When we were kids, not many of us had any idea of what we wanted to be when we grew up.

But the story was different for star Hawthorn defender Louise Stephenson, who knew she wanted to be a firefighter after seeing her Dad do it as a volunteer for around 20 years.

“I saw how much enjoyment he got out of that community service that he was doing,” she recalled.

“Living in Sydney and playing football as well, I was seeking some sort of purpose outside of football given we were part-time and still are.

“I had a couple of mates who were part of Fire & Rescue NSW and they just spoke so highly of the job and how rewarding the career is, it just suited my personality.

“Hearing about what they did day-to-day, it’s physical work, you have to learn a range of different things.

“The crux of the story for me was just being able to help other people and working with the community.”

To this day, Stephenson still balances both football and firefighting with one catch - she does so in different states.

During the first half of the week, she is based in NSW in her role with Fire & Rescue NSW while the second half of the week sees her fly to Melbourne to train and play with the Hawks.

It’s a delicate balance, especially given her firefighting shifts are 24 hours long, but Stephenson makes it work.

“Say I have a shift on Monday and a Wednesday of a week, that’ll mean that I have to fly up on Sunday night and stay in Sydney at the station overnight,” she said. 

“We have beds upstairs that you can stay in if you’re travelling up or down. You still hear the bells go off but they’re a little bit quieter.

“Then I work on Monday, we start at 6am for 24 hours, so I’d finish Tuesday at 6am.

“That middle day, I would do a running and gym session.

“On Wednesday, I’m back on shift at 6am and finish on Thursday at 6am.

“Then on Thursday morning, I get relieved and I get the flight home to Melbourne, usually at 9am.

“I’m back home by 10.30am, Dad picks me up and I go to training that night.

“There is downtime in there but it is a bit chaotic I guess.”

After hailing her firefighter training as one of the most challenging things she’s ever done, the challenges kept coming for Stephenson.

One rescue particularly sticks out in her mind, as a paraglider went into a cliff.

“He had a dislocated ankle and his back was pretty awful as well,” she said.

“We were there for a couple of hours and we had to wait for helicopters to come in with their doctors.

“I’m not rescue-trained, we were just out helping a rescue station day because they were off doing something else.

“I was there by chance and I was just sitting on the cliff with him to make sure his pain wasn’t too bad.

“I had to give him a green whistle because the paramedics weren’t able to go down the cliff.”

Stories like that highlight how important it is to recognise the emergency services workers in our community, just like Stephenson.

The defender said it was a great round to be a part of.

“It’s so much appreciated that there are clubs like Hawthorn that put in that time, effort and support for emergency services workers,” Stephenson expressed.

“There are thousands and thousands of people in Australia and in Victoria that are volunteers and do this work for the love of the community with no financial benefit whatsoever.

“I think that in itself is really special to me especially given my Dad did firefighting for so long.

“I think games like this show that there is a lot of respect for what people do and what they go through to help others that they don’t even know.”

It was at this point of the interview that the bells at Stephenson’s station went off, highlighting how quickly things can turn if you’re an emergency services worker.

Thankfully, the matter was attended to by other members of the station, meaning Stephenson was able to safely continue the interview.

In terms of her own pre-season, it’s been a productive yet challenging one in Sydney.

“I have been kicking the ball out to the grass, then running after it and kicking it again for far too long,” Stephenson said.

“I just signed up to a local gym down here and I can obviously do gym at work which is awesome so that’s a big positive.

“With the running, there’s not too much AFL grounds up here so I just try to go to Centennial Park so I can go and have a kick.

“If I can rope along one or two of the guys from work, I do.

“I try to make sure that I can have a kicking partner at least but otherwise, I’ve just tried to handball along goalposts and kick it to myself and try to emulate the sessions that the club has given us.

“They’ve given me so much guidance and so many alternatives if I haven’t been able to access some equipment.”

Now with the pre-season behind her and the balance between Melbourne and Sydney about to begin again, Stephenson is excited to simply get back to playing footy.

“I just played a game in the VFL a couple of weeks ago just to get a game in and I almost forgot how much fun footy is, even though we lost,” she said.

“In the pre-pre-season, you’re just running and in the gym and you just feel like a general athlete sometimes so to be back out and playing and having those dates locked in is super exciting.

“Also with the new people that we’ve got on board as well, I’m really excited to see how they go.

“Hopefully we’ll band together for the season and get more than three wins.”