IN HER very short career, Mia Austin has had to overcome what most footballers deal with over the course of a storied career.

An exciting start to the career, a season ending injury, an electric return to the field then capped off with a Rising Star Nomination.

For the 19 year-old, all of that took just 14 months.

Suffering a syndesmosis injury in September 2022, Austin’s return to the field was highly anticipated by her teammates and fans alike, with the rookie spending her time in recovery to improve all aspects of her game.

“I feel like it was such a long time to be out. There was a lot of training, I think we trained eight months of rehab before we could get back with the team,” Austin said.

“I feel like in that time I wanted to work on things I probably wasn’t as good at, like ground-level work and being better at that.

“I just wanted to go back and have fun and enjoy footy, because I feel like that’s when I play my best”.

While it took Austin until Round 3 to impact the scoreboard, it has been nothing but impressive progress since, with her fourth two-goal effort of 2023 coming against Greater West Sydney in Round 8 and earning her an AFLW Rising Star nomination.

Austin’s ability to consistently kick crucial goals for the Blues has seen her gain attention from the league’s leading defenders, a challenge that the young gun has been excited to face.

“At the start, I didn’t really know how to handle it but I feel like now I am taking it on as a challenge and just trusting what I’ve worked on,” she said.

During her time on the sidelines, Austin was able to tap into the knowledge of the experienced Carlton forward line, with Jess Dal Pos, Brea Moody, Phoebe McWilliams and Darcy Vescio being the sounding boards for the 19-year-old.

“I feel like even before I got injured and when I was injured I was still learning from them," she said. 

"They’ve all been such great mentors ever since I got here, it’s’ been awesome. I like to pick their brains whenever I can."

Her time as a Blue - although hampered by her injury - has been impactful for her forward counterparts as well, with Darcy Vescio speaking highly of Austin as a player, teammate and person.

“We were all watching her work so hard to get back to that condition she was in because she had a great couple of games last year, but it’s been a real privilege to watch her up close, watch her take on the games,” Vescio said.

“I feel like she’s grown with confidence every week and she’s starting to learn how dominant she can be in the air and at ground level.

"Above all, she’s just a really wonderful person to share footy with”.

Although Austin’s education in the forward line has been enhanced by her experienced teammates, the young spearhead has seen her time under forwards coach Christina Polatajko as impactful, both as a player and as a person.

Austin has worked with Polatajko to utilise 'her weapons' but also to lean on her teammates up forward to support, which she has seen as a major benefit to her game as a whole.

With the pressures that come with Austin’s Rising Star, Polatajko has given the 19-year-old reassurance that her team will support her the whole time.

“She [Polatajko] has been awesome, I’ve really loved having her and I loved that it's such a family mentality in the forward line too," Austin said. 

"We’ve all got each other’s backs and were all there to help each other grow and I really love that ‘Polly’ has implemented that." 

“There’s a lot of pressure on her [Austin] on the outside, but we try to make sure that inside our four walls, she can control what she can control,” Polatajko said.

With a breakout season comes attention, from both the media and her opposition, something Austin will work to get used to.

But the Carlton No. 22 has used her time on the training track and with her coaches to take it as a positive and take the challenge in full stride.

“At the start, I didn’t really know how to handle it but I feel like now I am taking it on as a challenge and just trusting what I’ve worked on,” Austin said.

With her Round 8 AFLW Rising Star nomination bookending what has been a more than impressive first full season at Carlton, Austin has shown through her determined comeback to her scintillating form that this is just the start of a highlight-filled career.