WITH the NAB AFL Women's competition fast approaching, the throwaway playground line 'You kick like a girl' might soon turn into a compliment.

Western Bulldogs midfielder Nicole Callinan, a four-time VFL Women's premiership player with the Darebin Falcons, can't wait for the two-month season to begin.

"It's going to be huge, and it's about time as well," said Callinan.

"(Women) have always been supporters, but all we could do was watch men play (at the highest level). It's so exciting girls can finally strive to play for an AFL team."

A national women's league was originally scheduled to start in 2020, but the AFL moved quickly to set up an inaugural eight-club competition in 2017.

"I'm so thankful, especially at my age," said Callinan, who turned 34 on Boxing Day.

Callinan grew up in Melbourne's northern suburbs and footy played a major role in her family life. She was a Collingwood fan as a youngster, her mother Bernadette's passion for the Magpies rubbing off. Her father Chris, an Essendon supporter, trained with the Pies' under-19s and later played locally for clubs including Greensborough and West Coburg, and was a premiership player for Old Paradians.

If Callinan wasn't at the MCG watching a game, she was having a kick with dad in the backyard or watching her older brothers, Ben and Sean, play locally for clubs including Mill Park, St Marys Greensborough, Lower Plenty and Old Paradians.

Although she would have loved playing alongside her brothers, it wasn't the done thing at the time, so she put her footy passion aside and took up indoor cricket instead. Eventually, she would represent both Victoria and Australia.

"I think Mum was protecting me, her little girl. She didn't really want me to go into footy," Callinan recalled with laugh.

"I guess you want your daughter to do something else besides footy.

"It's not that Mum never thought I'd be good enough, it just wasn't really spoken about."

In 2006, the father of one of her indoor cricket teammates, who also happened to be coach of a women's football team, asked Callinan to fill in temporarily when the team was short on players.

Callinan took a calculated risk and agreed, filling in for seven or eight games a season. She continued to play for the next five years, balancing work and the two sports.

In 2012, she joined powerhouse Darebin after being spotted at a Football Victoria-run try-out the previous year.

Callinan was still playing indoor cricket for Victoria at the time, but was torn as she knew continuing to juggle the two sports would be difficult.

Eventually, she concluded the chance to play footy at high level was too good to refuse.

"I decided to finish indoor cricket at the end of 2012 and pursued footy. It's been one of the best decisions I've made," she said.

Callinan never imagined playing a few games here and there would eventually lead her to being drafted by an AFL club. But in October, she attended the AFL Women's Draft in Melbourne with her parents, eventually hearing her name called out in the 11th-round (pick No. 85).

"Being able to take Mum and Dad made it feel real. It was definitely a proud moment for them," she said.

Callinan said she's also still pinching herself over what had happened a few weeks before the draft, when she attended the Brownlow Medal count in Melbourne at the start of AFL Grand Final week.

"I was very lucky to be one of the girls asked to go, and was on a table with other VFL Women's players," she said. "All of us there were later drafted, which was nice."

Callinan, who still lives in Melbourne's north, is on a break as a self-employed remedial massage therapist so she can focus on her footy, but that won't stop her applying lessons from her profession.

Her work involves helping people heal. Apart from it teaching her more about her own body and how to manage it, she also takes a special interest in making sure her teammates – and sometimes even opposition players – are looking after themselves.

"It's automatic for me to care. I'll turn up to training sometimes and remember who's got what injury and ask how they're going," she said.

Although excited and doing her utmost to be ready for the football challenges ahead, Callinan said it was important to take a realistic approach.

"You work hard every year because you're never content with how you finish," she said.

"It's all about balance and not pushing myself too hard. You want to be fit, fresh and at your best come the games."

"We're all very excited and just want (the games) to happen now.

"(Playing in a national competition) is something a lot of girls have dreamed of having the chance to do, and can now aspire to."