BLEEDING Navy Blue.

As Lily Goss enters her third season in the AFLW, she reflected on how she found herself at the home of the Carlton Football Club.

Goss constantly wanted to challenge herself by taking her game to another level while striving to play high-level footy. She plied her trade with Kew Rovers then Old Scotch before getting picked up by Carlton’s VFLW side.

She felt satisfied with her development, but a breakout season had pushed her to give professional footy a go -- even though the prospect wasn’t even on her radar.

“Funnily enough it (the draft) wasn’t entirely on my radar whilst I was playing VFLW, I just loved playing at a higher level," Goss said on The Winning Edge Sports Podcast.

“When the VFLW season finished, a few of my teammates and coaches said ‘you may as well put your hat in the ring, there’s no harm in that process’.

“Because I was with Carlton I spoke to them during that period and they seemed keen or they wanted to keep that connection so I was very happy to go through that process with them.”

The then 22-year-old finished the Blues’ runner-up best-and-fairest for the 2022 VFLW season and was curious to see how the draft would go. 

A trip to the United States fell on the same date as the 2022 AFLW national draft forcing the Goss family to stay up into the late hours of the night not to miss the chance of hearing Lily’s name read out.

That was all worth it as the midfielder was selected with pick No. 48, making that step up into the AFLW program at Carlton.

“I definitely didn’t expect that I would be selected, but because I put my hat in the ring … my name got called out and I was just gobsmacked,” she said.

“I thought it would only really be better from here.”

There was a slight initial hesitation, as Goss lacked confidence in taking that major step up from the VFLW to the AFLW level.

It was the people on the outside that really put everything into perspective for Goss, reassuring her that if she put in the right hours, worked hard enough, and built that professional development within herself, then the transition between the levels would be seamless. 

That all assisted Goss in slowly building her confidence back.

“I eventually got to that place at the end of the VFLW season where I knew that I put enough effort in and I would be fine,” she said.

“I wasn’t coming in as an 18-year-old into the draft … I went to uni, I had a job, I was living out of home, I had all those responsibilities for myself.

“I could make that decision on my own and I wouldn’t be reliant on that happening for me to survive in the footy world.”

All of the work was worth the effort as Goss has continued along her merry way at Carlton playing 14 games and is ready for the upcoming AFLW season which will kick off against Hawthorn on Sunday, September 1 at Kinetic Stadium.

The 2024 AFLW national draft will take place on Monday, December 16.