SETTING The Scene is a pre-season series ahead of the 2024 NAB AFLW season, which starts on August 30. Picking up on storylines from last year's season, which ended in a second premiership for Brisbane, the series will also take a more holistic look at what is involved in a pre-season.

Jenna Bruton was best-on-ground in North Melbourne's nailbiting preliminary final victory over Adelaide. Less than a quarter into the Grand Final, she ruptured her Achilles tendon.

How do you come back from a serious injury, as well as a Grand Final loss? 

JENNA Bruton didn't know what an Achilles tendon was prior to rupturing it in North Melbourne's Grand Final loss last year.

All she knew was she had tried to smother a football and landed with a thud on the Ikon Park deck. She sat out the remainder of the game on the bench, watching helplessly as Brisbane powered away to a 17-point premiership win.

"I vividly remember what happened, I've seen a lot of videos, obviously. I just jumped for the ball, and I thought someone stood on the back of my foot. I tried to run again, because when I jumped, I went to take off, and I was trying to run, but I couldn't move my foot," Bruton said.

"I'd never heard of an Achilles before, so I asked the doctor if she could jab it when we went inside (the rooms), but there was no chance of that. Just very disappointing, it would have been all right if we won, but it made it a bit tougher.

"I had my ups and downs. It was pretty hard to watch from the sidelines, I couldn't watch much and I was in a fair bit of pain afterwards. I was just hoping we'd get the win, but it was pretty tough."

A moonboot became Bruton's go-to accessory over the summer, accompanying her everywhere she went – footy trip, a holiday to New Zealand with partner Jas Garner, back home to the family farm, and even underneath her bridesmaid's dress at teammate Ash Riddell's wedding.

"I had surgery a couple of weeks after [the Grand Final]. The coaches let me go to the footy trip (on the Gold Coast), which was good, they said it was better to get away. I went to the footy trip, the girls pushed me around in a wheelchair and I got in lines quicker and straight to the front, so it worked out well," she said with a laugh.

"(After) surgery, I was in a cast for about 10 days, just before Christmas, and then got into the moonboot and was on crutches for three weeks. Then slowly back to weight-bearing and a lot of calf raises and rehab.

"I was coming into the club, and Bill, our physio, was here helping me, he really helped get me through the hard stage. I'm tracking pretty well now and want to push for round one.

"Dad and his brother have a potato farm (near Trentham, about 100km north-west of Melbourne), with cattle and sheep. During the off-season we went up and Jasmine dug some spuds. I had the moonboot on just in case."

Bruton and Garner's relationship pre-dates the AFLW, the pair coming up on their 11-year anniversary, but the shared experience of being elite athletes – let alone playing for the same team – is invaluable.

"It's too long," Bruton said with a grin.

"She's always there, so you can always turn to her if you need help, and she's a good person – and obviously a pretty good player."

There's been a curious Achilles curse at Arden Street over the past nine months, with Bruton joining men's ruck Callum Coleman-Jones, youngster Josh Goater, head of men's football talent Brady Rawlings and head of men's footy Todd Viney in all having suffered the comparatively rare injury.

The diminutive Bruton – who stands at 158cm – helped out the much taller Viney (183cm) with a key piece of rehabilitation equipment.

"As Todd said, it's something in the water. I actually had to give Todd my scooter, because he'd broken the other one, his (hand)bars had snapped, so he got the hand-me-downs of my scooter," she said.

"Definitely something going on, but at least we know how to rehab them now."

The nearly nine-month gap between the Grand Final and round one of the following season is always a long period of time, but it burns a bit more fiercely after a premiership loss.

"I think we've learnt a lot from last year and always pushing to be better," Bruton said.

"The girls, their training standards are much better, so I'm a little worried I'm a little bit behind, but hopefully we get back there this year."