ACT Meteors all-rounder Jodie Hicks was on the verge of running out on to the hallowed turf of the MCG with the Melbourne Demons.
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But she will be hoping to go one better at another of Australia's iconic sporting venues when she joins the Sydney Sixers for the inaugural Women's Big Bash League.
The 18-year-old will be rubbing shoulders with Southern Stars representatives Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy at the SCG in the Twenty20 competition.
Originally from Hay in western NSW, Hicks debuted for the Meteors in a Twenty20 game against Queensland last year before recently moving to Canberra full-time for this season.
She has also been on the radar of the AFL, having been called into the Melbourne Demons squad for the first of two women's games against the Western Bulldogs this year.
While she was an emergency, Hicks enjoyed the chance to be on the verge of running out on to the MCG.
"I was selected in the squad and I got to warm up and I was in the change room, it was unreal," she said.
"I used to love AFL, but I guess there are more opportunities with cricket so I guess it's grown on me. Cricket is winning at the moment."
Hicks impressed selectors at an under-18 AFL national tournament in Canberra in 2013 and made the All-Australian team that year.
But it's with the bat and ball she hopes to make her mark in the immediate future.
"I'm really excited to play with Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy and I'm excited to learn off them," Hicks said.
"I basically signed straight away when the team called.
"I tried to get school out of the way early this year with HSC exams and moved here and I've been training full-on ever since."
Hicks is the latest of several ACT players to earn contracts in the WBBL to the delight of Meteors coach Andrew Dawson.
"Jodie is emerging through the system and I think it's a good long-term investment," Dawson said.
"She was already talent-identified through the pathway programs and since then she has been involved with the ACT/NSW Country programs.
"Her batting is well and truly developing, this current point she is roughly a No 6 or No 7 at WNCL level and bowling, she is a very good executor of slower balls and yorkers."
The inaugural WBBL starts on December 5.
