KIRSTY Lamb has never cried more than when she had to tell her teammates she was leaving the Western Bulldogs.

From a fan's perspective, Lamb was the Western Bulldogs. Captain Ellie Blackburn is the matchwinner, but it was 'Lamby' charging head first into a contest, dragging herself off the deck, battered and bruised, time and time again, win or loss.

One of her most memorable games in Dogs colours was played at a drenched and squelchy Box Hill City Oval against Hawthorn in season seven – while most players were struggling to see, let alone play, Lamb thrived, finishing with 25 disposals, seven clearances and a goal.

The former Victorian cricketer was drafted with pick No.138 in the first Telstra AFLW Draft of 2016, eight selections from the end.

For the past six seasons, Lamb was in the leadership group, vice-captaining the side in 2023, and finishing equal first in the club's best and fairest and making the All-Australian side in season six of 2022.

But the time had come to move on.

"It was definitely a very emotional rollercoaster. With all my sport, whether it be footy or cricket, I've never changed a club or a team. I sat on it for a number of weeks. I certainly didn't make the decision overnight and just sort of go, 'I'm doing it'," Lamb told AFL.com.au.

"I weighed up a lot of pros and cons, and obviously spoke to my immediate family, because I value their thoughts and their opinions on the decision. I came over to Port and had a look and met with 'Loz' (Lauren Arnell, coach) and a few other people, just to get a feel for the club. I wanted that to be a part of my decision making, to meet some people and get an understanding of the direction the club is going in.

"I probably never cried so much than what I did when I made my notifications to the list manager, Chris Grant and Ameet (Bains, CEO), and then obviously called pretty much every player and spoke to them within a six-to-eight hour period. And with every player I spoke to, I cried.

"I'll always be forever grateful for my time at the Bulldogs. I'd like to think, you know, one day when my time is done, I'll be welcomed back into the club at some stage. My mentality was, if I was to leave, I wanted to do it the right way and speak to everyone personally to let them know my reasons why."

Adelaide isn't a foreign city for Lamb, with much of her mother's side of the family living there, and uncle Paul Rizonico having played 102 games for the Port Adelaide Magpies in the SANFL between 1989 and 1994.

Rizonico still holds a matchday role as an interchange steward with both the men's and women's teams at the club, "the bald-headed guy you see standing on the ground calling players on and off".

"I always grew up barracking for Port, and the only time I would really ever get to see my uncle was when he would travel with the boys to play Melbourne, or if I got on a plane and came over for a game in Adelaide," Lamb said.

"For the first time ever this season, hopefully we get the opportunity to be there on gameday together.

"There were probably a couple of reasons for the move. Obviously, family connection has been one of the big drivers and another one was where I was at with my footy in general, and I guess my life as well.

"I had this feeling of wanting to experience living in a different state, and I've had this my whole life. I feel pretty privileged that footy is an avenue that we can use, because not everyone can just pick up their life and go and work elsewhere.

"I was pretty set in my ways in Melbourne, doing the same thing. Port had been knocking on my door for a couple of years, given 'Loz' knew of my connection to the club, and it felt like the timing was right. Albeit it's got its challenges, but a change of scenery, different people, different gameplan, different city, is the challenge I need in my life."

Both the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide may be at the tail end of the ladder, but they're arguably in different positions.

The Dogs crashed to last place in 2023, winning one game for the season, and have completely turned over the coaching and administration staff over the off-season. They're starting from scratch, with a long road ahead.

The Power are now coming into their third season in the AFLW, and while very young and inexperienced, have most of their building blocks in place as they strive to improve on their 2.5-win season with a percentage of 75.1 (already up on 1.5 wins and 70.6 per cent in 2022).

If you stop to have a chat with Lamb mid-season, it's common to notice a fresh bruise, a bit of a limp or heavy strapping tape on a various joint, such is her crash-and-bash style of play.

Unsurprisingly, she's had a little hiccup to start pre-season, sidelined for around a month with a "knee niggle", although she's now back in full training, and set to provide a big body around the contest alongside Abbey Dowrick, Maria Moloney and potentially draftees Shineah Goody, Piper Window and Molly Brooksby.

"A lot of the conversations I've had with 'Loz' and Dan Merrett (assistant coach) have been around bringing my experience and knowledge of the game and passing that on to teammates," Lamb said.

"It's a role that I really enjoy. I've played footy for a long time and watch a lot of football. It's about challenging them to think about the game in more aspects than just 'see ball, get ball'. There are other things like running patterns, what happens when a ball leaves a stoppage, identifying the next dangerous space or player.

"If I'm trying to think of one word to describe [Port Adelaide footy], I'd probably go with 'exciting'. I think the brand of football we want to play is going to be exciting for our fans, our families and hopefully the wider footy community as well.

"We're certainly not going to be a team that wants to throw a heap of numbers behind the ball and just play defence. We want to score big, and so that's the way that we're going to attack this season. I'm excited by that, and I'm excited to see the girls take the game on."

While the generational shift in AFLW players means there is now only a handful at each club with a fully fledged career outside of football, Lamb has long juggled multiple occupations.

She has a keen eye for logistics and organisation, particularly in sporting environments, holding roles over her AFLW career including membership and events coordinator at the Australian Cricketers' Association, team services coordinator for the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, and commercial coordinator for the AFLPA.

Lamb's also plugging her way through studying for her MBA, one unit at a time, recounting a conversation she had with famously driven trainer and new clubmate Travis Boak, where she told him she's never known anything different than combining AFLW, work and study.

"I've just started recently at a company called Kojo, who work in sports production and events, and they've been awesome. My main role here is ops and logistics coordinator and Cricket Australia is one of our biggest clients," she said.

"My job is to essentially help with (production) crewing for all CA games, all the travel, all the logistics for it, so flight, accommodation, catering, all that sort of stuff. You might have a men's game and a women's game playing at the same time in two different states, and obviously having to coordinate all the logistics for those.

"Ultimately, the logistics side of sport is something that I've got a real passion for, which is why I'm also I'm doing my MBA, because it links quite well to that. And doing both of those is about setting myself up for life after football."