Aussie skipper bares all on shock promotion… and iconic Warnie tribute

‘S***, this is real’: Aussie skipper bares all on shock promotion… and iconic Warnie tribute

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Tim Miller from Fox SportsSeptember 22nd, 2026 11:41 am

Australian women’s captain Sophie Molineux has opened up on her surprise ascension to the top job, revealing the ‘oh, s***’ moment the prospect of leading the team became real.

The 28-year old and long-term Melbourne Renegades captain in the WBBL was named Alyssa Healy’s all-formats successor in January, leading Australia to victory at the T20 World Cup in June and July in her first major assignment at the helm.

The spin-bowling all-rounder has dealt with a spate of injuries since making her international debut as a 20-year old in 2018, particularly after being part of two World Cup-winning teams in her first two years as part of the XI.

Molineux revealed to The Female Athlete Project podcast that the opportunity first presented itselfce and national selector Shawn Flegler

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“A few of us were at a Christmas party, and ‘Flegs’ called,” she said.

“He just sort of explained Midge’s (Healy) situation and that she was going to retire soon and they were going to have to start thinking about what was next. And he just asked if I’d be interested in going through the process.

“I literally was like “oh s***, this is real”.

“So I went back home for Christmas and spoke to Mum and Dad and people back home and I thought, why not?

“(I) threw my name in the ring and had a few interviews and things like that. I suppose it worked out.”

The captaincy appointment, picked over long-term deputies Tahlia McGrath and Ash Gardner and veteran Beth Mooney, continued a remarkable rise from country Victoria to the very top of Australian cricket for Molineux.

Having just turned 20, she made her Australian debut on a tour of India in early 2018, on which she admits she was so overawed by sharing a squad with so many of her “idols” and greats of the game, including Healy and Ellyse Perry, that her nerves got the better of her.

“That first tour, I was just so nervous. I used to pinch the protein bars, because I was too scared to go to team brekkie,” she said.

“I was way too nervous. These girls are my idols, and we were in India of all places, and there was not much ability to go and just chill, and have a coffee, and get to know people.

“I’m like, I don’t know anyone here, so I’m just going to feast out on my protein bars in my room. A little mouse.

“And then slowly, I think during training, and running drinks and everything, I slowly got to make connections with the girls, and then by the end of that tour, I went to brekkie.

“It took six weeks, but we got there.”

The Bairnsdale product was an early product of the Women’s Big Bash League competition, which became the first women’s tournament of its kind when it launched in late 2015.

An inaugural Renegade, she also captained Victoria at the 2015/16 U18 National Championships, before taking on the job at the Renegades as a 23-year old in 2021.

“I think I was 16 when I played my first year at Renegades, so it was like a dream come true,” she recalled.

“We were playing on all these main stadiums before the men, and playing with players that I’d looked up to for a couple of years. It was hard to believe … it was just the best six weeks of my life, especially those first couple of years.

“I remember playing against Ellyse Perry, and all I wanted to do was get her to sign my shirt. It was pretty cool.”

The first years of her career were like a dream.

The latter was particularly significant: in front of the largest ever crowd at a women’s cricket match, 86,174 fans packed the MCG to see Molineux take 1/21 from four tight overs in a thumping 85-run win over India.

She then made international headlines after dancing alongside pop icon Katy Perry on stage during the team’s victory celebrations.

But her career looked set to be derailed by a series of injuries, including a ruptured ACL in November 2022, hot on the heels of missing that year’s ODI World Cup and Commonwealth Games campaigns with a foot injury.

She believes the first injury was as a result of “overtraining” as she looked to retain her spot in the team.

“I’d won two World Cups by the time I was 22,” she told The Female Athlete Project.

“I remember Georgia Wareham and I sitting there after our second one (in early 2020), all going, if we’ve won two … we’re on track to win 12 here.

“It just doesn’t work like that. And that’s the beauty of sport as well.

“I think that first injury come about probably as a result of trying to keep up with these people and being super hard on myself and overtraining and searching for perfection. And that sort of hit me.

“I had the time to be able to rehab that foot and make sure that when I come back, I was able to stay back. And I felt like I’d done a lot of work in that space. And then (injuring) an ACL, that’s quite rare in cricket as well, so that was pretty hard to swallow.

“Because it was such a long time out, I definitely had doubts that I would play for Australia again.

“And I had a lot of good mates in that team still and it was really hard; but also, I got to a point where I was okay watching them win World Cups. I’d sort of got to a point where I was really happy that if it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out.

“So I suppose when ‘Flegs’ called again a few years later and said that you’re playing in the Test, it was really, I suppose, special for different reasons.”

Her stint as captaincy began with difficulties.

Molineux was reduced to playing as a specialist fielder on a March tour of the West Indies, with a back issue having prematurely ended her first tour as skipper against India a month earlier.

But her leadership, as well as her canny left-arm spin, were crucial to Australia’s upset T20 World Cup triumph earlier this year.

The Victorian finished the tournament with 11 wickets at 14.72 to sit third on the tournament leaderboard, which ended with a crushing victory by seven wickets over hosts England in the final.

She believes going into the tournament without the favourites tag, having struggled at major tournaments in recent years, did the team the world of good.

“Us going into that World Cup, I don’t think we were favourites, which hadn’t been the case like that ever, I don’t think,” she said.

“We were sort of a little bit the underdogs. We’d come in and we hadn’t got any trophies in our cabinet. So it was real unknown territory for us, which also makes that win a bit sweeter.

“A part of that was leaning into the freedom and the feeling of just going out there and playing and not having to fear losing anything, because we actually hadn’t, we’ve got nothing to lose.

“You never really know with this sort of stuff. But it was just probably a little shift in mindset going into this World Cup.

“The girls were incredible in terms of playing that with that freedom and it actually turned out to be a really dominant four or five weeks for us, which was cool.”

The final carried with it extra significance at Lord’s, the home of English cricket and a venue forbidden for women, players or otherwise, less than a quarter of a century ago.

“We played England in the final at Lord’s in front of 30,000 people fully sold out, and I remember someone saying that 24 years ago, women weren’t allowed into the members area or something like that,” Molineux said.

“And that was only 24 years ago. So it’s amazing that you fast forward all these years and here we were, playing in front of 30,000 at Lord’s.”

The most iconic moment of the celebrations post-victory came from Molineux.

In a moment of inspiration that she says “makes me cringe” looking back, she replicated the famous stump-flailing celebration of the great Shane Warne – a fellow Victorian spinner and cult hero – following victory in a 1997 Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.

Molineux added that it was veteran Perry who had convinced her to pull it out.

“The seed might have been planted maybe two weeks before that. But I just refused to let myself think about it too much,” she laughed.

“But ‘Pez’, I think we spoke about it, she just said “Oh, if this happens, you’re going to have to do it”.

“I’m like, no, no, I don’t want to think about it. No, not happening.

“And then we were all on the balcony having such a good time singing, singing our team song, getting photos done.

“I don’t know how it happened, but I think someone had a stump and they all had a beer in their hand and it just happened.

“I look at it, it makes me cringe a little bit, but I tell you what, it was good fun for the group, that’s for sure.”

Molineux’s first major off-field test as captain developed in the days and weeks following that whirlwind triumph.

The team was embroiled in controversy when Monica Wright, Gardner’s long-term partner, took to Instagram to allege the star all-rounder had cheated on her with Australian teammate Georgia Voll.

Cricket Australia have since confirmed extra measures have been put in place to ensure team selection remains impartial, with Gardner remaining Molineux’s vice-captain.

Speaking at a Renegades sponsor launch, the captain said the team culture was strong enough for both Gardner and Voll to continue to tribute to the team’s success.

“I think they’ll be able to perform,” Molineux told CODE Sports.

“They did that for us for the World Cup.

“They’re quality players and the team will not be any different, in that we’ll get around them like we do with each other and make sure that performance is our number one thing.

“A strong culture and environment and also performance.”

Source: www.foxsports.com.au