IT WAS the presence of Zach Merrett that convinced Maddy Prespakis her future was with Essendon.

Having agreed to take a meeting with Bombers officials ahead of the last AFLW sign and trade period, Prespakis was greeted by a contingent led by Merrett and football boss Josh Mahoney, determined to convince the young midfielder to make the high-profile move to Tullamarine.

Merrett spoke the words Prespakis had wanted to hear. He told her why he had shunned restricted free agency to sign a six-year contract extension with Essendon in the months before, how the club had improved him as a footballer and a person, and how he'd dealt with adversity and learnt to cope with tagging and physical opposition tactics.

It came at a time when Prespakis had been questioning her development at Carlton. For the last two seasons, ever since she won the League best and fairest award at just 19 years of age for her performances during the 2020 campaign, she had felt like she had reached her capacity with the Blues.

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Prespakis had touched base with club officials both after winning the League best and fairest – the AFLW's equivalent of the Brownlow Medal – and then again 12 months later, wanting advice on the next phase of her development and how she could cope with the additional opposition attention that had stemmed naturally from being crowned the best player in the competition. She was underwhelmed with the response.

Carlton, for its part, had offered a series of suggestions, but don't believe they were always taken on board. As for the question marks over her development, the Blues can argue Prespakis was a NAB AFLW Rising Star winner, a League best-and-fairest, a two-time All-Australian and a three-time club best and fairest winner by the age of 21 to suggest that her progression was on the right track.

Ultimately, though, the Blues came to a decision that their midfield mix was perhaps more balanced without Prespakis following the return to form and fitness of two-way runners and pressure players like Mimi Hill and Maddy Guerin. The club subsequently pushed Prespakis to a half-forward role late last season and believes its midfield operated significantly better in the month afterwards.

In some ways, the positional switch was an acceptance from the Blues that Prespakis would look elsewhere during the sign and trade period, where the arrival of four new expansion teams would create mass player movement.

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But the club also believed it suited the precociously talented youngster's strengths as a footballer – her ability to create a target, use the ball going inside 50m and her strong footy IQ – all of which saw her poll strongly while playing as a forward late in the season on her way to the 2022 Blues best and fairest award.

Prespakis did ultimately attract the type of rival interest that Carlton had expected to arrive at the end of last season, particularly from interstate and expansion clubs. West Coast is understood to have made a significant play for her signature ahead of the sign and trade period, though by that stage her decision was down to two options: leave for Essendon, or stay at Carlton.

The Blues offered Prespakis a two-year deal as a 'Tier 1' player and a package that was similar to what she had earned at the club last season. They weren't given a counter-offer, though, and were told outright that she would be exploring her options. Despite this, there is believed to be an appreciation on her part that the Blues had done all they could to retain her services.

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Prespakis' well-documented childhood support of the Bombers might have played an emotional part in her final decision to swap Ikon Park for the Hangar, but football took precedence and she was convinced by Merrett's words that Essendon would get the best out of her as a player.

Her relationship with Carlton coach Daniel Harford was frosty and lingering tension remains, though it was the reaction of her teammates to the news that she would be leaving for Essendon that Prespakis described as "surprising" and "a little disappointing" earlier this week.

Prespakis reached out to all of her teammates individually after making her decision, though by that stage it's said Blues players were bitterly disappointed by the news they would be losing a supremely gifted young player to the club's oldest and fiercest rivals, right at the point where its rebuilding list was starting to take shape.

The fact classy forward Georgia Gee, one of the most naturally gifted players on Carlton's list at the time, would be making the move alongside her good friend only rubbed salt into the wounds.

Essendon tried to lure a host of other Carlton players during the sign and trade period, most notably captain Kerryn Peterson (née Harrington) and another former Blues best and fairest in All-Australian ruck Breann Moody, but did so unsuccessfully. However, securing Prespakis and Gee was both a statement of the expansion side's intent, and a brutal early blow landed on the Bombers' traditional foes.

On Sunday, they will try to inflict another gut punch on Carlton. That will come at Port Melbourne's ETU Stadium just before lunchtime, as the two sides meet for their maiden clash in AFLW competition. The rivalry from a women's perspective is still new, but already has its first chapter written.