the whole season.

Statistics

:''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2021 season.'' , - style="background:#EAEAEA" , scope="row" text-align:center ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, , 32 , , 3 , , 0 , , 0 , , 2 , , 13 , , 15 , , 0 , , 6 , , 50 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.7 , , 4.3 , , 5.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.0 , , 16.7 , , 0 , - , scope="row" text-align:center ,

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

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2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, , 2 , , 9 , , 0 , , 0 , , 26 , , 32 , , 58 , , 12 , , 19 , , style="background:#CAE1FF" , 190^† , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.9 , , 3.6 , , 6.4 , , 1.3 , , 2.1 , , bgcolor=FA8072 , 21.1^§ , , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3 , Career ! 19 ! 0 ! 0 ! 44 ! 66 ! 110 ! 18 ! 35 ! 370 ! 0.0 ! 0.0 ! 2.3 ! 3.5 ! 5.8 ! 0.9 ! 1.8 ! 19.5 ! 0

Honours and achievements

Individual *

AFL Women's Rising Star The AFL Women's Rising Star award is presented annually to the best young player in the AFL Women's (AFLW) during the home-and-away season. The first award was awarded in 2017 AFL Women's Rising Star, 2017. The award has been sponsored by Telstr ...

nominee:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bella, Lauren 2000 births Living people Sportspeople from Mackay, Queensland Sportswomen from Queensland Australian rules footballers from Queensland Brisbane Lions (AFLW) players Gold Coast Football Club (AFLW) players