AMIDST wholesale change at Carlton, captain Kerryn Peterson has been one constant over the last 12 months.

Leading a club in the throes of an internal review is never easy, let alone becoming the first to do in an AFLW program, but now on the eve of the Blues' first game of the 2023 season it's easier to reflect on the lessons learned and what is now to come.

"I reflect on it different now that we're six months in, but it was pretty challenging at the time. There were some decisions that had to be made for the benefit of the club," Peterson told womens.afl.

"I'm proud that we made a really courageous decision to go down that path and do a review and it wasn't comfortable to answer some of the questions that were asked of us as a club and of us as players, but I think where that's going to land us moving forward and into the here and now is really exciting.

"I'm certainly looking forward to the year ahead."

Despite a tough year, which saw her Blues win just two games from 10 starts and bid goodbye to coach Daniel Harford and head of women's football Brett Munro, Peterson has acknowledged how much it helped her grow as a person.

"It's certainly a time period that I'll look back on and think that there's been enormous growth in myself through that time," she said.

"It was a really challenging situation, a lot of questions, a lot of unknowns, a lot of frustrations, but again now that we've been through that and we've seen the other side… what has excited me about it is when I do choose to move on from footy, what I am going to leave behind is a positive environment and hopefully setting them up for a really successful period through the club's history."

The appointment of Mathew Buck as head coach makes it three different coaches for Peterson since joining the club as a rookie in 2018.

"The first coaching change I had was after my first season, I was still really fresh into the footy system, obviously the landscape of AFLW has changed significantly from what it was then to what it is now," Peterson said.

"'Bucky' has come in and I think the thing that I admired most about the way he tried to transition into our group was just curiosity. You know, he didn't come in and say this was the way it was going to be done or his way or the highway, it wasn't like that. He came in, he asked a lot of questions of the group, he wanted to get a really good understanding of what it's been for us."

Peterson also pointed to Buck's advocacy for his players and program within the club, ensuring his side remains a priority at the Blues.

"I couldn't be more impressed with the way he's gone about it and I'm stoked that he's our head coach."

While the changes at the top have headlined discussions around Carlton this year, some young players have quietly been working away to hit the season full chested.

Although reluctant to name individual players, Peterson's excitement about Keeley Sherar and Mia Austin has her breaking her own rules.

"Obviously Mia, she set the world on fire in the first two games of her career and then unfortunately went down with injury," Peterson said.

"Keeley's had a change in position this year that I'm just so excited to see how she goes. She works so incredibly hard and she's a bit of an unassuming, really humble kind of person but she's ready to light up the competition."

So with the difficult decisions in the rear view mirror and positives on the horizon, it's time for the new Blues to play some footy.

"The level of excitement and I guess from an individual perspective that we can almost close the chapter of what it has been at Carlton. I'm really excited about what is to come."