Hawthorn leadership group member Louise Stephenson has nothing but good things to say about her first season in the brown and gold.

After six seasons of playing for the GWS Giants, Stephenson made the bold move to Hawthorn ahead of AFLW Season Seven and has reaped the rewards.

Despite missing a large chunk of the season due to an ankle injury, the 27-year-old thrived off the field in the coaches’ box.

“It has still been a fantastic experience for me on the sidelines and in the coaches’ box and being a leader around the club,” Stephenson told the Soaring to New Heights podcast.

“I have learnt a hell of a lot on the bench. It’s been a real eye-opening experience to see what they (the coaches) see and how quickly they see things.”

Away from footy, Stephenson is a firefighter based in Sydney, meaning she flies regularly between the two states each week to work 24-hour shifts. This all changed when she injured her ankle.

“Over the course of the injury, because I was in plaster and a moon boot, I took some sick leave from work,” Stephenson said.

“Once I was able to fly again, I was on light duties at work in the watch room and taking calls on 000 and feeding it to our trucks.

“It was fantastic to be able to go to the gym and see my physios and doctors six days a week. That gave me every chance to get this rehab underway very quickly.”

From the moment she was sidelined, Stephenson wanted to get back onto the field before the season ended. After failing a fitness test in Round 9, she got the opportunity to play one last game for the season in Round 10 at Fremantle. This allowed her to continue developing into a midfielder, compared to playing in defence for the past six seasons. While she admitted the new role was initially challenging, she has enjoyed being able to continually learn new things about the position.

“In the past, I’ve been known as an uncontested player,” Stephenson said.

“To have the trust in me to be in our midfield was really great for my confidence and my motivation to prove that I can do it.

“It took a lot of work to understand the role and read the bounce off a ruck tap.

“To have that confidence in me, I wanted to pay that respect back and actually work really hard at my knowledge of the midfield but also my craft.

“It was a real focus for me to be the best I could be throughout the season.”

Stephenson hit the track running right from day one of pre-season, winning the club’s time trial and setting the standards required at AFLW level. However, she said she didn’t have to do too much leading due to the maturity shown by Hawthorn’s young group.

“I was pleasantly surprised by how well the girls adapted to that physical level of training,” Stephenson said.

“My expectations were that a lot of us experienced girls would have to showcase and role model those traits and standards that we go to at AFLW level and keep growing that. But those girls were almost already there and they were already showing that and displaying those standards.

“It’s obviously made our job a lot easier and the coaches’ jobs a lot easier knowing that those girls were just ready to crack in and had already cracked in at their previous teams. That just shows how great the talent pool is and pathways coming through.”

Stephenson pointed to a few players who demonstrated that standard right throughout the season.

“To be honest, the whole team has been exceptional. Every single player on our list has now had a game of AFLW which is incredible,” Stephenson said.

“I think Jenna Richardson as a defender has blown my mind every week. She somehow gets better and better every week. She’s in her first year of the competition and played against some big names like Cora Staunton and Erin Phillips. Some people would get nervous but she just held her own and backed her skills.

“Tamara Smith is just absolutely wrecked after every game because she’s had a million tackles. Any hit she gets, any knock she cops, she just gets back up. She’s a workhorse every game and whatever job you give her, she just gets it done.

“Jas Fleming is a 17-year-old and has blown us out of the water with what she can do already. She is so humble. No one would even say Jas knows how good she is, that’s the greatest part about it. She works as hard as everyone else, she knows that she needs to work hard. She’s grown exponentially throughout the season. I can’t wait to see what the next pre-season has in store for her without having to worry about Year 12 and exams.”

When reflecting on why she joined Hawthorn, Stephenson said the decision initially came down to being with family and experiencing AFLW in her hometown. But she soon learned that the benefits would extend beyond that.

“Our coaching is at a level that I haven’t experienced before,” Stephenson said.

“The preparation that we get as a result of that with our high-performance team and our medical team is second to none.

“And with the girls - it’s a fresh group of girls and a lot of them are 17 or 18 years old that haven’t played AFLW before.

“I’ve really enjoyed getting to know those girls and getting to know how they play footy. Seeing them grow over the season has been fantastic.”

Although it’s the AFLW off-season for the Hawks, Stephenson never really has an off-season, as she continues to combine work and training. She is also completing a business management degree in Sydney while continuing her studies in firefighting. But just when you thought that was enough, Stephenson wants to take up surfing in the off-season, hinting that some lessons may be on the horizon!