A LONG time coming. 

For Maddy Guerin, suffering an ACL injury in September of 2022 now seems like a lifetime ago. 

Now with a full pre-season, six VFLW games and a handful of local level games under her belt, she couldn’t be more confident with herself heading into Round 1 of the AFLW season on Sunday. 

“I’m stoked that I’ve made it to this point and made it through pre-season fully,” Guerin said. 

“To get through a consistent block of games gave me huge confidence, now I’m not thinking about that at all, so I can just focus on playing my role and not worry about my body.”

No stranger to the rehab process, this was Guerin’s second stint in an extended program, having suffered her first ACL injury in 2020.

Able to go into the journey with an agenda, she started the processes aiming to come back for the VFLW season, giving her the opportunity to play again much sooner. 

That time in the VFLW was invaluable for the 24-year-old, who got to reunite with her midfielders and build confidence in her ability. 

“I think having VFLW as a goal in my rehab was huge for my perspective, knowing that footy wasn’t that far away,” she said. 

“Because I train so much with them, when I was able to get out on the park with them in VFLW, it was pretty seamless. 

“You know where they’re going to run, you know what they’re going to do, what their strengths are. 

“To be able to play with ‘Abs’ [McKay], Keeley [Sherar] and ‘Mim’ [Hill] that I’ll be playing with gave me huge confidence that we’ve got that connection and cohesion.”

Taking part in both pre-season hitouts, Guerin was relishing the prospect of coming up against her old side in Melbourne, and a huge contender in Adelaide. 

Wanting the pre-season to be as testing as possible, the midfielder admitted that facing two of the best sides in the competition was the best scenario for the Blues to see where they were at.

“You want to be challenged in the pre-season and we got two of the biggest challenges,” she said. 

“To play our game style against our two sides and really draw some strengths and some weaknesses, I think it will hold us in good stead.

“It felt like we were really cohesive as a group through the game, which we haven’t had as much in the past – the way that we stayed connected through the game and were able to pull through when it got tough was awesome.”

Plying her trade as a midfielder and forward, Guerin is happy to rotate through both positions as the games go on. Sunday's game will be her first under Mathew Buck, with the Blues to have a much different look compared to the last time Guerin pulled on the Navy Blue in a draw against Port Adelaide in Round 3, 2022.

Ultimately, she is just happy to go out there and play her role for the team – something she’s desperately been wanting to do for the past two years. 

“Individually, I just want to play my role, whether that’s as a mid or a forward, be able to do develop and make sure I’m not putting too much pressure on myself,” she said. 

“As a team, we’ve gone after a few more layers of our game plan – to execute that will be great, we’ll learn a lot this year as we’re under that new game plan but I think we’re going to make some big strides with it and you’ll see some exciting footy from us this year.”