EBONY Antonio isn't sure if she's played her last AFLW game.

As the 33-year-old Fremantle star prepares to welcome a baby into the world in October, she's grappling with the reality of a comeback.

"I'm just in a bit of an unknown at the moment," Antonio told AFL.com.au. 

"You get to the start of your thirties, and you start thinking 'well this is going to be it for me, or do I have a baby, and do I come back?' 

"I'm really excited to start this journey with [wife and former teammate] Kara and have our first child, but it's a difficult one to know whether I've played my last game for Fremantle."

Debuting in round one of 2017, Antonio has pretty much been a part of the furniture at the Dockers. 

With All-Australian honours, a club best-and-fairest and 70 games so far in her career, it's hard to imagine the competition without her.  

Antonio's wife, Kara Antonio nee Donellan, retired from AFLW in 2022 after 47 games.

Despite having a partner who no longer plays footy, Antonio made the decision to interrupt her own playing career to carry the child herself.

"If I saw Kara go through pregnancy, there's just no way I'd do it," Antonio said.

"I thought I'd better go first, that way I wouldn't be scarred for life!

"When you think about that stuff, the footy's on the backburner and you don't really think about it in terms of impacting my footy. What will be will be."

The Antonios journey to become mums began two years ago, when they sought out a fertility specialist to discuss In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). Speaking to their friends who'd gone down the IVF route, they knew that the waitlist for a sperm donor could be extensive. 

 "We were quite proactive," Antonio said.

"Going two years ago to meet up with the fertility doctor and at that time we weren't ready, but we knew that it could be a significant wait, waiting for a donor. It all kind of played out when we were ready to go - we were ready to go.

"We were probably on the waiting list for the donor list for about a good 16-17 months before we got a phone call saying we were on the top of the list, and they were going to share some donors with us.

"I wouldn't really say it mentally played on our minds (the two-year wait) because around at that time I had to go get a knee [reconstruction] and go fix my body up. So, it was kind of a blessing in disguise, yeah okay, we hadn't received donors as of yet, but I need to go and get my knee fixed."

After two seasons affected by an ongoing knee issue, Antonio cut her season short in 2023 to undergo a PCL reconstruction. 

Not only did she want to fix her knee so she could play pain-free, Antonio also wanted to make sure her body was strong enough to carry a baby in the near future. 

"I was in pain in most games; I had to call it at some stage towards the back end of the year and say I wasn't playing anymore," she said. 

"It just wasn't worth it; I wasn't getting what I wanted out of myself. 

"That decision also came with the fact that Kara and I knew that we wanted to fall pregnant, so I had to make the call to end my season that year and go get a knee reconstruction to make my body as healthy as possible to carry a baby."

The reconstruction couldn't have been more of a success. Playing in all 11 home-and-away games and two finals of 2024, she revelled in her return to form. 

But it was somewhat of a double-edged sword. Whilst thrilled to be back playing the game she loved, she was facing complicated emotions that she wasn't quite ready to share with anyone but Kara.

"There were parts of me, in the back of my mind, that was like ‘I can't afford to get injured', because I know what our plans were post [season]," Antonio said. 

"It was a fine balance between last year, of coming back and really reaping the rewards of going through a [knee reconstruction], and playing every game, to I also don't want to get injured because we're planning to have a baby.

"And obviously, in our semi-final against Adelaide, I was pretty upset, because it kind of hit me afterwards, well this could be my last game… and I can't really celebrate if this was my last game, because no one knew what we were going to do." 

While potential retirement celebrations have been put on hold, the Antonios have revelled in their baby joy with their Dockers teammates.

The side has become somewhat of a family club, with teammate Kiara Bowers returning to ripping form after giving birth to son Luca in August 2024. 

"Let's just say she's raising the bar high for myself if I was to return," Antonio said. 

"She's a different animal in her own right, so she's returned back as fit as ever, and I've asked her a few questions along the way in her journey. But no doubt if I do decide to come back and I have those conversations with the club; she would be my biggest supporter and be someone I'd be able to lean on." 

Currently, Antonio is one of five players across the AFLW who are sitting out the season due to pregnancy.

With contingencies in place for replacement players and guaranteed contracts for players to return to football post-pregnancy, the opportunity to take a leave of absence to start a family has never been greater. 

Since announcing her pregnancy, Antonio herself has found other athletes seeking her out for advice.

"I've had a few girls since the announcement come and speak to me [about our story], when we had made mention that we were on the waiting list for 16-17 months… I know it was a bit of a surprise for them," Antonio said. 

"I definitely highly recommend, in terms of female athletes, looking at getting their eggs frozen…or seeing where their body is at currently, because it might be too late at the back end of their careers. 

"If female athletes can be proactive in that space and have the support and the education around them, I think it's really important." 

The juggle of family life and career is one known all too well by women, let alone by women who are professional athletes. When your career centres around your body being at peak human performance, the physical changes that come with pregnancy can lead to an unexpected shift in identity.

While she's had her struggles, Antonio also has a newfound appreciation for the incredible feat her body is going through. 

"That's probably been the biggest challenge for me, obviously being an athlete, my whole life and my life's been surrounded by the fitness component and keeping myself fit and healthy," Antonio said. 

"That's what I struggled with at the start, especially when I saw the girls training a lot, I just felt like I was, not missing out, but I had the anxiety of 'I'm not doing much' and 'I feel like I'm falling behind.'

"But then I had to remind myself that I was creating a human inside me and my body's working overtime.

"This has been a huge lifestyle change for me, to adapt to those feelings and emotions was really hard. I've come to terms with myself now, and I'm mentally a lot stronger than probably when I had shared that news.

"I'm starting to really enjoy the way that my body is starting to look and I'm feeling a lot better, and I'm able to do a run here and there and get back more into a consistent training style now." 

Whether her new-look training regime leads to a return to AFLW footy or not, Antonio is still not ready to make that call, as she and Kara enjoy the last few months before their son's due date.

But if she does, she knows she'll have an additional fan on the sidelines next season, cheering her on. 

"I feel like I've had a very awesome career to date, and I wouldn't be disappointed if I had played my last game for Fremantle," Antonio said. 

"But if I was to come back, that would be a bonus with our son."