ALYCE Parker had never considered the question: "Do you regret getting injured?"

After losing almost all of last season to a foot injury and spending months in rehabilitation, the Greater Western Sydney star was delivering a talk about resilience a few weeks ago when she was asked exactly that.

Her answer surprised even herself.

"No, I don't."

Twelve months earlier, she admits there was "no way on Earth" she could have reached the same conclusion. But after returning to produce some of the best football of her eight-year career, Parker can see the injury gave her more than a renewed appreciation for the game.

"I could say that 12 months later, but I know in those four or six months of rehab, there is no way on Earth I would say, 'I'm grateful to be injured'," Parker told AFL.com.au.

"It was the most fascinating question. In the moment, absolutely not. Getting injured is terrible, with all those mental and physical challenges.

"But 12 months down the track, in our conversation now about the impact it's had on me as a player and a person, I am grateful that I experienced it."

That perspective was forged during a 2025 campaign in which Parker managed just one game, with a round one foot fracture ending her season after 11 appearances the previous year.

"To have a nine-month pre-season, play 30 minutes of football, have a sore foot to a point where I've never experienced before, and then be told that you're done for four months. It was a crazy experience," Parker said.

"People talk about digesting it and understanding what happened, and it took me weeks to get to that point. It's genuinely just the experience I had in realising that it can be taken away. You hear people say it, but until you actually experience it yourself, you realise it's absolutely true.

"There are things that I probably complained about or expected to just do every week that I couldn't when I was injured, and I've become grateful for things I actually hated."

That realisation allowed Parker to approach every training session and match as "a gift".

"I am so blessed every time I get a game day," she said. "When you haven't had one in a while, you realise it's actually an opportunity, regardless of how you feel."

After completing her most consistent pre-season training block to date, Parker has produced one of the strongest seasons of her career. Through the first 10 games of 2026, she is averaging 24.4 disposals, 5.4 tackles and 6.4 clearances and leads the Giants in disposals, contested possessions, kicks, tackles, pressure acts, clearances, inside 50s and ground-ball gets.

Parker has also become a greater threat forward, with her seven goals ranking third at the club. Her career-best three against Hawthorn marked the third time this season she has kicked multiple goals, having done so just once previously.

But the injury did more than change the way Parker approached her own football.

Rather than simply rehabilitating, she spent 11 rounds alongside the Giants' coaching staff, reshaping her understanding of the game and the way she leads on the field.

"I absolutely loved it and hated it at the same time. It was a blessing and a curse," Parker said.

From the sidelines, Parker began noticing elements of the game that could easily be missed in the thick of the contest.

"What it showed me is, as an inside mid who loves leadership and wants to be a good leader, sometimes you're so stimulated by contest after contest that you miss opportunities to identify things to help your teammates around you," she said.

"It taught me a lot about midfield craft, reading rucks, sitting with the midfield coach, and actually working side-by-side to coach the midfield. I learned all this knowledge that I'm now bringing onto the field."

It also reshaped Parker's idea of on-field leadership.

"I would love to be like a Scott Pendlebury as I get older, where yes, you lead by action and play your own role, but equally as importantly, you complement your teammates around you and can be an on-field coach," Parker said.

"It's still a challenge I'm having as an inside mid; it can be hard to step back and take in information because you're so busy.

"I'm still trying to remind myself that while it's most important that I play my game, I've always got to ask myself, 'Can I help out the midfield around me and implement those lessons that I learned last year?'

"In the past, I thought playing as well as I could helped the team, but now it's about playing as well as I can and making those around me better with my knowledge. That's equally as important."

Parker eventually wants to move into coaching, having long found fulfilment working with top talent in the Giants Academy.

That ambition is shaped partly by her own pathway into the sport and the influence of former GWS captain Alicia Eva.

"It is genuinely something that I enjoy doing, coaching, working with the under-18s, and providing the experience I have," Parker said. "I want to be that Alicia Eva to someone else over the next few years."

Parker's evolution has not been confined to leadership. She is also finding new ways to influence games.

Although she has established herself as an inside midfielder who loves the "crash and bash", teammate Zarlie Goldsworthy's return to full fitness has allowed the pair to execute a midfield-forward rotation they spent years developing. It has given Parker greater freedom to push into attack, highlighted by her three-goal performance in the one-point win over the Hawks.

"We've been trying to build that for a few years, but we had to ensure we had the right personnel and strategy in place," Parker said. "And it won't always be just me, either.

"This is what I've always measured: the best mids in the competition roll forward, give different looks, and add that extra weapon to their game.

"I saw that while I provide a lot of support in the back half, if I really want to impact games rather than just accumulate, it's about the ability to impact on the scoreboard in the front half.

"There's a hunger or desire because I've been wanting to do it for so long, and now we're in a position where we can do it."

Parker's individual resurgence has come amid a difficult season for GWS, which entered round 11 with just two wins after snapping an eight-game losing streak against Hawthorn.

She doesn't sugarcoat that reality.

"I can't say that I'm satisfied with how the season has gone, because no one wants to sit here with two wins coming into round 11. It has been disappointing," Parker said.

"There is always an element where you look at the growth, the positives, and the realism. Yes, we've had some close losses, but particularly for us senior players, there comes a time where that's certainly not enough to measure a program. That's definitely the conversation I'm having at the moment.

"You want to keep building hope and belief, particularly for the young players in our group, but at the same time, we are not satisfied.

"We might have achieved some KPIs, but at the end of the day, we didn't win the game, and this business is about winning and losing.

"It's a tricky feeling. I've appreciated this week after such a proud, brave win (against Hawthorn), and I'm so proud of the playing group. It's amazing the momentum shift that happens (when you win), but the learning from that is: if we could just experience that more, the positive flow-on effect it would have. Losing takes a toll, and it certainly did for eight weeks in a row."

Those frustrations were not new. After signing a two-year contract extension while still rehabilitating her foot, Parker had frank conversations with the club's leadership about whether GWS had the coaching system, personnel and resources required to maximise the playing group's potential.

"Without a doubt, it was the coaching. I knew you couldn't question the intent of the playing group or how hard we were working, but in terms of the system, people, and processes we had around us, I just didn't think we were reaching our potential in terms of coaching," Parker said.

"I was very well received, and to be honest, the club was well aware. We made some very public and clear changes this year to our coaching system in terms of personnel, availability, and resourcing."

Parker has since been particularly impressed by the addition of assistant coaches Emma Zielke and Shane Mumford. Her first pre-season sit-down with Zielke lasted more than an hour, something Parker had not experienced during her previous seven seasons at the club.

"I kept looking at the clock thinking, 'I almost feel like I'm in trouble because I've been here for so long'. But it was the most positive conversation ever," she said.

"I was sitting there in awe that we actually had access to this, which goes to show what we were missing before.

"For her, she couldn't believe it, because that's normal for her, and that's what she was going to do all year, and she has."

A year after football was suddenly taken away from her, Parker no longer sees that lost season purely for what it cost.

It gave her a new perspective on the game, a clearer sense of the leader she wants to become, and an answer to a question she never expected to face.

She wouldn't change things.