COLLINGWOOD star Brit Bonnici didn't realise what she had to share until her ability to help her team was stunted by a knee injury.

As a player, she has always led with her actions: working hard, winning the tough contests, and supporting her teammates however she could.

However, once that was taken away Bonnici had to reassess her role in the side, and the journey she has been on over the last year has only increased her appreciation for the game.

"I think it's almost expected that if a player, especially a player who is one of the key players of a team, if they do their knee, it's almost just expected that they go into coaching," Bonnici told womens.afl.

"People, the first thing they'll ask you is 'so what was your off-field role like this year?' So when I did my knee, the first thing, well not the first thing, that's a lie - the first thing I thought was 'f***' - but then as things calmed down a bit, it was like 'so what does it look like for me?'"

So Bonnici gave coaching a crack, shadowing different coaches, sitting in the coaches box, but it still didn't feel right.

"I struggled, I didn't really know the knowledge that I actually had," Bonnici explained.

"It wasn't really until the back half of the season that I started to come out of my shell a bit, balancing rehab and trying to get around the group and keep the morale of the team up while still looking after myself."

Realising that the biggest impact she could have was going to be on the younger players, she became a mentor of sorts and started to enjoy this new role. A role which then extended to a development coaching position at her junior club, the Werribee Centrals.

"I felt maybe I had a bit more to give there. When I was around the AFLW team, I really admire so many players on our team. Like, honestly, I looked at (former teammate) Jaimee Lambert and wonder 'what can I give you?'" Bonnici said.

Instead, it was a chance to get back involved in local footy, the place where she got her start.

"I've been so disengaged from local footy when the reality is the footy club I grew up out of is the whole reason I'm a footballer," Bonnici said.

Enjoying the chance to get back to the basics, she is running skills sessions with all youth girls age groups at the club and helping to develop the girls' programs in the community.

"I'm just enjoying it. I've started to understand within myself that I do have the knowledge, and I can share that. And that goes to my younger Pies teammates too. It's weird to think that I could be a leader of the club and not really understand the knowledge I could pass on," she said.

Bonnici is now more comfortable with what coaching means for her, and that being a coach can come in many different forms.

"Truthfully, it's that younger generation that I do enjoy coaching. I always thought that you had to be very analytical to be a coach, a head coach, and I'm probably a little more sporadic. It's about learning strengths, and some girls are not going to want to sit down and speak stats and speak gameplay."

With those lessons during her rehab journey, Bonnici was excited to put up her hand to help coach Collingwood's Next Generation Academy game back in April, alongside teammates Jordyn Allen, Joanna Lin, and Sarah Sansonetti.

And now, as she stares down the barrel of her return to play, Bonnici feels she is a more rounded footballer thanks to her coaching experience.

"It makes you look at things differently," Bonnici said.

"I've known footy for so long, but there's so many different layers and aspects that I've been able to learn throughout my different pathways, and now I've been able to start breaking it down it's just given me a new lease on life in footy.

"Also, it's reminded me just how cool the game is."