SHELLEY Scott played out last season's Grand Final despite having torn her calf in the warm-up.
In what proved to be the last of her 49 games for Melbourne before moving to Geelong, the 34-year-old pushed through the pain, and now has a second crack at finals this year with the Cats.
"It was pretty painful, and once one part of the calf was weakened, it put strain on the rest. I did a little bit of damage there, but I'm not too worried about it now," Scott told womens.afl.
"It's one of those things where if you lose, you want to forget about the whole scenario, right there and then. I didn't have the best season last year, and it capped it off for me a little bit as well.
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"So that was disappointing, but returning from that and the season starting quicker than expected put me under a bit of a timeframe to get myself right. At the same time, Geelong were really accommodating and patient, considering the injury that it was, they weren't willing to push me too far, too fast. I haven't had any issues so far, which is good."
Known to friends and family as 'Shell', Scott lives on a dairy farm in Gerangamete – about halfway between Colac and Lorne – and would drive at least two hours to training at the Demons, longer if she had to go round the bay to Casey.
The shift to Geelong has proven to be mutually beneficial, with the Cats benefiting from Scott's smarts and experience in attack.
"I didn’t realise the toll the travel was taking on me until I cut it in half. It's been pretty good, getting home a lot earlier, not sitting in traffic and everything about it, I didn’t realise how much of a toll it was taking," Scott said.
"It's a better balance now. Over the last few years, I've felt a lot of exhaustion coming towards the season's end, and it's been nice, I don't feel exhausted.
"The AFL was talking about increasing hours, and with that, it would have meant going down to Melbourne an additional day, that commitment growing, and it was probably already at the maximum I could fulfil."
In a surprising move, Scott started the season in a defensive line that was missing the inactive Maddy McMahon, but she was swung back to familiar territory in round five.
She's kicked nine goals in six games, and while coach Dan Lowther has been at pains to share the credit, there's no doubt one part of Geelong's scoring explosion has been helped by the presence of Scott.
It culminated in a 75-point rout of wooden-spooner Sydney last weekend, piling on 15.12 (102) in the second-highest AFLW score ever, with Chloe Scheer and Scott the chief destroyers up forward while the midfield controlled play further afield.
"It was pretty good to be part of, and it's something we've been building towards. At the start of the season, we always knew we were a developing team, and as the weeks have gone on, we've continued to adjust and make tweaks to our method and how we wanted to play," Scott said.
"To have everything come to fruition on the weekend against the Swans was pretty pleasing.
"I think Dan had a reflection after the first four rounds, and it was pretty stark where our attacking method wasn't working for us.
"It was really a change in the method from all three lines, to improve our attack and to get us more looks at goals, get the ball in more dangerous positions and it's been working for us since."
Geelong will host North Melbourne in an elimination final on Saturday night, with the Roos coming up trumps when the two sides met earlier this season.
"We started quite slow, so for us, it's starting the game how we want to finish, nice and strong," Scott said.
"Finals footy comes with a higher level of intensity, tackling and pressure, so for us, it's starting the game from the first contest. That'll be the difference, not allowing North to have two quarters' head start."
