ON FATHER’S Day last year, Matthew Lappin coached his daughter Sunny to a Best on Ground Medal in Southport’s QAFLW Grand Final thumping of Morningside.

“It was the best Father’s Day ever,” Sunny recalled with a huge smile this week.

“You can’t really top that. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do this week.”

Matthew, or ‘Skinny’ as he was better known during his 251-game career for St Kilda and Carlton, agreed.

“Good luck,” he laughed from an adjoining couch.

Across a lengthy chat with the Lappins at their Mermaid Beach family home, the bond between the pair is immense and obvious. Not only watching them interact for 30 minutes during the interview, but hearing the words that come out of their mouths was evidence of that.

Even though dad had a lengthy career in the AFL; as an All-Australian in 2004, a leading goalkicker for Carlton in 2001 and Mark of the Year winner in 1999, Sunny took until the age of 10 before she played an organised game.

“I remember going to school and bragging about him and telling all my friends he had a Wikipedia page and I thought that was the coolest thing in the whole world,” Sunny – who now has her own Wikipedia page – said.

“Looking him up and saying 'that’s my dad. He’s on the internet'.

“I always thought it was pretty cool that he was known for something and liked for something.”

One of four siblings, Sunny grew up trying her hand at plenty of sports, notably basketball, but eventually Australian Rules won out.

Things really progressed during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when the pair would kick the footy on the then-family property at Worongary, 20 minutes inland from the Broadbeach coastline.

“We spent hours and hours and hours kicking a footy back and forward,” Matthew said.

“It’s what I did growing up. Kids don’t tend to do a lot of that stuff these days because they’re stuck in rooms and on devices.

“We were lucky enough we had some acreage and spent time kicking a footy.

“She didn’t realise we were honing her craft. She was just having fun and fell in love with the game.”

So much so, they had to devise a game within the game.

“You weren’t allowed to go back into the house until we had 100 in a row.,” Matthew smiled. “If we dropped one, we’d have to start again.”

The improvement came.

Matthew coached Sunny a handful of times through her junior years as she progressed to making Gold Coast’s Academy and then state teams.

That journey in the Academy would prove crucial for both her and the Suns, playing alongside current AFLW teammates Ava Usher, Georja Davies, Alannah Welsh, Mikayla Nurse, Dekota Baron, Bronte Parker and Rhianna Ingram, who would all be drafted last December.

Despite missing out on a spot in the AFLW National Academy last year, Sunny went to work to become one of the country’s hottest teenage talents.

Wherever she played, she excelled. Gold Coast, Southport or Queensland, where she was runner-up in the best and fairest of the under-18 national championships and named an All-Australian.

The question wasn’t if she was going to get drafted, but where?

There were ties to Gold Coast (Academy) St Kilda and Carlton (father/daughter).

“There was a lot of heated discussions because if she was going to choose a Victorian club, we were going to move with her,” Matthew said.

“We felt she needed that family support around her. There was lots of debate and discussion.

“I got drafted at 17 and my parents lived in country Victoria, and it was just ‘off you go’. I wasn’t quite ready for that experience.

“Even though AFL clubs are so much better resourced and we know they would have looked after her, it’s just a big move.

“It wasn’t something I wanted Sunny to do, so that’s why we were keen to go with her as well.”

It didn’t make it any easier for Sunny, knowing that her decision would also impact the next phase of her siblings’ life as well.

“There was definitely some heat,” Sunny said.

“My older sister was threatening to not come at all.

“It also gave me a lot of joy to know my parents were willing to come with me and support me. It was cool to hear that.

“In the end, this is my home, it’s where my family and friends are, this is where teammates I’ve played with for five or six years are. I couldn’t pass an opportunity up like that.

“Lots of girls get drafted and they don’t get a choice to stay at home, and I’m sure they would, so I couldn’t throw that away.

“I’m very happy with my decision. I love my time at this club.”

Sunny was taken at pick No.4 in the draft, the highest of the exciting Suns crop, and has played all four matches of the AFLW season.

Matthew says he’s been a nervous watcher this year, and although not getting the chance to coach his daughter again, will always cherish that Father’s Day in 2025.

“It was one of the highlights of my footy career last year,” he said.

“I played a long time, coached a long time, but it was such an enjoyable experience.

“It was my first time coaching women, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. They were sponges for information and they just wanted to learn and get better.

“They don’t bring their egos out of the car, if they have them in the car at all, whereas coaching men, their ego’s in their back pocket all the time.

“It was really refreshing.

“What I really liked about coaching Sunny last year is in the bigger moments she kept rising.

“When games got close, she got more competitive and more invested.

“You need that at the next level because if you don’t match their competitiveness and intensity, they’ll just steamroll you.

“That’s in there for her.

“She’s able to make good, calm decisions under pressure and the more she’s at the level, the more that’s going to be obvious for everyone to see.”