The sons of former AFL players tend to get the most attention around this time of year.  But there are some daughters making waves out there too.

Graham Leydin played 36 games for Essendon in the late 50’s and 60’s.  After his playing career ended he coached Moonee Valley and Strathmore, before returning to the Bombers as under 19 Coach.

Now his daughters are showing their own sporting prowess as this Past Player update details below.

EFCPP&OA Committee member and former player Graham Leydin has been busy over the last few months following and supporting his two highly talented granddaughters who are making a name for themselves in their chosen sporting fields.

Madelaine (Maddi) (18) has recently returned from Glasgow where she was part of the Australian gymnastic team that participated in the world championships with the main priority to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Maddi performed very well being Australia's leading points scorer in the All Round Category. The Aussie team finished in 14^th place overall and will now participate in the final qualifying event in April 2016 against eight other international teams vying for the last four places.

Maddi's interest in gymnastics started 12 years ago when she attended a “gymnastics party” for her cousin. She started attending the Footscray City Gymnastics centre before moving to the Victorian Women's High Performance Centre, which is supported by the Victorian Institute of Sport - for more intensive coaching and development - and later to the National Centre of Excellence based in Melbourne. Her achievements as a junior in competition - and more significantly as a senior – have been consistently outstanding and she is now reaping the rewards for her dedication and determination. As Maddi says - “there are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going”.

She burst onto the scene in 2013 winning the National Senior All Round title at 15. This was followed by a second placing in 2014 and a third in 2015 despite battling a serious foot injury (stress fractures) that later required surgery and ruined her chances of Commonwealth Games selection.

In the years prior to these World Championships Maddi had previously represented Australia in various other competitions around the world including the Youth Commonwealth Games in the UK, the Pacific Rim Games in the USA as well as other international competitions in Canada, Italy, Spain and more recently she competed in Perth against the Chinese. 

Maddi would hopefully be looking forward to further success as she builds on her skills, strength and routine elements to maintain her high standards in a fiercely competitive sport. A sport that gives her the opportunity to realise her major goal of representing Australia at the Olympics.    

Maddi Leydin was part of the Australian gymnastic team that participated in the world championships.

Younger sister Eleanor (Elli) (15) has taken another path being heavily involved in both netball and basketball from a young age. Prominent in under age teams at the Altona Gators, Elli has benefitted from sound coaching and encouragement to be regularly selected in regional representative teams and more lately she gained selection in the Victorian Under 16 team for the National Championships in Tasmania where she excelled as an elusive and tenacious point guard and play maker.

In addition Elli has immense netball talent, which came to the fore when she started playing with the “Williamstown Juniors Jellyfish” team in the local competition at age the age of nine. Her natural ability quickly became prominent during these early years. As she matured physically, refined her skills, and gained further experience in competition her ability became more and more obvious.

Recently she gained selection in the Victorian Schoolgirls (15 years) team that played in the National Championships in Sydney in August where Victoria won the National title. Furthermore at the end of the championships Elli was selected in the School Sport Australia All Australian team to play a tournament in New Zealand later early next year. A wonderful achievement.

Elli will have a tough decision to make soon. There are more and more demands being made on her to fully concentrate on one or the other sports as she reaches the stage where full commitment is required for both training time and competition in order to continue her development. 

Already identified by Netball Victoria through its Zone Academy Program - Elli is well entrenched in the “athletes’ pathway” that may lead to higher honours in the future.

Despite her age she has been selected for a second season as a member of the City West Falcons VNL Under 19 team. This will present further opportunities for her to develop, mature and realise her potential against older and more experienced opponents. I'm sure she will relish the competition.  

All EFCPP&OA members are delighted to wish Maddi and Elli every success in their future efforts.