THEY say change is as good as a holiday, and for some players, role changes have propelled them to greater heights than many might have expected.

For some, it's a progression into the midfield that has worked wonders, for others, simply switching ends of the ground did the trick.

So, which AFLW players have found their best footy after a positional change?

Into the middle

Arguably two of the best-known midfielders in the AFLW – Jasmine Garner and Brianna Davey – started their careers in the arcs back in 2017. Garner was a forward for Collingwood in that inaugural game, famously kicking the first ever goal, while Davey was nearby, playing in defence for Carlton.

By 2019, both had started to make their move into the middle. Garner, having made the shift to North Melbourne, got super fit and redefined what a midfielder could be, while Davey's physicality and footy smarts meant she was the ideal bull to add at the contest.

More recently others have made similar moves, notably Tiger-turned-Roo Eilish Sheerin, who was the leading interceptor in the AFLW throughout her first season before becoming a dynamic midfielder in 2024, and Melbourne's lock-down small defender Shelley Heath turning into one of the best run-with midfielders in the League.

Going back

While some players made their name moving into the midfield, others have found their best footy once shifting away from the middle and into defence. Premiership captains Emma Kearney and Breanna Koenen were both lauded players when largely playing midfield early in their careers – Kearney even won an AFLW best and fairest award doing just that in 2018 – but both have become synonymous with roles down back in recent years.

Moving neatly as a rebounding half back, Kearney has averaged six or more intercepts each season since making the move in 2022, and is key to setting up North Melbourne’s stingy defensive unit. Koenen, meanwhile, is a reliable intercept mark behind the ball, but does still pinch hit through the middle when things get tight.

Others have made similar moves and gone on to be named All-Australian, including Essendon's Maddison Gay, and Hawk-turned-Giant Tilly Lucas-Rodd, with the pair’'s form propelling their respective sides into finals.

Switching ends

The most common role changes, however, are those who effectively switch ends of the ground. Some start as a forward and have become outstanding key defenders, others have reignited their careers in the reverse.

Last year’s record-breaking leading goalkicker Indy Tahau is just the most recent to have done so. A premiership key back with Brisbane, Tahau was always slated for an eventual switch to attack upon her arrival at Port Adelaide in 2022, but a long injury layoff forced fans, and the Power, to wait. In fact, the move wasn’t made in earnest until round three, from which Tahau goaled in every game and kicked 25 goals for the season.

Another former Lion, Tahlia Randall has made the same move, kicking her first career goal in game No.31, and now sitting on 106 games and 82 goals, playing a key part of North Melbourne's back-to-back premierships.

Greater Western Sydney has worked to do the same with Tarni Evans, playing largely as a forward in 2025 to make the most of her running capacity and booming boot, kicking a career-best 13 goals, and it’s easy to forget that Chloe Molloy won the 2018 Rising Star award playing as a defender, before moving up the ground in 2020.

Similarly, former Geelong captain Meghan McDonald played her first season as a key forward at the Western Bulldogs. With just one goal from four games in 2017, McDonald was delisted, and re-invented herself as a defender in the VFLW before being signed as an expansion player upon the Cats' admission to the League in 2019. It was a move that bore two All Australian blazers, a Geelong best and fairest award, and fan-favourite status.

Three-time All Australian Chelsea Biddell also found the same path, having been drafted as a key forward but struggling to break into Adelaide’s stacked forward line. In her third season – 2022 S6 – she tested the defensive waters, and has stayed there ever since.

Katie Lynch's switch to defence at the Western Bulldogs also bore All-Australian accolades, and more recently, pack-crashing key forward Roxy Roux made the backline her own last year in West Coast's push to a maiden finals series.

And 2017 No.1 draft pick Isabel Huntington famously arrived on the scene as a marking key forward, but earned All-Australian honours and the 2020 Rising Star award as an intercepting defender.