IT WAS on the streets of Melbourne suburb Pascoe Vale that Debbie Lee first fell in love with the game of Australian Rules.
She'd play against her two older brothers on the bitumen every night and quickly developed a fondness for the physicality required to match it with them.
On Saturday, the five-time Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) best and fairest winner will play her 300th game of senior football when her team – the St Albans Spurs – takes on the Eastern Devils at Kings Park Reserve.
In doing so, she'll become just the third female player to reach 300 games, and the second in Victoria.
It's a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact when she first started playing in 1991, the VWFL season lasted just 10 games.
"A few of our friends compared the years I've been playing to Dustin Fletcher and he's been playing for 21 years and is nearly up to 400," Lee told AFL.com.au this week.
"It was a good comparison to think, well, it would be another 20 years before I played 400 so I won't be doing that.
"So I think when you look at the longevity I've been in the game for, 300 games by any means is a good achievement."
Lee has been involved in football as a player, administrator and later, in a day-to-day job sense, for more than half her life.
Despite progressing in local basketball to the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) where she played for the Coburg Cougars between 1987-89, she couldn't shake her passion for football.
So, she started playing for the East Brunswick Scorpions in 1991 when she was 17.
"I just had that passion; there was just something different about the club culture and the game itself in comparison to any other team sport I'd played," she said.
Two years later, the Scorpions were looking to fold.
Lee, having caught the football bug, decided she had to find a way to keep playing.
"I thought, I'm really passionate about women's footy and wouldn't it be a shame if I only played two years and it was finished?" she said.
A friend was involved in cricket in Sunshine, and after discovering the local club would be open to having a women's football team, Lee "grabbed a bunch of friends" and started one up.
In 2000, the club became the St Albans Spurs, and she's been there ever since.
Lee believes her personality was shaped as she faced the hurdles associated with the inception of the team back in 1993 and everything that's happened since.
"It was quite challenging so the football pathway has been a bit of a journey in terms of on-field and also off-field," she said.
"Along the way, there were an incredible amount of challenges and it built resilience and my determination and the person I am today.
"Whilst it's a long time in the game, I've actually been rewarded through personal development and the fun times I've had and the people I've met.
"It's been a bit of a life experience as well, which is great."
Lee's career resume is stunning. Along with the five Helen Lambert league best and fairest medals, she's also a five-time All Australian, five-time state captain and 15-time state representative.
And, the lifetime VWFL member has been in a position to watch the women's game grow to see the annual AFL women's representative game between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, and St Kilda possess the first female assistant coach – Peta Searle.
"I've watched the journey from when no one cared about women playing footy and we were almost irrelevant to accelerate 23 years down the track and here we are running around on the MCG," Lee said.
"That's quite remarkable. It's probably the biggest thing I can look at it and think, isn't it great to see - more so than a personal playing career, it's been seeing the progression of the sport that has been fantastic."
Lee, who is in her fifth season as Melbourne's community manager – a role she held at the Western Bulldogs for four years before that – will celebrate her achievement on Saturday with family, friends and former teammates.
While her playing days are coming to an end, she's looking forward to seeing what happens next as the women's game progresses further.
This includes what Searle's appointment will do for young girls wanting careers in football, the expected increase of women reaching 300 games and beyond, and the growing depth of the quality of players.
"I think I just have a level of care of the sport," she said.
"I'm really passionate about the opportunities and where the sport's going and the best opportunities for the sport, like a lot of people are.
"I do really have a level of care around not only the athletes that play but also the direction the sport is going.
"To play 300 games … whilst it was never a real goal of mine, it sort of snuck up on me.
"I just enjoy footy, it's given a lot to me and I'm thankful for this opportunity."
