IN A ROUGH season for Carlton, the impact of an unheralded debutant defender was the key to the team's most effective line.

Paige Trudgeon found her way onto the Blues' list as a 2021 injury replacement player in a fairly unconventional way.

Head of women's footy Brett Munro was going through the list of draft nominees when he stumbled across Trudgeon's name. He knew her brother Joel through his own son, and knew of Joel's talents (best and fairest at Northern Knights), so flicked him a message asking if Paige was a relative.

A kick in the park and a chat with Munro later, the raw Trudgeon – a basketballer who had played a handful of games for local side Montmorency – was on the Blues' list as a replacement for Olympics-bound Chloe Dalton.

She impressed in the VFLW in 2021 and made her AFLW debut this year, finishing equal-fourth in the club's best and fairest.

Her ability to lock down the opposition's tallest defender allowed Harrington, Mua Laloifi and Gab Pound to thrive in their intercept roles.

"The growth of Paige Trudgeon as a fullback, she's a story that needs to be shouted from the rooftops," Carlton skipper Kerryn Harrington told womens.afl.

"The ability of someone in that fullback position, to take on the challenge of locking down the best full-forward in the opposition team, it's not something that comes naturally, because you sacrifice your own game.

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"The biggest growth I saw with Paige is if you give her a task, she does that so well. She not only did that, but then she started to evolve her offensive game as well. Not only was she locking down the opposition key forward, but she was making them defend her when we were able to transition out.

"Her efficiency in terms of her ball-use was really damaging, and the back six at Carlton has – over the past four or five years – been a really strong unit, so to have someone come in and add to that, was probably something we didn't see coming."

Carlton had slumped to a 1-5 start, but recovered to finish 4-6, with all losses coming against finalists, including falling just one point short of Melbourne in the last round.

"From an individual perspective, as a leader within the group, it was a good test of my leadership as much as anyone else's," Harrington said.

"We tried a few different things to keep perspective for the group – we were the youngest group as far as lists and ages are concerned in the competition, and we're coming up against some really established teams, so while results weren't going our way, we were focusing on the process and having perspective was important.

"We really could have lost a lot of confidence and finished the season down the same path, which would have been quite disappointing. So, there was a lot of deep reflection and feedback, so to be able to redirect and come away with such positivity around the group is really pleasing."

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