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Zippy Fish

Australian rules footballer

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Zipporah "Zippy" Fish (born 4 June 2006) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Sydney Swans in the AFL Women's (AFLW). Although traditionally a midfielder, she also plays at half back. She was awarded the AFLPA best first-year player for 2025 and won the 2025 AFL Women's Rising Star.

01Early life

Fish is from Newman, a small town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Her first name, Zipporah, is of biblical origin. Her father Troy played a few league games for Peel Thunder in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and some reserves games for Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), before switching to junior coaching and player development roles with East Fremantle.

Originally focusing mostly on basketball and soccer, Fish first started playing Australian rules football for East Fremantle in the Rogers Cup, a developmental league for female footballers under the age of 19 in Western Australia. She attended secondary school at All Saints' College in Perth, graduating in 2023. During her gap year, she began studying for a teaching degree specialising in sport, whilst also working as a game development officer for the West Australian Football Commission (WAFC) running school clinics and carnivals.

02AFLW career

2025: Debut season

A highly rated junior, Fish was a member of Fremantle's Next Generation Academy and the AFLW Academy programs and was considered a top-five draft prospect. She was drafted by Sydney with pick 5 in the 2024 AFL Women's National draft, and was named to make her debut in Round 1 of the 2025 AFL Women's season against Richmond. She collected 26 disposals during the match, the equal-most from a debutante, and was listed as one of Sydney's best players in the subsequent match report. She received a Rising Star nomination the following week in Round 2 playing against the Gold Coast Suns, recording 27 disposals and eight intercepts.

In Round 8 against reigning premiers North Melbourne, she recorded a game-high 722 metres gained and career-best numbers in both disposals and kicks, with 34 and 25, respectively. She was also the only Swans' player to receive coaches' votes from the game. Two weeks later on 17 October, she was named as one of the favorites to win the 2025 AFL Women's Rising Star award. Fish finished her first season in the competition having played all 12 games, polling coaches' votes in all but three of them. She received selection in the 22 Under 22 team, and was also named in the initial 42-woman All-Australian squad. On 24 November at the league's annual W Awards, Fish was awarded the Rising Star award as the competition's best young player, polling the maximum 50 votes. She was also awarded the AFLPA best first-year player award in November.

2026

In June, Fish was selected to represent Australia in the then-upcoming Australia v Ireland representative game. She kicked the first goal of the match, with Australia going on to win the game by 50 points.

03Statistics

Updated to the end of Round 5, 2026.

Legend
  G   Goals   K   Kicks   D   Disposals    T   Tackles
  B   Behinds    H   Handballs    M   Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
2025Sydney23 12401906425437400.30.015.85.321.23.13.34
2026Sydney23 501803411416240.00.216.06.522.83.24.8-
Career 17412709836853640.30.115.85.821.63.13.84
Watch videos about Zippy FishExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Zippy Fish, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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