Tegan Cunningham (born 23 January 1988) is a retired

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

basketball player who played for the

Melbourne Boomers Geelong United is an Australian professional basketball team based in Geelong, Victoria. United compete in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) and play their home games at Geelong Arena. Beginning as the Bulleen Boomers in 1984, the ...

in the

Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is a professional women's basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Australia composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the Women's sports, women's counterpart to the Na ...

(WNBL) among other teams former

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 ...

player who played with the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

, and

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawth ...

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 ...

(AFLW).

Basketball career

College

Cunningham joined Seward County Community College in

Liberal, Kansas Liberal is a city in and the county seat of Seward County, Kansas, United States. As of 2024, the population of the city was 18,743. It is located in southwestern Kansas, along U.S. Route 54 highway, near the Kansas-Oklahoma state line. Lib ...

. During her time there she won multiple conference and tournament MVP awards and would leave the school as the all-time leading scorer, a record still held by Cunningham. These strong showings and accolades earned her a transfer to

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

competing in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

. At the completion of her college career Cunningham was nominated for the WNBA draft where she was listed as one of the best available prospects heading in to the third and final round, however remained undrafted.

WNBL

Cunningham returned home to Australia and began her professional career in 2010, for the

Adelaide Lightning The Adelaide Lightning are an Australian professional basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL). The club is based in the city of Adelaide, South Australia, and will play their home games at the State Basketball ...

. She would then move to the Dandenong Rangers and help take home the championship in the 2012 Grand Final. After a brief stint in Queensland with the Logan Thunder, she returned to the Rangers roster, after the Thunder left the league. After two seasons with the Rangers, she was signed for the 2016–17 season, by the

. After the completion of the 2016-17 WNBL season, Cunningham would find herself without a WNBL club and decided to turn her attention to the AFLW in pursuit of a career change and a new challenge.

Australian Rules Football

2018 Season Cunningham was drafted by with the club's third pick and the 22nd selection overall in the

2017 AFL Women's draft The 2017 AFL Women's draft consisted of the various periods when the eight clubs in the AFL Women's competition could recruit players prior to the competition's 2018 AFL Women's season, 2018 season. As the previous season's player contracts wer ...

. She made her league debut in Round 1 of the 2018 AFLW season where she amassed 10 possessions and kicked one goal in her side's victory. She would play in all of Melbourne's seven games despite suffering a sickening head clash in Round 5, finishing the season as the 2018 Melbourne AFLW Leading goal kicker with a total of nine goals. 2019 Season Cunningham will return to the Melbourne

side for season 2019 and was presented her jumper on 23 January 2019 at the club's season launch. Cunningham was selected to play in Melbourne's Round 1 clash for 2019 against Fremantle on Sunday 3 February 2019. Cunningham will line up in the forward line. Cunningham was reported during the Round 3 clash against the Brisbane Lions in which the Demons were victorious by 39 points. Cunningham was sighted twice for incidents on

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 ...

defender Shannon Campbell in the second and third quarters. The first incident included a reprimand for rough conduct with an early guilty plea, while the second incident was graded as intentional contact with medium impact for an incident off the ball which resulted in a two match ban with an early guilty plea for the striking charge. Cunningham successfully challenged the ruling on the Tuesday at the AFLW Tribunal hearing, and was free to play in Round 4 after the conclusion of a lengthy hearing. Cunningham was the hero in the Demons' Round 6 victory over the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

Docklands Stadium Docklands Stadium, known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the suburb of Docklands, Victoria, Docklands in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 199 ...

when she "plucked" a strong contested mark in the dying minutes of the game. With her side trailing by five points she was able to go back and kick the winning goal from about 40 meters out (her second of the evening) with less than two minutes on the clock. The Demons were able to hold on for a famous one point victory. Cunningham capped off her 2019 season by again topping Melbourne's goalkicking, finishing the season with a total of eight goals from her seven games. She ended the 2019 season as the Melbourne AFLW leading goalkicker of all-time through the club's inaugural three seasons. Cunningham also finished third in the Melbourne AFLW Best and Fairest vote count behind winner Karen Paxman and runner up

Lauren Pearce Lauren Pearce (born 12 January 1993) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's competition. She was drafted by Melbourne with their fourth selection and twenty-fifth overall in the 2016 AFL Wom ...

. Cunningham didn't go home empty handed on the night though, winning the club's Best Forward player in what was a successful 2019 for Cunningham personally. In June 2021, after playing 32 games during four seasons with Melbourne in the AFLW, Cunningham announced her retirement.

Personal life

Cunningham's sister is basketball player, Caitlin Cunningham.

Statistics

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2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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Honours and achievements

Individual * 2× Melbourne leading goalkicker: 2018, 2019

References

External links

* *
Profile
at WNBL {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Tegan 1988 births Living people Australian women's basketball players 21st-century Australian sportswomen Adelaide Lightning players Dandenong Rangers players Logan Thunder players Melbourne Boomers players Melbourne Football Club (AFLW) players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Hawthorn Football Club (AFLW) players Sportswomen from Victoria (state)