Double Teakle: Julia Teakle signs with Port Adelaide for the upcoming 2022 AFLW season

Julia Teakle has become the second member of her family to join Port Adelaide in as many weeks after the club announced her signing on Thursday.

She is just the second AFLW player from Geraldton following in the footsteps of current Port Adelaide development coach Renee Forth.

“It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, it’s been a few weeks in the making so it’s nice to get the news off my chest and I’ve had loads of messages of support,” Teakle told the Guardian on Friday.

Teakle joins her cousin Brynn who was picked up by the Power in the AFL mid-season draft last week, which she said would be a big plus.

“It’s huge, it was just coincidental both being signed by Port but it definitely makes going over there easier,” she said.

“I gave him a call as soon as I knew I had been signed, he had just finished up at the club for the day and was stoked when I told him.”

While she said it will be bittersweet moving over to Adelaide having just relocated to Perth, her father Grant couldn’t be happier.

“I’m pretty excited, they made contact probably 10 days ago and then came to an agreement,” he said.

“Julia was going to nominate for this year’s draft later in the year but there’s some new expansion signings because of the four new clubs in the competition that enabled some pre-draft opportunities and Port gave her the offer.”

Teakle has even been added to the AFL legends chat, featuring past and current players from Northampton.

The 18-year-old becomes the first AFLW player from Northampton, adding to the storied football history of the town.

Northampton Football Club president Damian Harris said it paved the way for other prospective female footy players from the area.

“It shows the opportunities are there and, look we do lose a lot of young adults because they go away to boarding school and then don’t come back to play for the mighty Rams,” he said.

“But we’re lucky to say that we had Julia for three years and she got a premiership with the Northampton Rams, so it’s bloody awesome.”

Teakle also won two league best and fairest titles while at the Rams and has kicked 26 goals this season in the WAFLW for East Fremantle, helping them to a so far unbeaten 13-0 record.

While she has traditionally played up in the forward line or midfield throughout her career she indicated a possible change in her role.

“The club said they were looking for a bit of height and versatility so I might find myself around the ground a bit more or possibly even in the back line,” she said.

Younger sister Tiani, 15, has played some WAFLW games for the Sharks with her big sister this season and has previously flagged her ambition to make it into the ALFW.

Teakle will miss the first week of preseason, heading over to Adelaide after the completion of exams for her physiotherapy studies at Notre Dame.