CAITLIN Gould is one of the big improvers of NAB AFLW season seven, but the Adelaide ruck's footy career nearly ended before it began.
The 23-year-old was a state-level volleyballer in high school (both indoor and beach), but her one game of school footy finished in an uncomfortable injury.
"I went to Brighton Secondary, and they've got a special volleyball program, so that's how I got into the school, through the sport," Gould told womens.afl.
"I got offered a scholarship to America to play volleyball, but I wanted to graduate school first, and I didn't really feel I was ready to tackle the world at that age.
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"I'd played one knock-out footy game in high school, but I broke my coccyx bone. I went to grab a ground ball, and someone kneed me up my coccyx bone and I broke it. So I wasn't sure if footy was for me, it was honestly the worst injury I've had in my life," she finished with a laugh.
Gould had grown up in a footy family, with her dad having played "around 300 A-grade matches", but it took the encouragement of a friend to get her down to local club Happy Valley in 2018.
The following year she had progressed to SANFLW club Glenelg, and was drafted at the end of that season with the Crows' fifth selection (pick No.68 overall).
That 2019 NAB AFLW Draft has proven to be a goldmine for Adelaide, bringing in the likes of Montana McKinnon, Najwa Allen, Maddi Newman and All-Australian squad member Chelsea Biddell.
Gould is averaging 18.3 hitouts (up from 10.6 last season), 11.1 disposals (9.5) and has kicked six goals this season.
"I think having two seasons in one year has been really good for me, because I've used it to help develop other areas of my game. The likes of 'DP' (Danielle Ponter) and Ash (Woodland) have taught me so much about being a forward, and the game-style they try to create down there," she said.
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"It's been awesome for me, because I've really tried to learn more about being a forward as well as being a main ruck. I've been really working on my body work as a ruck and being more impactful around the ground."
Adelaide's semi-final win over Collingwood was marred by a series of thunderstorms, with the game delayed, before an hour-long quarter-time break. The rain had settled when the match re-started, but the ground was sodden.
"It was honestly such a weird game. The first quarter was generally fine, the ball was bouncing up and everything, and then literally a minute from the end of the quarter, it just went completely crazy. There's footage of a handball and the ball came straight back, it was genuinely ridiculous," Gould said.
"'Doc' (Matthew Clarke, senior coach) made it very clear before the game that there was a likeliness of there being a lot of breaks because of lightning, and they were going to be extra cautious. So, him addressing it early on put it into our heads that it was going to happen.
"He said it was going to be a test of knowing when to mentally switch on and off. There were girls meditating for 10 minutes to quiet down the mind, because if you're up and about the whole time, you're going to be so exhausted running out."
Adelaide will observe a minute's silence before Friday's preliminary final against Brisbane, and wear black arm-bands and pink shoelaces as a mark of respect for former premiership teammate Heather Anderson, who passed away earlier this week.
Anderson wore an iconic pink helmet when playing, in order to assist her vision-impaired mother.
"It was addressed on Monday at training, there's a few girls who played with her in that first season," Gould said.
"Chelsea had a big speech, telling us about the good things about Heather and how she was a special teammate and they loved having her help build the culture that we have here. There are a lot of girls hurting at the moment, but all we can do is support everyone involved."
