THE initial NAB AFL Women's season was a learning curve for everyone involved, and Collingwood forward Jasmine Garner is already making the most of what she's learned.
Garner, who kicked five goals for Victoria in last weekend's NAB AFLW State of Origin clash against an Allies team at Etihad Stadium, has benefited enormously from the knowledge gained in the short season.
Victoria defeated the Allies easily, with Garner capitalising on the excellent midfield work of Daisy Pearce, Karen Paxman, Emma Kearney and Kara Donnellan.
Match report: Daisy stands tall as Big V dominates
The 23-year-old's fitness has improved markedly playing for the St Kilda Sharks in the VFL Women's competition (which followed the AFLW season), allowing her to add other elements to her game.
"I've been trying to work a lot harder up the ground. I found myself last year struggling a bit to work up and then push back," Garner said.
"This year, with the conditioning and the extra work, I've found myself able to push up and back and able to score goals as well."
Garner hasn't done anything revolutionary in her fitness work, putting her increased endurance down to simply running more and eating better.
"Until I got drafted I had never used a gym, so just learning all that, [as well as] getting running programs and doing them in the off-season helped," she said.
"I'm just absolutely loving it."
A tall forward with long reach, Garner feels her greatest improvement this year has come from finding another avenue to goal besides taking contested marks.
"My second and third efforts, ground balls, bending down [and] picking the ball up … to be able to pick the ball up and score goals like that is great."
Victoria coach and Melbourne football operations manager Debbie Lee said Garner's good VFLW form (10 goals in her past two games) translated to the big stage last Saturday night.
"She's really improved her game, got her fitness up to a great level. We forget how young she is," Lee said.
"She understood her role and played it. She enjoyed her footy."
