ALYCE Parker hit the NAB AFLW competition with a bang in 2019, immediately announcing herself as a young gun to watch.

She's played nearly every possible game for Greater Western Sydney (missing four with injuries), but at the age of 24, is just now hitting the 50-game milestone.

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A highest of high achievers, Parker was named All-Australian in just her second year of AFLW, and has won the Giants' best and fairest in four of her six seasons.

Seven years into her career, with plenty more footy to come, she's now learned how to give herself a break.

"Zarlie Goldsworthy called me a veteran the other day, which I was quite offended by, because I'm 24. But yes, seventh pre-season, it's like I've now hit high school," Parker told AFL.com.au.

"As you mature, you change your perspective a bit, and I think things mean a little bit more than they used to when you're growing up, but I've certainly been trying to take some pressure off myself.

"I think it's quite normal when you're young and you're feeling the pressure and expectation, you can really train and play like that, but like you play your best footy when you enjoy it and relax. 

"Cam (Bernasconi, senior coach) has been really helping me with that. But I'm also enjoying it because I'm playing with really good people around me and really good teammates. 

"Obviously, if you're measuring your success in terms of wins and losses, it has been challenging. So to lean on the people around me and work on good and realistic measures for me, personally and collectively, that certainly has helped.

"I'm also being really clear about the type of player I want to be. We all want to be the best player in every aspect that we can, but at the end of the day, it's how can you impact the game the most? If I'm not really clear on that, I'm probably trying to do too much."

Parker is a farm girl at heart, and loves going back to her family's property – which runs sheep as well as crops like canola – at Cookardinia, outside of Holbrook in southern New South Wales.

Her 2023 season ended three weeks early with a syndesmosis injury, and the farm was front of mind for not just her, but the wider GWS team.

"[The Giants are] the most beautiful family, the way we care about each other. The first team meeting post that (injury), I was in a moonboot but hadn't had surgery yet," Parker said.

"I was obviously gutted, but was ready to attack the next week and find a different role to help the team. The physios walked into the meeting, and Gemma (Vale) went to update the group, and she started tearing up, saying, 'we've got to get 'Parks' back to the farm'.

"Then I started tearing up. It was just the most beautiful thing, and it was a wonderful moment where the club just supports my other life so much. It was like, let's do this rehab as best you can, because we need you back as a footballer, but you also need to get back to the farm."

Parker had a big decision to make at the end of last season – stick with the club which drafted her in 2018, or move to Victoria, with a host of clubs including Geelong, Essendon, Richmond and Carlton eager to secure the talented, bullocking midfielder.

She eventually signed a two-year deal, with the option to extend to the end of 2027, and it was moments like Vale's care that helped seal the deal.

"That whole (contract) experience, it teaches you things. It teaches what means the most to you, and there's no right or wrong way to go about it. You could be going for the next premiership, or the most successful club, or talent you want around you," Parker said.

"But for [me], being at a club that makes you the best person that you can be. Yes, we haven't had the success that we all have dreamed of. It can be quite hard at times when you have those conversations with the leaders, and not just players, but staff around the club, and you go, 'how have you done it for such a long period of time?' 

"I'll never forget the advice I get. They go, 'the moment you do get success, whether it's something small or big, it means so much more than it could in any other club or environment'. 

"That's the thing that motivates me and drives me, because gosh, the moment things do start to turn here, I can't imagine the feeling that we'll get, because we've worked so hard for such a long period of time in conditions and situations that things don't come easy. 

"You weigh up your future as a footballer, but at the end of the day, we're not full-time yet, so you do have to consider off-field aspirations. For me, I'm studying agricultural business, and I see that as my pathway. It was certainly something I weighed up, with opportunities in Sydney and university.

"I just had to find the best place for me as a person, before I started looking in terms of where's the best place for me as a footballer."

While the upcoming season will limit the number of trips home, Donna and Fraser Parker will always open up their farm to a wide array of teammates.

"You're not going to be the best footballer if you're not the happiest person. So, right from the get-go, the club's always been fantastic in understanding me and my life as a person," Parker said.

"I have loved those little breaks in the pre-season, on a weekend off, and if I've got nothing on, I'll jump in the car and drive home, but I'll actually take a car full of teammates down as well, and that's honestly the most enjoyable thing. 

"I love sharing my home with people, and really special people, being my teammates. It can be rare for people to not just see me as a footballer. But to bring them back home to the family and the farm, they see both my lives. We have the most, oh gosh, enjoyable weekends doing farm things that they just love.

"But for me, it's actually the fact they're seeing me in my element that's special."