BEHIND her pink suit and dark sunglasses of AFLW awards night there lies an intriguing, diverse, and curious personality in Jesse Wardlaw.

Brisbane's power forward, who is the competition's leading goalkicker through eight rounds, has a little bit of everything in her make-up.

She is strong – in every sense of the word – ambitious, has style, studies a profession you'd struggle to guess and is super tight with a family whose culture she is still learning about.

Playing in a team of big profiles and bigger personalities, Wardlaw is happy to take a back seat, but her story and transition from a promising netball career is as fascinating as anyone on the all-conquering Lions team.

Born in Ashburton, in New Zealand's South Island, Wardlaw moved to Australia at the age of four with her parents and older sister Mya, quickly immersing herself into Brisbane's southern suburbs.

She played a stack of sports at school, but, tall and lean, gravitated towards netball and eventually found her way into Queensland junior teams.

"I was so competitive," she told womens.afl during a lengthy chat at a café in Brisbane's eastern suburbs.

"I just loved the team environment, the running and catching and throwing. I wanted to be a professional netballer."

The thirst for training was always there. Wardlaw earned herself a half scholarship to John Paul College for her secondary school years to further her netball exploits.

The goal shooter would meet her best friend before school most days to hit the gym, even though she proclaimed to not knowing exactly what she was doing, or go running in nearby Daisy Hill forest.

If it was going to make her better, Wardlaw was all about it.

That was until late in Year 11 when that same friend convinced the school to enter a team in a nine-a-side Australian football competition at Yeronga.

Wardlaw's journey from there to the AFLW took about three years – and is probably worth a story on its own – as she first made a regional team and was spotted by Craig Starcevich.

The man who was about to become Lions coach in the inaugural AFLW season shot Wardlaw a message to see if she wanted to train with the under-18 state team – even though she wouldn't be selected – and she was hooked.

"It felt like a giant netball court to me, with the forwards, mids and backs, but I got to tackle and kick," Wardlaw said.

"Growing up I'd always kick the ball with my dad in the backyard, a rugby league ball, I didn't know what a Sherrin was.

"Craig knew me from that (state) level on and was never going to let me go," she laughed.

"He thought 'this girl's got talent, she's tall, she's athletic, she's switched on, we can work with it'.

"He always finds talent that is not there yet, but he wants to work with it."

After two seasons at QWAFL club Coorparoo, Wardlaw was taken by the Lions with their eighth and final pick (No.61 overall) of the 2018 NAB AFL Women's Draft.

Brisbane had drafted a raw prospect, a "stereotypical netballer physique, lanky and no muscle mass" on their hands to partner Sabrina Frederick in the forward line.

What they got was so much more on and off the field.

Although moving to Australia before being old enough to form any memories, Wardlaw's love of her New Zealand family and Maori heritage is an integral part of her life.

The family would go back to their South Auckland base every year to spend time with her mother's parents, cousins and relatives.

Her full name is Jesse Tawhiao-Wardlaw (pronounced TAR-FEE-OH). Tawhiao is a highly respected Maori surname and being mispronounced can cause offence within the culture, so Wardlaw is happy to roll without it. For the time being.

"Most years mum would take me back home to be in touch with my family and culture because being in Australia it's so disconnected," she said.

"Every time I went back it just felt like home.

"We do have such a strong connection in our family, and I cherish that so much. I get so excited to go home.

"Both grandparents are Maori. I love sharing stories with my nan and I'm always asking questions 'what does this mean, what about that practise?'.

"I've always been curious in my culture because I haven't been brought up with it.

The more I grow older, the more I cherish it. I love it.

"Just having that big family. It's a big support system and I know everyone back home is supporting me in this journey.

"You always think why am I doing this, what's my reason behind it? It's always because of family. That's definitely a motivating factor, wanting to make them proud."

And she's doing an incredible job of that.

Now in her fifth season, Wardlaw is already a premiership player and quickly becoming one of the competition's dominant forwards.

Her 14 goals in eight games leads the competition by three goals, but it's her aerial contests and willingness to apply defensive pressure that have caught the eye this season.

Two years ago Wardlaw sought her own gym coach and headed to West End's 'The Evolved' gym four times a week to get stronger. She didn't like being pushed around by stronger players and decided to fix it.

She now knows her teammates tendencies better. If Orla O'Dwyer has the ball, she has to "leg-it" as O'Dwyer loves to run-and-carry and kick long, whereas if it's Ally Anderson, she'll lead up at the ball with the Lions midfielder preferring to hit short targets.

It's all part of gaining experience.

Wardlaw's evolution as a person has come away from the field as well, now into her second year of a civil engineering degree at the Queensland University of Technology.

She took four years between graduating high school and starting university, saying she always intended to study once she felt mature enough to take on the extra workload.

"I don't want this (football) to be my life," she said.

"I don't want to be in sport forever. There's so much more out there, all these different industries that I haven't seen yet because I've been so closeted in this sports industry.

"I want to study something outside that field.

"I'm not just Jesse Wardlaw the athlete, I've got so much more to me that isn't just sport.

No matter how long it takes I'll be setting myself up for after footy."

Another layer to Wardlaw off the field is her sense of style.

Alongside teammate Zimmie Farquharson, they stole the show at the W Awards in April, sporting opposing pink and black suits with matching jewellery and dark sunglasses.

"Zimmie's pretty fashionable and our sense of style is pretty similar," Wardlaw said.

"We had a conversation and said 'we should both go in suits, that'd be so cool'. We just started bouncing ideas off each other.

"All the girls from around the league on the night were like 'wow, you look awesome, you're so cool, I love the glasses, that is sick'.

"I think it was just the bravery to wear the glasses.

"We wore them in the hotel and I wondered if it was too much, but the confidence came from having each other. 'If you do it, I'll do it'. We were just hyping each other up and being confident in each other that we looked good."

Whether it's contesting a mark, picking an outfit or studying for an engineering exam, Wardlaw is full steam ahead on getting the most out of herself.

While she can't wait to return to New Zealand post-season to see her grandparents, mother, sister, niece and nephew – who all now live together – she has some goals to achieve in the coming weeks with her "second family".

"I can relate to having a big family and being in a team full of girls and trying to create that relationship like they're family.

"They're my sisters in a way. How do I treat my sister? How do I treat my cousins? It's the same way I want to treat my teammates, look out for them on field, I want to have their back, I want to make them feel good.

"It's kind of like my second family really."