A MORE experienced Kate Darby is eagerly awaiting her second shot in the NAB AFL Women's competition, this time with expansion club Geelong.
Having not played any footy since juniors (aside from the odd school game), Darby was drafted by Carlton with pick No.126 ahead of the 2017 season.
Darby was put on the Blues' radar by family friend and Fremantle player Tommy Sheridan, who caught up with the club's then-list manager Graham Burgen and coach Damien Keeping and mentioned "the girl who used to beat up all the boys when she was younger".
The forward played two games for Carlton in the competition's first season before being delisted. She joined Geelong's VFLW side for the remainder of 2017, and her early form this year impressed so much she was offered a contract as part of the Cats' inaugural AFLW side.
"I knew I'd be struggling to get an AFLW spot in 2018, just through lack of footy experience and needing to get a lot more on-field awareness, which is hard to get when you're not getting games," Darby told AFL.com.au.
"Once the season finished with the Geelong VFLW side (in 2017), I felt like I had learnt so much and had a real hunger for learning more and getting better.
"So once Geelong got their licence for the 2019 AFLW season, one of my main aims was to try to get myself a spot on the list. In all honesty, I didn't think I'd get it as early as I did; I thought if I had a really good season this year I might get picked up in the draft.
"But I was so stoked with 'Hoody' (coach Paul Hood) having the belief I could get there."
She found her first AFLW season tough, especially as she was trying to re-learn the game effectively on the run.
"It was such an experience, as the inaugural season was for everyone. It was difficult in a way because it was hard to get that game awareness. If you don't get selected, you're not playing in a second side or anything (and) you miss out.
"Trying to learn those parts of the game is quite difficult. There were obviously some challenging times, because you can only do so much to try and get yourself picked for games, but I learnt a lot."
The 27-year-old splits her time between three jobs: working for Geelong in its community centre; running school programs through a sports science centre, BioLAB, which is also based at the club, and in hospitality at the RACV resort in Torquay, some 20km south of Geelong.
She's looking forward to playing locally, after travelling a considerable distance when she was at Carlton.
"I live in Ocean Grove, but I was in Torquay (an hour-and-a-half drive south-west of Melbourne) when I was at Carlton, and the travel wasn't easy. I was getting home pretty late each night.
"So, another one of the benefits down here in Geelong is I'm only 15-20 minutes away from the club. It's a lot easier to get there and make the most of the time I've got."
Geelong's VFLW team is flying, sitting first undefeated with a percentage of 187. Darby has kicked seven goals from her five games.
She is one of six players who have been signed to Geelong's AFLW side directly from its VFLW team, along with Cassie Blakeway, Renee Garing, Rebecca Goring, Jordan Ivey and Danielle Orr (sister of North Melbourne's Shaun Higgins).
"We felt like we had quite a strong pre-season and we have a good bunch. We really enjoy being around each other, which helps the footy as well," Darby said.
"We're happy with getting a few wins so far, as well as a draw against Collingwood. But we're excited about what we've got to offer."
