AFTER frustrating setbacks with her troublesome hip, Kellie Gibson can't wait to finally chase a football again when Fremantle's NAB AFL Women's squad kicks off pre-season under new coach Trent Cooper on Wednesday.
But the versatile midfielder/forward will be keeping a close eye on her training loads in a bid to get through to the start of the 2019 campaign fit and firing.
Gibson was a big-name free agency signing for the Dockers last year after playing in Adelaide's 2017 premiership, returning home to the west to play in front of family and friends.
However, the 22-year-old didn’t pull on the purple until a final-round victory over Carlton, after suffering a 9cm tear in a hip flexor when she was tackled during a warm-up match against her old club in Darwin.
"The only way I can explain it is if you roll a toothpaste bottle up and the cap pops off," Gibson told AFL.com.au.
"It didn't hurt, it just felt very odd and I ran off and that was it."
While she made it back from a two-month rehabilitation ahead of schedule to debut in Freo's last game, when she kicked a goal and got through unscathed, it wasn't long before the problem flared.
"I thought I had all my boxes ticked, but it turns out it wasn't fully healed and I just got a little too excited at work (at the Simon Black Academy) and tried to kick a footy probably 50m – even though I can't do that when I'm not injured," Gibson said.
"I just felt it strain a little bit and that's when my setbacks began."
The injury prevented the ex-Crow from playing football at all during winter, and she battled ongoing issues from ramping up here workload too quickly.
"Not being able to lift my leg up any further than 30 degrees was a bit restrictive," Gibson said.
"I found out it's a muscle you can't really turn off, because if you're sitting down you're using it and if you're standing up you're using it.
"So it was a bit difficult, and it was frustrating, but I think an extreme injury at a young age in your footy career, it tests your character.
"You build and you learn from it, so I feel like I've got a little bit more awareness about how to prepare my body, which is nice.
"(I played) no football (this winter), so I feel like I'm semi-retired at the moment.
"But I think by the time I get out on the track on Wednesday I'm going to be pretty keen to chase down a footy."
It will be a softly softly approach for Gibson - a former track and field athlete and rugby 7s player who is used to going full bore - but her excitement is building ahead of the third AFLW season.
The Dockers are aiming to push up the ladder after consecutive seventh-place finishes under Michelle Cowan, and Gibson is on board with Cooper's plan to keep things simple.
"If you get the basics right it wins games. If you can do that and execute your skills under pressure and under fatigue as well, I think that's a bonus," she said.
The coach isn't the only new face around the AFLW program, with Darryn Fry taking over as team manager and Freo's general manager of football operations Peter Bell having plenty of involvement.
"Then we've got new players coming in as well, cross-coders (rookies from other sports), it's a new feel already," Gibson said.
"We bonded really well at breakfast the other day, we just feel good about it, and that's what you need, I think.
"Trent is a legend. He's awesome. He's really set the tone for his coaching ability … but he's also such a people person.
"You can have a chat to him and catch up for coffee and it not be so professional the entire time, which is really nice.
"He's conscious of the fact girls work full-time and come to training and we don't really want to be finishing at nine o'clock at night and then having to drive home.
"We want to try to establish that relationship (with him) as quick as we can because I think that provides good football."
