WITH so few inaugural AFLW players still in the game, it’s a small miracle Darcy Vescio is still playing.

The kid from Wangaratta, who by their own admission was not very professional in their early years playing for Darebin in the VWFL, will this weekend play their 100th AFLW game right back where it all started at Ikon Park.

Vescio, then 23 years old, played in that inaugural AFLW game back in 2017 and 10 years later will bring up the ton in Saturday’s semi-final against Hawthorn.

The game has changed considerably since that first fateful night in February, and Vescio has relished the challenge to grow alongside the competition as both a person and player.

“I feel like it's been something that's kept me really engaged with playing footy, the fact that you have to keep evolving with the game,” Vescio said.

“I feel like every few years we see a real step up in the way the game's played and it sort of is constantly shifting. 

“For me personally, I enjoy the challenge of trying to keep up with the game and it gets better and better to be part of so it's quite an incentive to stay part of it.

“I guess like physically it's a good challenge to see if you can match it with the players around you and the new players coming through, so I've enjoyed just trying to rise with that or see where I can push.”

Now 33 years old and in their 11th AFLW season, there’s still plenty Vescio wants to get out of their career. 

“I guess I still feel like as an athlete, I’ve got room to grow,” Vescio said.

“I kind of joke that I skipped pre-seasons early on before AFLW so I could back-end them, but I feel like physically I’m still learning about my physical capacity and how that can plug into my game. 

“I feel like my skills are still improving and I want to be able to inject a bit more power into my game as well, which I know goes against what people think you can do age-wise, but I don't really think age is a barrier at this point.”

The first Carlton player to reach the milestone, Vescio was well and truly feted by the club in the week leading up to the game.

Unbeknownst to Vescio, who is a talented artist in addition to their footballing career, the club set up a tribute to Vescio’s ‘House of W’ art exhibit, featuring moments from their career and life.

“The media team, they tricked me,” Vescio said of the big reveal.

“They brought me through there and said I was going to do an interview on the couch. And then they said the couch was a bit dirty, so then they moved to another spot.

“I was really caught off guard. I felt quite overwhelmed that they put in so much effort.

“Looking around at all the photos and the letters and things, it was quite overwhelming and I feel really lucky that I've been able to build so much of my life at Carlton and to have it reflected in this, it feels like a lot but, yeah it's really cool.”

The whole playing group plus a large proportion of club staff wore special ‘Darcy Vescio 100 games’ t-shirts at training on Thursday morning, arriving early to surprise Vescio when they arrived.

The softly spoken Vescio was visibly emotional as longtime teammates Jess Dal Pos - who is also the sister of Vescio’s partner Em - and Gab Pound paid tribute to Vescio in speeches in front of 100-odd players and staff, including CEO Graham Wright.

Dal Pos and Pound spoke of the contributions Vescio had made to the competition, not only on the field but off it.

During their career, Vescio has come out as non-binary, acted as a player delegate during collective bargaining agreement negotiations, designed a match ball for Pride Round, and been an ambassador for multiculturalism.

“It makes the footy experience a lot more rich, like I love the game and every challenge that that brings physically and mentally but I think when you can extrapolate further and see the way you can shape things and push the game into a better space and impact different communities who might not have always seen themselves in footy, for me, that adds to my experience of being a human playing footy.

“I think it from the outside it can be tempting to just sort of want footy players to just focus on footy but the reality is when you step out onto the field you're a fully formed human with a brain and with things going on in your life, so if you're able to service all areas of yourself whilst playing footy I think it just makes it feel like a lot more worthwhile experience.”

Carlton hosts Hawthorn in a semi-final on Saturday, November 14 at 7.15pm AEDT. Tickets available here.