SHE WAS the breakout All-Australian defender who requested a trade at the end of the year despite being contracted, but Cambridge McCormick is ready to make the most of another season with Greater Western Sydney.

The GWS rebounder was keen on a move to Carlton after the 2025 season, but the Giants were equally passionate about keeping their burgeoning star, who still had a year to run on her deal.

Eventually, no trade could be facilitated, and McCormick continues to don the orange and charcoal into 2026, recording another 21 touches and seven marks in GWS' upset win over West Coast in round one.

She credits a multi-day hike in Tasmania over the off-season as an important turning point in setting herself for the upcoming season after the tumultuous trade period.

"I was presented with some opportunities – both professionally and personally – to make the move down to Victoria. I've got some family down there, lots of friends," McCormick told AFL.com.au.

"I looked into that opportunity and obviously I still had a year to run on my contract, so I'm locked for this year at the Giants, and I'm putting everything in to make sure we move up the ladder and hopefully make finals this year.

"It was difficult, very difficult decision. It was never representative of the relationships I have here at the club, with both 'Berna' (coach Cam Bernasconi) and the girls.

"In early Jan, I did the Overland Track with Georgia Garnett, 'Priv' (Bec Privitelli) who's now a coach here, Jas (Grierson, Giant-turned-Swan) and Daisy Walker. It was just a really good reset opportunity, and to be content with where I'm at, at the moment and trying to play my best footy this year."

McCormick's breakout 2025 came in conjunction with a very busy work year, splitting her time between AFLW and working as an emergency department physiotherapist at both Prince of Wales and Sydney Children's Hospitals in Randwick.

"I guess that's the tough thing about living in Sydney, I want to buy a house one day, so it's all about trying to work as much as you can to free yourself up for the season. For me, I try to strike the balance, but it's not easy," she said.

"At the moment (final week of pre-season), I'm working two days, sometimes three. Last year was a tough year, I was working every day I wasn't training. It's a physical job, and it's mentally tiring, but that's why I enjoy it. If you're working in the ED, there's stuff always happening. Hopefully I can drop down to a day a week. I've got good bosses, they look after me quite well. It's also a good release from footy.

"Physios are really helpful in assessing and managing any musculoskeletal conditions. Particularly at the kids' hospital, I can work as a primary contact physio, which is basically you pick up a patient from triage if they've come in with a rolled ankle, or they think they've done their knee or broken their arm. With the oldies, it's making sure they're safe to go home if they've come in after a fall.

"I see a lot of geriatrics, and they always ask me about my name (Cambridge). They try to joke and call me Oxford sometimes, which isn't funny when you've heard it for the fifth time that day. My parents had heard it used as a last name, and they thought it was pretty interesting. My brother is Louis and my sister is Ainslie, so they're all slightly different."

McCormick was signed by the Giants as a raw, undersized 22-year-old ruck prospect who was playing with Eastlake in the AFL Canberra league.

Her journey to the top was long and winding across three different regions of Australia, starting with Auskick and juniors on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

"I'm in that age bracket where there wasn't any youth girls for a little bit. Under-12s I stopped playing, and my dad's Victorian and heavily into footy, so him and few other dads got a youth girls league up and running on the Sunshine Coast. My sister and I were able to play again (with Kawana Park)," McCormick said.

"I played a fair bit of footy through high school, but then stepped away to focus on basketball. It wasn't until I was nearly at uni that I decided to get back into footy. At that stage, I was a train-on for the Brisbane Lions, but it was only for a couple of months before I moved away for uni, so it was a pretty big decision for a 17-year-old to make.

"I was in Port Macquarie, it's a cute little town (on New South Wales' mid-north coast), but when I got there, there was no women's league, it's rugby league heartland. I spent my first year when I was down there just training with the men's team, which was fun.

"I didn't know anyone. I rocked up, and there were a few of the classic clubmen standing around, the old fellas, watching training. I rocked up and spoke to someone who turned out to be the head coach of the men's team, and I said, "I'm Cambridge, I'm here for uni, I play footy back in Queensland and I wanted to have a watch and see whether I'd be able to train with the men.

"He asked if I had my boots with me and to jump in on the warm-up. They were fantastic, there were some guys there who were integral in making me feel comfortable at that club. The next year (2018), we got a women's league up and running."

McCormick landed a graduate physio job in Canberra at the start of 2021, so played for one last team (Eastlake) before the Giants came knocking ahead of season seven, 2022.

"'Berna' tells the story that he'd told my club he was coming to watch me, but I had no idea. We were playing Tuggeranong or something, and apparently he's come onto the ground in one of the quarter breaks and stood next to me to try and get a sense of my height, because they were after a ruck. I can imagine people would have been thinking 'who on earth is this guy, and why is he standing so close?'" McCormick said.

"You know when you answer a call, and it's an unknown number? So you're a bit sassy when you pick it up. I was like, 'umm, hellllllo?', and it turned out it was 'Berna'. I had no idea I was on the radar.

"Being an undersized ruck isn't enjoyable, it's tough work. My first game was against the Dogs and I was up against Alice Edmonds, she's just so tall (189cm to McCormick's 180cm). In my second season, I tried to move to a key back spot, and was in and out of the team with that, and was lucky to just scrape in for another contract.

"I was coming from being a recreational athlete to a full-time professional, and I'm lucky that I'm tall and have some speed and a leap, but it just takes time. I also had to nail down my skills to be able to bring them out in a game, and it took a few years.

"I'm lucky that our game-plan allows me to run off and attack, it's so much fun. There's nothing better, I love going for a run down the field, kicking it off half-back and Tarni Evans taking a clunk."