Erin Phillips: ‘I wanted to do something that gave me joy again’

Erin Phillips has already kicked off her white sneakers by the time we start walking south along Tennyson Beach in Adelaide. She casually leaves them behind on the sand as we dodge seaweed and dead crabs marooned by the morning tide – this is her local, after all.“I’d say I’m here at least five mornings a week, whether it’s running to Grange Jetty, or I go with the dogs,” she says, squinting into the golden sunlight.Phillips retired from professional competition in 2023 after two decades, five countries, 12 clubs, and two sporting codes. But despite hanging up her AFL boots, the two-time basketball Olympian still likes to keep moving – she says she’s a better person after exercising.“Some days I’ll get up and I could run to Grange and back – other days I’d have to walk it, because my knees would just be like, ‘not today’,” she says, periodically bending to ruffle the wet fur of passing dogs that bound around her knees, both of which have undergone reconstructive surgery.“I’m actually O...