CATHY Svarc might be a two-time premiership player and a fan favourite at Brisbane, but a moment of anxiety back in 2018 almost didn't send her down that path.

Svarc and younger sister Ruby, who is also a premiership Lion, watched an AFLW game together in 2017 and the idea sparked in both of their minds that it could be something they could try. Both were athletic, with Cathy having played some netball growing up, before moving away from organised sport and instead focusing on running and gym work.

But a move to Brisbane with a partner at the time separated the sisters. Ruby joined a community team in Melbourne, while Svarc was encouraged to find her own club in her new city.

"I remember just being on the phone and she said, 'Just go down and play', so I just Googled 'clubs near me' or whatever, and Wilston Grange came up," Svarc told AFL.com.au.

"It was weird for me because I was like, 25, 26 maybe, and going somewhere where you actually don't know anyone, I hadn't been in that space for ages where there's just no one you know … And I was super nervous to go because I'd never played footy, didn't know anyone, didn't have any friends."

The nerves nearly got the best of her in the carpark. Svarc had pulled up at the club, with the intention of heading in for her first training session. But she froze.

"I remember sitting in the car being so nervous. You just feel sick because you don't know anyone, you just feel so stressed out. I'm like 'just go in there' and I'm so glad that I did," Svarc said.

"It was really cool, because it just opened up so many other opportunities. I wouldn't be here if I didn't do that, so it was one of those real sliding door moments."

Wilston Grange won the flag that year, and Svarc found her feet in the game alongside the likes of Kate Lutkins, Shannon Campbell, Belle Dawes, Jamie Stanton and Tahlia Randall. Being so athletic gave Svarc a leg up when she first walked into Wilston Grange, but it was the skill and game awareness that she learned from her teammates.

"It was good for me because I had no idea what I was doing, and so I just got to run through the midfield and cause chaos," Svarc said.

"It was a fun way for me to learn footy, because I was in a good team, and I could just figure it out and I had a great year. I loved playing."

During the winter series that the northern states played in the early days of AFLW over the off-season, Svarc played one game for Gold Coast that same year, before becoming a train-on player for Brisbane throughout the 2019 season.

"I was playing the winter series games and I think I was literally next to 'Lutsy' (Lutkins) and I was like 'I don't even know how to play footy' … so it was just honestly crazy," Svarc said.

"So then I became a train-on for the Lions which was awesome, still super scary. It's hard for a train-on, you come in, you're like 'Oh I've got to be there' and then see you later. You don't really get the full connection with everyone. So I would just go there and mess up the drills. I remember there's this one drill and I honestly intercepted like five times, and I was like 'Are you guys going to do anything?' and they would get so angry."

She was rising - and rising fast. Soon enough, Svarc had done enough to be drafted to the Lions with pick No.16 in the 2019 Telstra AFLW Draft. Sister Ruby followed with pick No.38 the next year.

A physiotherapist by trade, Svarc has now combined her skill off the field, with her understanding of what it's like to be on it to launch her own business, thinking about life post-footy. Following three years balancing a full-time physio schedule with training and playing, things came to a head in 2022 when there were two seasons in the space of 12 months.

Burnt out, Svarc stepped away from her full-time role to catch her breath.

"I was like, with all my work, I have all this awesome stuff that I do, I wanted to be able to bring it all together a bit," she said.

"I went back to work doing some physio clinic work, just small contracts so it was a bit easier to manage, and then in the last 18 months I've been trying to build up how I can bring my physio skills and then my athletic side of things and what I've learned in the footy space. That's my other work now, which is cool."

With a focus on strength and conditioning, how to physically structure recovery, managing niggling injuries and pushing people out of their comfort zones, The Athlete Method is now Svarc's love away from AFLW.

It has given the Lion a fresh perspective on the world and allows her to better manage the requirements of AFLW with long-term career planning post-retirement.

"The last year has been awesome. I love just having that refresh in my professional life, or my other things that I'm going toward, and I've been trying to build that for a while," Svarc said.

"I love learning, and even in the last year, playing a bit forward, just mixed it up in my footy and I've loved that … you never know how long footy is going to go for, so it’s just about enjoying how hard it is, and going 'well, that's just part of it'."