GEORGIE Prespakis has always been a fan favourite. 

The blonde curly hair, the long sleeves in any weather, the tenacious attack on the ball, and her kind and generous nature with supporters, hollering "GEORGIE" over the fence after a game.

She's been a gun for Geelong since she joined the club in season six, 2022, and won team best and fairests in 2023 and 2025.

But this year, she's elevated her game to an elite level and is comfortably in the mix for the league best and fairest, alongside Jas Garner and Charlie Rowbottom.

How has she gone from good to great?

Prespakis is averaging a career-high 30.6 disposals and 8.1 clearances a match in 2026, well above last year's 25.8 and 6.8 in the same categories.

The club believes the key stat that best demonstrates the impact her improvement has had on the wider team is score involvements, which are now at 8.1 per match, up from 4.8 last year.

Keen internal observers have also noted how she has relaxed into her role this year – as the team has improved around her, there's less need to "put the cape on" and try to cover every aspect of everyone else's role, too.

It means her actions and running patterns are now also more predictable to her teammates, and it's a functioning ecosystem that benefits both the individual and the collective.

"She's put in a body of work off-field to get herself in the right mindset coming into games, to be able to perform well. She's obviously a star of the competition; I stand back in awe sometimes at the things she's doing on-field," Geelong co-captain Nina Morrison said.

"She's an amazing player, but her ability to bring her teammates into games has always been a strength. She's riding the ebbs and flows a bit better this season. To be someone who can do such incredible things, but also be such a good teammate, has been her real growth this year."

Sister Maddy plays for Essendon and is a close confidant, the pair supporting each other while competing for opposing teams and the same glory

The two are 28 months apart, and the older Maddy saw a switch flick in Georgie when she was about 16 years old.

Get two NAB AFLW qualifying final games for the price of one at Saturday’s Ikon Park double-header! Geelong takes on Melbourne, before North Melbourne hosts Carlton. All spectators need a ticket - adults $15, kids under 15 free. Get your tickets here 

"She's always been naturally gifted, in terms of her footy IQ is quite high, but the difference between us is she's naturally always been able to run and have a really good fitness level," Maddy said.

"When she reached 16 and 17 was when she started having to work hard for it, and knowing that the competition around her is only going to get better and better. I think the last two years has probably been the part where she's worked the hardest – her physical ability has gone to another level, and her footy IQ has levelled up as well."

Maddy said she'd observed her sister work not just on the physical side of her game, but her mental strength too, as the pair trained together over the off-season.

It's no surprise that both Prespakis sisters have then gone on to have career-best seasons.

"Obviously she's worked on her physical game, but the mental side of things – not just football but just life in general – she's probably worked the hardest at this season. Just being able to mentally be fit and to take on any challenges within sort of her football and her life, and that's probably helped her a lot and sort of set her apart a little bit," Maddy said.

"She's pushed me a lot to get back to being my best, and I think in a lot of ways, we've been able to have really good seasons because of each other. At my end, things haven't gone the way I wanted with our win-loss ratio, but we can lean on each other when things are tough.

"We don't actually speak about football too much, but in the next four weeks, I'll be her biggest supporter, and I hope the Cats go really well in finals. We also try to be each other's friend and be good sisters to each other, and add balance to our lives.

"She can be very hard on herself, and people probably don't see the soft side of her. Everyone sees her as a hard footballer, and how competitive she is, but she's a soft and loving person with a heart of gold. I'm very lucky to have her as my sister."

Now 23, Prespakis has found the right balance in her football training, according to those at Geelong. She's no longer trying to cram in every possible extra into every spare minute of her week, and is taking her days off seriously.

Her body has benefited after a few seasons of playing through soft-tissue concerns, while the addition of Ryan Pendlebury as midfield coach has also helped, with Pendlebury quickly working out the most effective way to get the best out of his charge.

Former senior coach Dan Lowther witnessed Prespakis' work ethic and insatiable appetite for improvement first-hand, and began to notice a slight moderation in recent years.

Prespakis had joined the Cats with pick No. 2 in the 2021 AFLW Draft, and it was a fact that weighed heavily, wanting to justify the selection and pay back the club for the trust they placed in her – even though from the outside, she was comfortably in the top two players in that pool (alongside Charlie Rowbottom).

"In the early days, she'd try and do everything at 100 miles an hour, because she wanted to win so badly," Lowther said.

"In the last few years – and particularly this year – you can see she's got the balance now around what works best, how to use her strengths, how to utilise her teammates and how to utilise her game IQ to win. Like there are players who are surviving, and she was willing to thrive from the very beginning."

Lowther said Prespakis is an "A+ student of the game".

"She loves coaching too, and has done a lot behind the scenes with Geelong's VFLW team, and other local teams in the area. She just lives and breathes the game, she's a footballing nerd.

"She's a great Geelong person, and does a great job to integrate with the men's program too. She's not a closed book by any stretch, anyone that comes to ask for support, she's very much open to upskilling others, so that the team can win."

Teammate Jackie Parry was effusive in her praise of her superstar teammate, having been on the end of many a pinpoint Prespakis kick inside 50 over the years.

"I've always thought she was unbelievable. I get to see her at training as well, and the stuff that she pulls off is crazy. She's so obsessed with getting better as well. She puts a lot of effort," Parry said.

"The games that she pulls together – it's not just because she's very naturally gifted, but the work she puts in off the field, her desire to get better – it's just nice to see her string together a lot of games. 

"She's put a lot of work into her mindset on the ground, too. She gets some heavy tags, so she's been building the resilience to wear a tag. She's had some injury setbacks in the last few years as well, so getting her body into good shape has helped her as well. 

"She's always been a weapon."