BALANCING her life with activities and a social life outside of football is key to new St Kilda captain Serene Watson's mental fitness.
The 24-year-old also works as a mental fitness facilitator at the Danny Frawley Centre, which involves delivering sessions with community and school groups.
"I started working with Chelsea Frawley when I first got to the club, and she is just a phenomenal woman. Over the years, I've just learned so much about Danny Frawley, the journey and even the Frawley family and how they really showcase mental health," Watson told AFL.com.au.
"[I really enjoy] being able to be an advocate for that, especially for young kids as well – we go to a lot of community clubs and go there and present mental health programs, which is really exciting. Just to be an advocate for them and make mental health more normalised is something that I really aspire to [do].
"A massive part of my leadership has been connection, and I just love people. I found when I first moved to the club, I wanted to do something outside of football, because the advice I always got was there's so much more to life than football, and I really wanted to make sure I had that balance.
"When I first got drafted, I probably didn’t have the balance of work-life as much, and then moving to the Saints, I was able to get that and understand when I needed to be a footballer, and when I needed to be a human. Just working on my mental fitness day in, day out really, it's just the habits – making sure I've got a routine, ensuring I'm focusing on myself and filling up all of my buckets.
"I find when I'm not flexing in that area, I don't have the balance. A really important one for me is filling up my buckets with my family, my friends and my partner, really spending time with them. It's pretty easy for my calendar to get pretty full, so ensuring I'm (actively) scheduling in that time and can switch off from footy and focus on whatever's happening in that moment. Sometimes, we forget there's a world around you, and you can get really sucked into the footy world."
Watson is St Kilda's second sole AFLW captain, taking the reins from Hannah Priest after the veteran stepped aside this season.
A bubbly personality on and off the field, Watson said she is working on striking the right chord with different players and what they need from her as a leader.
"It's been quite similar (to last season), to be honest. I guess my role is to be loud and extraverted, and I think just the consistency of holding that along is really important for me. Just finding out different ways and techniques that I can connect to different people – we've got such a wide range of girls, so that's where a lot of my time is being spent at the moment," she said.
"Just finding the time and the balance to understand when I need to be up and about, and when I need to be a bit more mellow. I've had some great mentors help me through that as well, and really understand when is the right time to be up and about, and when I probably need to have a deeper conversation with people.
"Hannah Priest has been awesome, Bianca Jakobsson as well has been unreal for me. (Coach) Nick Dal Santo, (head of footy) Jessie Mulholland have been awesome for me – just super supportive in the way I want to lead, and encouraging me to be my most authentic self."
St Kilda's leadership group of Watson, vice-captain Tyanna Smith, Georgia Patrikios, Paige Trudgeon and Molly McDonald are all 24 or younger, in a clear generational shift for the team.
"It's just exciting, and that's a word I continue to use. We're quite young, but I feel we're quite mature at the same time, where quite balanced, and we've all got quite level heads at the same time with all of that as well," she said.
"Just having different perspectives as well – we've got someone like Molly McDonald who's a bit louder, and someone like Ty Smith who's a bit more quiet. Just understanding when we need all of the leaders to step up at that time, and it's a really great balance across our group as well."
