Essendon's Bess Keaney thought her AFLW dream had passed her by.
It wasn't until she was 28 that she got picked up by Gold Coast in 2021 as a mature-age player after five unsuccessful drafts, half a decade into the AFLW competition.
Now, she's one of the Bombers most reliable defenders.
"Each year I was in the draft, and it kind of didn't happen. I thought it was less and less likely," Keaney told ABC Sport on the eve of AFLW finals.
"So to be given the opportunity to go up to Gold Coast, we were going to do anything to make it happen … And I'd even broken my leg in 2019. So when that happened, I was like, 'Oh, this could be it. Like, I probably can't come back from this'."
Keaney did come back from the injury and flourished at the Suns, becoming vice-captain in 2022 and taking out the coaches' award in 2023.
Elizabeth Keaney was overlooked in five drafts, before being taken by the Gold Coast Suns. (Getty Images: AFL Photos/Daniel Carson)
She then joined Essendon — the club she grew up supporting — for the 2024 season and became an integral cog across half-back and the wing and helped the club make finals in just their third season.
Expansion helped to unearth overlooked talent
Keaney's success at Essendon makes a compelling case against the argument that AFLW expanded too soon.
In 2020, before the last expansion, North Melbourne captain and premiership player Emma Kearney argued against more teams entering the competition for at least five years as the talent wasn't there to support it.
Loading..."We've seen a lot of games that are blowouts. Particularly in my conference, the last sort of two, three games we've been able to beat teams quite easily, as opposed to last year we had a lot of hard games," Kearney told The Age's Real Footy podcast.
"It's the reality of the competition that the talent's not there."
After the league's maiden season in 2017, a key factor in the AFL Commission's decision to delay its next expansion by 12 months was wanting to grow the talent pool first — as well as easing concerns about its elite players being spread too sparsely across the league.
But players such as Keaney and clubs like Essendon have been the beneficiaries of new lists requiring more players across the league.
Her teammate Georgia Nanscawen is another.
Nanscawen is a favourite for the club's best and fairest this year and came through the Bombers' VFLW program after being delisted by North Melbourne at the end of 2019.
Then there's North Melbourne's Ash Riddell, a contender for the league's W award this year, who was overlooked in two drafts before the Kangaroos joined the competition as an expansion side in 2018 and picked her up as a free agent.
"I think there's a certain amount of talent that comes through the under 18 pathway each year, and there's obviously a limit to that," Keaney said.
"Definitely I think in the periods of expansion we've seen until now, there's been players come through more mature ages, or maybe just took a little but longer to apply their trade in say the VFL and just learn the game [and had an impact]".
When Essendon, Hawthorn, Sydney and Port Adelaide came into the competition in 2022, 120 new spots became available — and existing players swapping colours to fill these left holes in other sides.
Keaney said while players need someone to believe they are good enough to draft, it then comes down to how they apply themselves within the system.
"The big thing is just because you get in the door, you've still got to make the most of that," Keaney said.
Becoming a Bomber a 'pinch-me' moment for lifelong fan
While being an AFL player is still a "pinch-me" moment in and of itself, there's an added element for Keaney being an Essendon player.
She was nine years old when the men's side won the 2000 premiership, a day she says is a "core memory" — although jokes a lot of her now teammates weren't even alive yet to see it.
Elizabeth Keaney grew up cheering for Essendon. (Getty Images: AFL Photos/Michael Willson)
"But more importantly, seeing people come down to games in Bombers gear, looking to us and we are the Bombers," Keaney said.
"I think if I put myself in my nine-year-old shoes, to think that I could look at a woman who was wearing an Essendon jumper and she was an elite AFL player, would have been amazing.
"And to think that I'm now one of those people is, yeah, that is pinch-me for sure."
The now 32-year-old played her 50th game against Carlton, a game in which its victory cemented Essendon in the top eight for their second consecutive finals series in their third season in the competition.
They now have the tough task of facing Fremantle in Perth, a side they bowed to in round one by 43 points.
And for the finals drought narrative that plagues the men's side? Keaney said it doesn't bother them in the women's program.
"I think in the AFLW team, we're really forging our own path," she said.
"So, probably doesn't help to play too much into those narratives, although obviously winning a final — it doesn't matter what club you're at — it's a massive achievement for the club."