BRING THE WAVE
WHITE CLAW HARD SELTZER ®
SPARKLING WATER WITH ALCOHOL
OVER THE MOON AT SOUTH BY PETER ARGENT
Dual sporting talent Soriah Moon packs plenty into her week. Moon has a key role as South Adelaide’s SANFLW ruck, along with donning a singlet for Sturt Sabres in the NBL1 Central competition. Depending on her court time in the State League basketball competition, there are weeks she backs up and plays NBL1 reserves. For someone who kicked off her footy career in 2019 and is now “30-years-young” Moon has achieved plenty but after the Panthers’ heartbreaking three-point grand final loss last season the inner drive is to go one better. A member of the SA State team that claimed a historic win against WA by 16 points in Perth in May, Moon exudes the multicultural aspects of the national code. “I’m half Korean heritage and half Dutch,” Moon said. “Dad, Hong Shik, who excelled at Taekwondo, is Korean, while our late mother, Hermina, was Dutch and a pretty handy netballer. Me and my siblings are all Aussie, born here. I have an older brother Soobin and sister, Shareena, along with my younger sister Seraphina, who has played in the Panthers’ development league team for the past couple of seasons.” The hard-working sports star played church and social basketball before
starting with the Sabres at 20 in the under-23 competition. “I play mainly as a centre and my strength is my rebounding.” Moon was running some strong time trials and a friend suggested she have a go at Glenelg. “Bays coach Jason Fairall suggested I was pretty green, so I spent a season in community footy with Flagstaff Hill Falcons in 2019.” Moon spent the 2020 campaign at the Tigers, making her SANFLW debut in Round 1 at the Ponderosa against North and playing eight games for the season. She made her move down South in 2021, bowing out in a four-point first semi-final loss to West Adelaide. “At the start of the 2022 campaign, in an internal trial, I did my ACL,” Moon said. “For that season I coached the reserves midfield and received tremendous support from Jorja Hooper and Brianna Cleggett, who were doing rehab with me. Coaching certainly helped my game.” Moon stood tall last season, averaging 14 disposals and 32 hitouts in 14 games but it ended in tears. “The grand final loss was devastating, going down in the final 19 seconds,” she said. “We had worked so hard and I was spent after the contest, so sore, both muscle and heartbreak sore. There has been
a total commitment by the squad and I have that inner drive, as the job is not done yet.” Moon said coach Rick Watts’ belief in her has been a key to her continued improvement. “He is so positive and pushes me to be better.” Watts said Moon is one of the nicest people you could meet, noting her wonderful personality. “Often we need to enrage her, for her to get that edge required to perform at her optimum,” Watts said. “We challenge Soriah to get back to being a ‘beast’ on the field. At the top of her game, along with the ruck aspect, she becomes an extra midfielder. In our recent win over North, Soriah had an amazing 17 ground-ball gets. She is a key component of our structures and when she didn’t play for a couple of weeks early in the season with an ankle injury, we certainly noticed it.” In Moon’s Redtails-Pinktails Cup best player-award-winning performance against North she had 21 disposals, 33 hit-outs and 10 clearances. A physiotherapist, Moon aims to play for as long as her body lets her and would love to play senior SANFLW football with sister Seraphina, who played in South’s development league grand final win this year against Glenelg. It’s something Soriah is looking to match at league level on July 6. sanfl.com.au
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