GEORGIA Walker always dreamed of playing footy at the highest level, but now she has a new dream: to lead from the coaches' box and be the coach she never had growing up.
Now Greater Western Sydney's AFLW backline coach and Academy head coach, Walker started at Auskick and lived her life with a footy in hand.
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Despite being one of the brightest prospects in Victoria ahead of the first AFLW season, including an invitation to the first talent combine, she wasn't drafted in that inaugural establishment phase. Walker instead made it onto Collingwood's list as an injury replacement player and ran out for two games.
"Back then, injury replacements couldn't be signed on, so I wasn't signed on in the end, and then I missed out on the draft again, which is pretty tough," Walker told womens.afl.
Remaining optimistic, Walker went to the Southern Saints, St Kilda's historic first women's affiliation, and captained the side under Peta Searle as a 19-year-old. A wayward shoulder to the eye in pre-season resulted in a concussion and two months on the sidelines, but she made it back to lead the side for round one.
But halfway through the season Walker copped another head knock – one she does not remember – while playing out at Casey Fields that changed the trajectory of her footy career.
"This was at the time of Koby Stevens, Dylan Roberton, so I was in very good care," Walker explained, noting AFL-listed St Kilda players who had been battling repeated concussions from on-field incidents.
"I was used to concussions, that would have been number eight or nine in six or seven years, and a lot of them were pretty serious… so it wasn't forced upon me, but it was very highly recommended that I stopped playing."
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The symptoms of concussion, combined with the loss of the thing she loved most, resulted in some bleak months for Walker.
"I had anxiety and depression brought on from the concussions, and I actually lost some of my sense of smell," Walker added, noting that her smell has started to gradually return.
"Then it was the mental downfall of like, I worked in footy, I wanted my career to be footy, my mates were footy, but the one thing that I loved was the one thing that I couldn't do, so I was pretty depressed."
Deciding to get some separation from it all, Walker went on a six-week backpacking trip of Nepal alone and was able to get away from the feelings of envy. Once back in Melbourne with a little more perspective, Searle called to offer a role on her coaching panel.
"She was like 'We'd love you to do some coaching', and I needed the money, so I started working with the backline, and Nathan Burke was my mentor at the time, which was awesome. And I loved it, I loved coaching," Walker said.
With coaching, however, came a shift in her relationships.
"My biggest challenge was learning the line between being a friend and being a coach… I had gone from being a captain and playing to then coaching some of my best mates," she said.
Still working with a neuro-physiotherapist on rehabilitation, with a faint hope of returning to the footy field, Walker had realised that she could still be part of the team even if it was in a different capacity.
"Two years later I got cleared to play, so I played a couple of games in a local reserves competition, and it was cool to just play again," she said.
Feeling the "strongest and healthiest" she'd been since that last concussion, and now based in Sydney, Walker allowed herself to hope again for a lifeline on either Greater Western Sydney or Sydney's AFLW list.
"It just didn't work out, the opportunity didn't come, but that's what happens," Walker said.
"But if I can be 23 and start my coaching career, that's awesome, that's OK."
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Already working with the northern academies – starting out with the girls programs before they were even affiliated with clubs – Walker had found her feet in NSW and became determined to help develop talent in a non-footy state.
"The push and development of female football in particular, that was something I'm really passionate about, so it was a great opportunity. Now in coaching, I want to be the coach that I'd never had growing up, a young woman who plays footy, or played footy," she said.
"But I was 21 and coaching so I still felt like I had to prove to even my other coaches that I actually knew footy… but you're there for a reason, and if you f*** up, you f*** up, all coaches do."
Through her work with the academies, Walker got to know Cam Bernasconi, so when he was appointed head coach at GWS and needed someone to guide his defence, Walker became the clear choice.
"We're best mates," Walker said of the Giants' coaching panel.
"I've never worked in a place, let alone a footy club, where you're working with your four best mates, which is special. I think what we've been able to create then bleeds into the players, they see us getting along and realise something good is happening here."
That's not to say she wasn't intimidated when first appointed. Now still just 24 years old, Walker felt that imposter syndrome when coming into direct experienced players like Tanya Hetherington, Annalyse Lister and even Katherine Smith who has been coaching since she was a teen.
"My challenge was making sure, not that I have to know it all, but I have to be comfortable in my knowledge to be able to then either be like, 'actually it has to be this way' or 'no, you're right' or 'let's try this'," Walker said.
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Taking the top job at the Academy this year, her development in the coaches' box has been swift.
"After head coaching I now know what Cam needs from me, I know what I would want from my own line coaches. I think for me, development-wise, the last six months have been massive. I can give more to the team," she said.
And while she continues to develop and grow, Walker has settled on her new life goal: to become a senior head coach one day.
"[I] definitely want to be a head coach, women's or men's. Absolutely."
