SABRINA Frederick has played 99 AFLW matches.

And for game 100, her father Winston will see her play for the first time.

Frederick grew up in Brighton, about 90 minutes south of London, England, and moved with her mother and new Australian stepfather to Mandurah in Western Australia when she was seven.

Winston remained in England, and his visits to Australia have always coincided with the AFLW off-season, in order to maximise the time he could spend with his daughter, her wife Lili, and grandchildren Florence (four) and Otis (14 months). 

"It's pretty full circle for me, because he's the reason I'm so into sport. He was a semi-professional soccer player himself, and played with the Arsenal academy growing up. He's always encouraged me to play sport, and while he's never come to an AFLW game, he knows footy. He's so over the AFL, he's consuming it all, he's been a huge fan from afar," Frederick told AFL.com.au.

"He was meant to fly in tonight (Thursday) and he surprised me this morning. My wife had organised it, and I was so overwhelmed, it was like I'd seen a ghost and I started bawling my eyes out like a little baby. It's so exciting that 10 years on, I can still have really important moments like that."

For a young Frederick, football quickly became a way to adjust to her new life on the other side of the world.

"When you're trying to make new friends at school, you just go with the flow. I remember a lunchtime in my first week, and all the kids were playing this game, flying through the air, jumping on each other to get a ball. It was marker's up. It looked like so much fun, and I ended up using it as a vehicle to make friends," she said.

"I used to just play at recess and lunch, until a teacher said I wasn't too bad and should try out for the school team. I didn’t realise it was an all-boys team, and they'd never had a girl play. So I tried out, got in, and the rest is history.

"The cool thing is, I didn't have an uncle or a brother or a cousin that played. I genuinely fell in love with the game by myself."

Frederick's 100th will fall in Pride Round, a very happy coincidence given the importance it plays in her life.

"Someone was looking down on me. It's really special. I spoke to our playing group about taking a moment before you put on the jumper – we forget the impact we have on the community. Especially at Collingwood, whether it's good or bad, people are talking about us, and they're looking at us, and we have a responsibility to show that it's important to be yourself and how impactful it is to be yourself," Frederick said.

"I'm a huge believer that the AFLW doesn't exist without the queer community, it's built off the backbone of that community. I remember being young and walking into my first women's club, and just remembering how accepting it was, how warm it was, and how many different personalities were there. It was such a cool space.

"Being a part of the AFLW, I always had this idea that I'm helping create a legacy where both my kids are growing up where if they wanted to play football, both of them can have the same opportunity. Florence can really handball. And she might not want to play, but she can if she wants.

"My family are the light of my life, and I'm married to the love of my life. Hopefully it's not the end of our growing family, I'd love to have more kids. I'm very happy."

For the first time, it can be revealed that Frederick's pre-season was effectively non-existent, a horrible run of luck that culminated in being dropped in round two, and on limited minutes for much of the first half of the season.

She inflamed the sheath of her Achilles tendon at the tail-end of the off-season, and while dealing with that rehab, suffered back-to-back bouts of Covid and Influenza A, which affected her from a health and energy perspective for about six weeks.

"To be honest, over the last couple of years, I've had role changes and different responsibilities as part of being a veteran as well. This year especially, I knew it was going to look different, given the players we're getting in, and my responsibility to mentor them," Frederick said.

"I didn't know what that would look like in terms of playing or not playing, I didn't really have an expectation there. I think from my point of view, it's always about putting your best foot forward and trying to get better, so if you're playing, you're contributing. 

"It was the first time I had an injury in pre-season, and then I got very unwell, so there were just a few things in the lead-up that didn't help. I love football and I love the team game. I've always understood that as long as we're putting the best team on the park, ego aside, that's enough for me.

"I'm back on the team, I'm playing proper minutes and I'm even starting on the field. In a matter of weeks, it's changed a lot."

Frederick burst onto the scene in 2016 as a "marquee player" of the future league, with each of the eight inaugural sides pre-signing two players who were paid a little more to serve as the face of the new teams.

The ruck from Western Australia was just 19 years old, and was paired up with 18-year-old Tayla Harris to promote the Brisbane Lions, and more broadly, women's footy in Queensland.

"I remember being in that moment and going, 'oh yeah, I know everything', but I knew nothing," she said with a laugh.

"In hindsight, I didn't realise how much pressure it was, for two 18, 19-year-olds to be the face of a state, trying to sell this game without a team – there hadn't even been a draft at that point, and we were out doing press conferences and media.

"It was absolutely wild, but I'm so grateful for that time, because I genuinely feel like this is my baby. I care so much about this league, and even though I compete against them, I'm a fan of these girls, I really care about them. Irrespective of results or whatever else is going on, I care about this and I want it to succeed so badly."