Chloe Molloy is set to feature in her 75th career AFLW game this Saturday against Port Adelaide.
The three-time All-Australian and former co-captain of the Sydney Swans has faced numerous highs and lows throughout her 10-year senior career, and after multiple season-ending injuries, Molloy is excited to celebrate an accolade, so few have achieved at this point.
“To be able to get to 75 games, I think I'm in a bit of reflective mode in terms of just looking back on the career, Molloy said.
“75 games in my 10th season now. I think when you hit milestones of that number and watching a lot of girls do it before me, you can't help but start to think about, you know, the 74 games before getting yourself there and kind of what I've been through to get there.
“I know every athlete has their own story, but it has been challenging.”
Molloy has had to overcome adversity and setbacks multiple times throughout her playing career, from a lisfranc foot injury (2019) to a ruptured ACL (2024) and back surgery (2025). These season-ending injuries haven’t defined Molloy’s playing career and have only made her a stronger player and teammate.
“I got told a quote, ‘there's actually a lot more lows in elite sport’,” Molloy said.
“I think I felt that on a different level; it's obviously the lows, I guess, that create the player that you are and the person that you are. So to be able to get to 75 [games] and to do it across two pretty special clubs that hold a close spot to my heart is, yeah, it's very, very humbling.”
Molloy started her career at the Collingwood Football Club after being drafted third in the 2017 AFLW draft. During her four seasons at the Pies, Molloy earned the AFLW Rising Star and the team’s Best and Fairest in 2018 before leading the team in goals in both 2021 and 2022. The medium forward would finish her time at the Pies having played 47 games and kicking 37 goals.
Moving to the Swans at the start of 2023 via a trade, Molloy joined a youthful red and white who were preparing for their second-ever season. Molloy made an immediate impact at the Bloods, being named co-captain alongside Lucy McEvoy and featuring in the program's first-ever win at North Sydney Oval and then the first finals win in the same year.
“What's been special about the club since I've gotten here is to be able to see the growth and the evolution of a side that I came in,” Molloy said
“I just look at the growth of the players, the growth of the club even holistically with the way they welcomed in the women's programme and just how that has enriched a culture across Sydney within the four walls here.”
In the lead-up to her 75th game, Molloy pondered on what she would say to her younger self.
“You're going to make a lot of decisions, but they're going to, whether you can see it or not in that moment, there's going to be a lot of right that comes out of it, and you're going to learn a lot,” Molloy said.
“I'd say trust your gut in whatever you want to do.”
