RETURNING to footy after 520 days on the sidelines, Gabby Newton had a fresh perspective on footy and has shed the pressure of being a top draft pick.

In her first season at AFLW level Newton averaged seven tackles to lead her side, playing next to the likes of Ellie Blackburn and Kirsty Lamb.

Gathering momentum through her second season, the young talent was felled on the eve of 2022, requiring dual shoulder reconstructions.

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"For that game on the weekend, there was just zero pressure," Newton told womens.afl.

"It was just more that I was just really nervous to play again. When I was playing before, it was the pressure of like, being a high draft pick. And it's just so wild that it's been so long since then, that's no longer a factor, which is really nice."

Newton's return couldn't have come at a better time for the Bulldogs. Standing at 176cm she answered one of the main questions over the club during the off season; who will head up their attack without key forwards Bonnie Toogood and Isabel Huntington in the side?

"Everyone has really stepped up," Newton said modestly, shifting the attention away from herself.

"I think we had the talent there when (Toogood and Huntington) were still with us. But just because, oh my gosh they're such good players, of course they're going to draw more attention and get a bit more of the footy. But I think it's just been nice for everybody else to step up and realize we actually really have to all of us just share this responsibility."

But it was Newton who set the scene early. Kicking her first goal in AFLW to open the second quarter and backing it up minutes later with her second, it was in fact her pressure at ground level that was most impressive. That relentless tackling she brought right from the start of her career hadn't disappeared, and as a key forward Newton led the field with nine tackles.

"I thought she was outstanding," Western Bulldogs forward coach Dylan Roberton said of Newton's game.

"We talked leading into the game, we just wanted to bring massive pressure, so the fact that she had nine tackles for a key forward, and eight in the first half I think it was, is unheard of really. You don't really see those numbers from a key forward.

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"For a player who's had two shoulder recos and missed a lot of football, you could probably forgive her maybe for being a little bit nervous of putting herself in those positions, but she did a massive amount of work to get her shoulder strength up."

That defensive work goes to the heart of Newton's game and attitude towards football. Sacrificial leads, tackles, and then bobbing up for a couple of goals. Whatever will best serve her side.

"She understands that she's part of a system, a unit," Western Bulldogs backline coach Melissa Hickey said.

"She's extremely dedicated to team success."

Even when she wasn't able to take to the field last season, Newton was still actively involved.

Working with then-midfield coach Natalie Wood, she became the side's opposition analyst, which meant consuming a lot of footy. Then, outside of the club, she was part of the Northern Knights' all-woman coaching panel.

Newton began to realise that when coaches would tell her they noticed the small things in her game, they weren't lying.

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"(My perspective has) changed so much, just because it's had to. When I was playing before, I was just so consumed by my own performance and what I was doing on field and if I felt that I was contributing enough to the team, or if I was playing well enough.

"But having the season off, even just coaching down at the Knights, it's just completely flipped the way I measure myself in the game. And then also I think my footy IQ's just become a lot better," Newton said.

Re-emerging at AFLW level as a target of the Bulldogs' attack, the 21-year-old is now armed with the confidence her body will allow her to not only play the intense, physical style of game that saw her rated so highly as a junior, but also hit the scoreboard.