Fremantle Dockers veteran Ebony Antonio and inaugural Kara announce baby news, star to miss 2025 season

Ebony Antonio has acknowledged she might have played her last game for Fremantle, with the veteran star to sit out the 2025 AFLW season as she welcomes her first child.

The 33-year-old announced she is expecting a baby in October with wife Kara - the club’s inaugural captain and current assistant coach - to teammates at training earlier this week.

Also an inaugural Docker, Antonio revealed she had pondered whether she would add to her 69 games in purple, given the All-Australian won’t feature this season, which starts in August.

“I’ve had plenty of thoughts about whether I’ve played my last game for Freo, or maybe I’ll come back next year,” she said.

“I just really want to enjoy this journey with Kara and have our first child together. I’m just really looking forward to this next part of my life.”

The Dockers playing group swarmed the pair in an emotional video released by the club on Tuesday, which showed the big screen at Cockburn displaying the message: “We’re having a baby”.

“I’ve got some exciting news, there’s a little baby Antonio on the way,” Ebony said.

“I’m 13 weeks (pregnant) this week. The journey has been a very long one. Kara and I have had to go through the IVF process and it’s been a really rewarding process to get to this point. Something that we’re really excited for.”

Ebony said she was relieved to get the news off her chest, as she held up a purple jumper with the couple’s surname on the back.

“It’s really hard to go through the first 13 weeks and tell a lot of white lies to get to this point,” she said.

“Obviously, the Freo family and the Freo girls are my close family as well. I consider them all sisters, and I’m so glad they get to be aunties.

“Especially, the OG girls who have been here since the start, and a few of the closer mates I’ve made along the journey.”

The couple - who got engaged in 2018 and tied the knot in late 2019 - posted the announcement on Instagram on April 1st, declaring “this isn’t an April Fool’s joke”.

The exciting news comes after club great Kiara Bowers missed the 2024 season following the birth of her second child, with the four-time best and fairest set to return this season.

Fremantle’s AFLW footy boss Claire Heffernan said the club will work with the AFL to finalise the process for a replacement player. “We are so over the moon for Epps (Ebony) and Juddy (Kara), and we look forward to seeing how this next chapter of their lives unfolds,” Heffernan said.

“Although Epps will be a great loss to our side for the upcoming season, we are always excited at the prospect of adding a new member to our list.”