THE NEWEST state rivalry in football will open a new chapter on Saturday when Greater Western Sydney takes on little sister Sydney at the SCG in the first AFLW NSW Derby.
It won't be without leading characters, either, as three Giants - forward Rebecca Privitelli, midfielder Lisa Steane and young ruck Ally Morphett - made the move to the Swans during the expansion phase.
"I'm pretty excited but nervous at the same time," Morphett said of Saturday's game, where she expects some "friendly fire" on the field.
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Growing up a Swans fan, in a family full of Swans fans, the teenager was drafted to GWS ahead of season six and played seven games that season, showing off her athleticism in the air. But as soon as the opportunity to play in the colours she grew up supporting came around, there really wasn't another option for Morphett - it was Swans or bust.
"I've been barracking for the Swans my whole life and the majority of my family do. The opportunity to play for the team that I've been barracking since I was a little girl is such an amazing feeling," Morphett said.
"I know that I'm in a good place at the moment and I'm surrounded by the best people I've probably ever met."
Sharing the ruck duties with the recently listed Kate Reynolds and having both Bella Smith and Lexi Hamilton who can provide support in a pinch, they will prove a handful for Giant Cambridge McCormick who has been left one-out.
Last season, Morphett and inaugural Giant Erin McKinnon were hotly contesting the first-choice ruck position, but in the off-season both made the decision to move on, leaving the club bereft of rucks and forced to the draft.
In what is now a full circle moment, however, before making their way to the AFLW, Morphett and McCormick used to line up against one another in their local Canberra competition.
"I'm feeling fairly confident about (the match-up). But to be honest, when the Giants were kind of left with no rucks, I had already made the decision that I was leaving the Giants and I wasn't even expecting Erin (McKinnon) to go," Morphett explained.
The focus now is on Swans footy, and getting their own game down pat, although Morphett admits that as the game edges closer, some attention will no doubt be turned to the gravity of the occasion.
"At this stage it is more about getting the game right, since we are fairly new to the competition, but I'm sure more towards the weekend, we're going to touch on (the rivalry) a bit more… It's a bit of a hard one, on the field, no one is your friend but when you cross back over the white line you chat to them. I still keep in contact with a small amount of them."
THE JOURNEY BEGINS Swans, Giants eye new Derby rivalry
But on Saturday as those 42 women run out on to the SCG for the venue's first ever AFLW match, they make history, and Morphett is hoping to add to the records being set, as her Swans look for their first win.
"I'm trying to take this opportunity that I have right now with both hands because the history we're making at the moment, all these little things mean so much to me," she said.
