Katie Brennan’s football career has been haunted by injury over the first two AFLW seasons but the Western Bulldogs AFLW captain is ready to get back out there ahead of season 2019. The 26-year-old centre-half forward spoke with AFLPlayers.com.au about rehab, AFLW fixtures and the future of the league.

Katie, talk me through your pre-season and getting ready for the third season of AFLW… what has it entailed for you?

Personally, I have had an ankle reconstruction over the break so I am still in rehab for that at the moment but I should be fine coming into the pre-season and I should be able to do the running and most of the things involved and take to the field in Round 1.

It’s a really exciting time, we’ve had a bit of changeover in our team. There have been a few new rookies coming in and we still have a few more girls to select still so there is a great energy around our club and this time of year I think everyone is keen to get stuck into their pre-season and start to remember what it is like to be in an AFLW season which really drives you.

As an AFLW team, when will you start your pre-season?

We’re unsure at the moment because the draw hasn’t come out but we will be working back from there once we get our fixture. The pre-season starts in November but plenty of the girls have been going into the club anyway and doing their own thing. We’ve got our own little rehab crew in there, so a lot of the girls have been working together and it’s just great to be amongst the club and get started.

With negotiations for an AFLW CBA underway, what are your visions for the AFLW in five years?

It’s the golden question at the moment and we as a playing group have high hopes for it. We want the AFL to have a vision, we want there to be progress and we’ve got six new teams coming in over the next few years. It’s a really exciting time for the growth and development of the competition but I also think there needs to be expansion on the competition going forward to accommodate that many teams.

I think in five years’ time that hopefully we will be playing more games, I think as a group that’s what we want to do and why we play footy because we want to be in that elite environment for a longer time. I think VFL is getting to a standard where it is a semi-elite environment but we want to be part of the AFL for a longer time so I think working towards that, whether it is during the winter season when the boys play or finding a gap pre and post-Christmas. I quite like playing in the summer now, not the winter.

Oh really, I was going to ask when your preferred time to play such a physically draining sport was. How do you stay so physically activity when it is 30 degrees outside?

I absolutely love it, I love it more than the winter. I am a Queenslander so for me it is in my blood to be active over the summer. I feel like it’s a different sort of feel, everyone is up and about and it’s great. The pre-season is meant to be hard and it is meant to be a grind so I think having a 30-degree day makes it all the more better, for me. It is an exciting time and also the fact that there is no other football on and everyone gets involved is great.

Thanks for the chat Katie, and good luck next season. 

No worries, thank you.