Grace sets a cracking pace in three sports

But, at least for the minute, she is quite comfortable juggling her commitments to all three — even if that means surrendering individual honours in at least one of the disciplines.

“Sometimes go-karting and footy will clash, so I have to choose. Occasionally I’ll get to do both if footy is on a Friday night,” she said.

Grace, who is in Year 10 at St Joseph’s College in Echuca, is a leading player with Echuca United’s youth team in the Northern Country Women’s League.

She has kicked eight goals in five games this season, including a bag of six in a team total of eight against Nathalia in a 41-point win.

“Some of the other teams are a bit ahead of us in regard to development, but Nathalia and us are at a similar stage. We needed to make the most of that week,” she said, explaining she and several other girls still had two more seasons in the under-18 competition.

Last year, Grace played with the Bendigo Pioneers’ under-15 team against Goulburn Murray and Gippsland and captained the premier Interleague Northern Country Women’s League under-18 team in May this year.

While football is a focus, so too is her go-karting. She is a respected competitor within the Victorian Kart Championship’s KA3 junior heavy category, having only a couple of months ago competed at the state titles at Albury-Wodonga

Karting takes a little bit more of a commitment from the family, travelling to Puckapunyal’s kilometre-long Eastern Lions Kart Club course, Rochester Kart Club and other locations to compete.

Grace has been both junior heavy club champion and junior club best-and-fairest in 2021 and 2022.

Five years ago, Grace was a ‘’grid kid’’ at the Melbourne Grand Prix when organisers swapped out the grid girls to boost inclusion of young fans.

The experience allowed Grace to meet Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, who himself graduated from karting ranks to drive at the elite level.

While Grace has played Aussie rules for three years, it has been karting where her sporting highlights have been most pronounced, winning last year’s Golden Power Series in junior heavy class and Victorian Junior Karter of the Year.

The series involves six rounds — at Rochester, Numurkah, Bendigo, Morwell, Puckapunyal and Albury.

Grace won the first round, dominating all four races, then was second at Albury and Bendigo and won Puckapuynal, before having a self-confessed “rough one’’ at Morwell, where she finished fourth.

She won the 2022 title by a significant margin and is now planning to move into senior karting ranks.

This year she has stepped up to karts that can reach speeds of up to 110km/h on the longer courses and is running third in the Eastern Lions club championship in her category.

That standing has a lot to do with her juggling of sports, completing two race weekends and two footy weekends on a monthly basis.

“I haven’t decided which one to pursue just yet,” she said, with her mother Sophie chiming in to suggest football and cricket were a lot cheaper.

Grace’s father, Justin, has been in go-karting for 40 years. He acts as mechanic and pit crew for his daughter, while the remaining member of the family — 17-year-old sister Molly — is the most social member of the family.

Grace is also showing signs that cricket could be a potential sporting pursuit in the future. She represented the Northern Rivers region in the past two seasons in the Youth Premier League under-15 girls’ side and is now trialling with the Essendon-Maribynong under-18 team.

She is a wicket-keeper-batsman, but admits that her best results — and probably her real passion — lies in go-karting.

“It is an under-18 squad, so I am one of the younger ones. There are not many wicket-keepers though, so I may be a chance,” she said.

While a cricket bat and football sit in the corner of her room, there is a shed full of go-karts, motorbikes and boats at the family’s eight-hectare (20-acre) property near Kyabram to prove her real allegiance to “going fast”.

She can regularly be found “paddock-bashing’’ in the family’s silver Hyundai Excel and admits that, given the chance, she would love to give car racing a go.

Grace will race this week at Rochester Kart Club in the fourth round of the Golden Power Series.

She is sitting about fourth, 1500 points off the top two.

“We had a tough start with the new kart, but I think we are there now,” she said.

Grace, who won’t turn 16 until March next year, won’t have to decide which sport to pursue any time soon.

For now, she can sit back and watch her beloved Red Bull Formula One team, along with cricket heroes Marnus Labershagne and Alyssa Healey and her football hero Jeremy Cameron and dream of what might be.

She could end up following in the footsteps of at least one of those celebrated sports stars.