“IT STILL feels like a dream, to be honest.”
Reflective by nature, Jess Dal Pos has taken time leading into her 50th AFLW match this weekend to consider her football journey.
And it still all feels surreal.
“This is my dream job and I pinch myself every time I get to run out and do it. It's been happy but there's so much I want to do still,” Dal Pos said.
“It's taken me seven seasons to get to 50 games, so it feels long and hard, but it is exciting. I didn't think I'd play 50 games in a professional league, so I'm pretty proud of that. I don’t think it will feel real until I step out there on Sunday.”
Without a distinct pathway from grassroots to the elite level when she was first kicking a football, a young Dal Pos didn’t let that get in the way of her plans of making it to the top level.
“I used to tell my parents relentlessly that I would captain the Richmond men's team and win flags with them when I was a kid,” she laughed.
“Playing 50 games was so far out of the reach of goals that I had when I was younger.”
A five-time premiership player with the Darebin Falcons, Dal Pos crossed to the Greater Western Sydney Giants in 2016, as one of the club’s priority selections ahead of the league’s inaugural season.
What she was able to achieve there was formative in the women’s football landscape.
“I loved my time there. It was in a new team in a state that's not footy dominant.
“It was a brand-new experience for me, I've never done anything like that. We had to bluff our way through some of the stuff that we had to do because nobody really knew how to do AFLW.
“I loved every second of my time up there. I got to influence the female footy community up there and I feel really proud of the things that that group achieved and is still achieving.”
A member of the Giants’ leadership group since day one, Dal Pos was the club’s inaugural best-and-fairest winner, as well as achieving All-Australian selection in the same year.
She received the opportunity to step in as captain of the club in 2020, which she cited as a career highlight.
“I did love captaining the Giants when the pandemic was first hitting. Our group at the time had a few injuries and the heat was put on us to perform,” she said.
“I got really fortunate that I got to captain two wins that were really important to the journey of the club to then eventually get into finals. I really, really enjoyed that and it was a really positive time for the club and for my family, which was awesome.”
The highlights continued when she returned home to Victoria, pulling on the Navy Blue for the first time in season six.
“Round 1, running out and hearing all of the supporters scream as we came out into the ground was wild. I've never heard anything that loud in my life and I took a second to take it in that there are thousands of people here.
“You couldn't hear anything. You couldn't hear us talking to each other, it was just screaming and it took my breath away.
“As a kid, you always picture yourself running out to games like that, but it hadn't really happened until then, so that was pretty cool.”
Previously watching the club from afar, Dal Pos has slotted in at IKON Park seamlessly, transitioning from a first-year Blue to co-vice captain in her two seasons.
“I've grown up watching the whole journey of the footy club and watching the AFLW team through Darcy [Vescio], who's a good friend, and now I'm a part of it.
“It feels like I've sort of come full circle and it is really nice to play in front of family and friends and play at an oval that I drove past a million times as a kid, so I do feel like it was a coming home situation.
“Every time the lights come on and every time I look out onto the ground, I'm shocked that I'm playing here because this was always the oval that I imagined the best of the best always played at.
“Now we train here every week and I still run out there and think - it's not imposter syndrome - but I sort of wonder ‘am I here? Am I doing it? Is this real?’”
While she may still pinch herself, over time Dal Pos has learned to take time to enjoy the moment.
“I was known as ‘Smiles’ at the Giants - very sarcastically - because I didn't smile too often. I still don’t but I think I have learned to enjoy the journey more.
“I think giving a little bit more to my teammates as well is something that I sit more comfortably with today and can enjoy the industry and the environment a little bit more than when I did when I was younger.”
When it comes to goals beyond her 50th match against Port Adelaide this weekend, it may be the commonplace response, but for Dal Pos it’s simple.
“I'll give the cliché answer here: my goal is to win a flag. It always has been and it always will be,” she said.
“Outside of that, I just want to push Carlton into the place it needs to go to be a top team year in, year out, and have a culture that other girls can walk in here and come out better people, better footballers. That's pretty simple. That's all I want.”
