Lauren Ahrens

Lauren Ahrens (born 19 August 1991) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Western Bulldogs in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She has previously played for the Gold Coast.

Early life
Ahrens was born on the Gold Coast and attended Palm Beach Currumbin State High School throughout her upbringing. Upon graduation, she relocated to Victoria and began studying at Melbourne University. She began playing Australian rules football for the first time with the Melbourne University Mugars team. She also had stints with VFLW teams St Kilda and Essendon.

AFLW career
Ahrens was pre-listed by her hometown team, the Gold Coast Suns, in the lead up to the 2019 AFL Women's draft. She made her debut against at Blacktown ISP Oval in the opening round of the 2020 season. Aherns has played almost every game at the Suns, and in the 2021 season she became the club's most consistent player and was recognised as the team's best and fairest player after collecting 238 best and fairest votes, only 5 ahead of second-placed Alison Drennan. Ahrens achieved selection in Champion Data's 2021 AFLW All-Star stats team, after leading the league for average metres gained in the 2021 AFL Women's season, totalling 321.1 a game.

Ahead of the 2024 AFL Women's season, Ahrens was traded to the Western Bulldogs as part of an 11-player trade.

Statistics

 * Statistics are correct to the end of the 2021 season.

! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2020 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2021 ! colspan=3 | Career ! 16 ! 1 ! 1 ! 156 ! 96 ! 252 ! 60 ! 41 ! 0.1 ! 0.1 ! 9.8 ! 6.1 ! 15.8 ! 3.8 ! 2.6 !
 * - style="background-color:#EAEAEA"
 * 7 || 7 || 1 || 1 || 56 || 46 || 102 || 17 || 20 || 0.1 || 0.1 || 8.0 || 6.6 || 14.6 || 2.4 || 2.9 ||
 * 7 || 7 || 1 || 1 || 56 || 46 || 102 || 17 || 20 || 0.1 || 0.1 || 8.0 || 6.6 || 14.6 || 2.4 || 2.9 ||
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 7 || 9 || 0 || 0 || 100 || 50 || 150 || 43 || 21 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 11.1 || 5.5 || 16.6 || 4.7 || 2.3 ||
 * - class="sortbottom"
 * }