BRYDE O’Rourke owns the No.23 down at Kardinia Park, but she grew up wearing a Geelong guernsey with the No.14 on the back.

It wasn’t for Joel Selwood – although, her childhood years were the peak of his career leading the Cats – rather, it was for her dad Ray who played two games for the club in 1969.

Under the father-daughter selection rules, that was all the club needed to snag the highly rated O’Rourke back in the 2023 Telstra AFLW Draft. Ultimately nabbed via pick No.23, it was then-Melbourne list boss Todd Patterson who put her on the Cats’ radar.

There was some confusion around her eligibility as a father-daughter choice given how long ago her dad played, with someone at her talent league side the Bendigo Pioneers telling her she didn’t fit the criteria.

“And then I met Todd Patterson, the recruiting manager for Melbourne,” O’Rourke told AFL.com.au.

“He was like, ‘Oh, I’ve done some snooping around and I found that yeah, you are actually eligible, so I’m going to have to flag that’. So, it came through Todd.”

Calling attention to it meant that the Demons ultimately missed out on O’Rourke’s talents. But Melbourne’s loss, was Geelong’s win.

Her dad had an influence on her footy journey, of course, but as an older dad, it looked a little different to a lot of other kids with parents who played the game at a high level.

“Lots of people would be kicking the footy with their dad, and yes, he tried, but I suppose he was also very good at letting me go and play and not having that chat we all dread in the car afterward,” O’Rourke explained.

Thoughtful and quietly spoken, she is generous with her bright smile and clearly well-loved among her teammates. New puppy Winnie, a tiny toy poodle, is also a welcome addition to the club, and for O’Rourke’s footy-life balance.

Landing at Geelong has been a blessing for the Bendigo product. Having spent a lot of time in the region as a kid and raised with a clear sense of pride in community, being outside of a major city has worked for her.

Mum Margaret was the mayor of Bendigo from 2016 to 2020, while O’Rourke was in her early years of high school, and it had a clear impact on her daughter’s values.

“She loves what she does, she just kind of gets on with it… Mum’s very community oriented. A big part of her life is community sport, just different organisations, she likes to help out. She very much wants to give, and she’s my biggest role model. She’s the epitome of what I want to be when I grow up,” O’Rourke said.

So, in the off season when O’Rourke does her running at the Strathfieldsaye Storm – alongside fellow Bendigo natives Lila Keck and Kerryn Peterson – it’s like returning home.

And that is why Mick Stinear’s imprint on the Cats has been so important to her. It’s about creating that tight-knit family feeling at Kardinia Park, where you are understood and valued as a person first and foremost.

The coach who initially wanted to draft her at the Demons eventually got what he was after, and it’s been a match made in heaven.

“(Stinear’s) got this whole ‘it’s footy but you need to be a good person, and you need to care about your teammates’ (thing). He’s really, really passionate about building relationships and making sure that you’ve got them so then we can go and play the best footy that we can. He’s very big on you as a person,” O’Rourke said.

Such a mindset has allowed O’Rourke to find herself in the context of the team. She has always known she was a slow burn, not an immediate firestarter, and now in her third season she is playing her best footy as part of a strong system.

“In my first year I played on the win, and I probably didn’t understand the role as best I could, and it’s probably not been until this year that I’ve actually been like, ‘this is why we do things the way we do it’… Some of that probably does go unnoticed, but within our four walls, I think that’s something that we really value as well. It’s the team first,” O’Rourke said.

Stinear has been clear about instilling confidence in young players like O’Rourke to pull the best out of them. Impressed by her willingness to work, it has created consistent opportunity at the top level this year.

“Last year she played a handful of games, and she was probably on the fringes, and that’s tricky if you’re a young player still trying to find a seat and establish that belief. And I think because of the work she did in the off season, she then earned the right to play round one and have the trust of the coaches and her teammates, and then given the support to just go after it,” Stinear said.

But it hasn’t been smooth sailing for O’Rourke this year. Where her form has made her an easy selection each week, illness knocked her around through the middle of the season.

She jokes that she was casualty of the ‘Noah Kahan flu’ that took over Melbourne – a second-hand victim by way of her sister – and rues a missed chance at nabbing Olivia Dean tickets along with teammate Lexi Gregor.

“I had the flu, and then I got pneumonia and a chest infection. The trifecta,” O’Rourke said.

Although she only missed one game, she admits she “probably shouldn’t have played Collingwood”, but for O'Rourke, life exists both inside and outside the walls of the club, but now she feels more empowered than ever when she walks through those doors.