THERE'S been a lot of reflection recently.

In the immediate moments after that semi final, you go through that ride of emotion: that excitement and anticipation comes out of the game. Then, there was that disappointment and anger and that flat feeling knowing the season wasn’t going any further.

But just as quickly as it comes, it goes. The emotion doesn’t last long at all because of that realisation: the enormity of what was happening on a global scale really hit home. Football comes second really quickly when you start to think of your family, your friends and your job.

Once you get your ducks in a row, you start to bring yourself to the surface again and start thinking about the missed opportunity that we had. It’s only natural.

The only way that I can move past it is it was through no fault of our own. We played great football. We have a great environment and a great culture that we’re part of. You take a lot of confidence and positivity out of that, knowing it wasn’t our fault and we can’t carry on.

My sister has got two kids who are two-and-a-half and nine months old. The perspective hits very quickly when there are little kids around that don’t know what’s going on in the world. All they want is some food and a cuddle and they’re happy.

It makes you appreciate the small things in life when something as big as this has happened.

Of course, the disappointment of not playing is certainly there and the anger of not being able to have another crack at a premiership which we lost the year before was there. It wasn’t directed at anyone, or the AFL or any organisation. It was simply the fact that we didn’t have the opportunity.

The anger was at the world. We dwelled on the loss of the Grand Final longer than we should have: I know I certainly did personally. But we were able to change that focus and channel that into producing what we did.

We were certainly much better placed: we were right on the verge. Besides that Collingwood loss, we didn’t really have a mark against us all year. Last year, if the ladders were combined, we actually finished fifth and we were a little bit up and down.

I don’t want to take anything away from the ride to the get to last year’s Grand Final, it was incredible. But we were so much more consistent this year compared to 12 months ago.

We prepared really well. Apart from Jayde Van Dyk, we didn’t have any major injuries that struck us as a team. That’s because we put the time into the preparation, all the things that you need to do to get your body up. It’s a huge credit to our staff. We played really well, we were building really nicely and we had an unchanged line-up for four weeks straight, which is unheard of in an eight-week season.

We put players like Grace Egan in the midfield and Lucy McEvoy playing mid-forward and they brought so much to our team. Down back, I’m so proud of the defensive line. We added Mua into the line-up this year and she was enormous for us. The growth of Charlotte Wilson — they’re the most pleasing things as a leader.

It’s a really positive thing that we got so much right this year, no matter how it finished. Hopefully we can continue that method and formula going forward and we can be in an even better position next year.

That’s been the message from the Senior Coach as well.

’Harf’ has a great viewpoint on football and the world. His advice has always been the same, whether it’s during this crisis or prior to this. It’s always been that your family is your number one priority: the way he speaks about his wife and his kids and his family just shows that.

Football is a wonderful game and we all love it, but that is what it is: it’s a game.

Sure: it’s disappointing that it has ended and we absolutely wanted a tilt at the flag. But we will be able to reload and go again. This is another challenge that will make our story so much better when we get to that end goal.

In terms of the debate about the premier, I 100 per cent agree with Darcy Vescio: the right decision was made in not awarding one.

The one thing that ‘Darce’ has better than anyone else I know is her sense of humanity and compassion to people and the community. Her ability to see the entire picture is something we value so much in her. She does it without even trying.

It would have been wrong to continue playing while society and the community is going through what they’re going through. Football provides a healthy environment and for it to survive, it needs to be in a healthy environment. It was incredibly eerie on two fronts: when I was playing in Alice Springs with no fans, and working in Round 1 of the AFL season between Richmond and Carlton. It almost didn’t feel real.

The community is such a massive part of what we do and why we do it.

From an AFLW integrity point of view in terms of the competition, to reward a winner just for the sake of it wouldn’t have been the right thing. The premier, whoever it was, whether it was us or another team — it always would have had an asterisk next to it. I don’t think that would have been the right thing to do.

My ambition is to win a flag where everyone in the whole Club can be there to enjoy the success and to be able to share that success with my family, friends and teammates, where we’re able to sing the song arm-in-arm rather than 1.5 metres away.

Winning flags in any case, they’re hard to come by: in any format, you’re going to take the opportunity. Had we been asked to play, of course we would have done that. But I do believe that it was the right decision to not award a premier for this year.

Hopefully it’s third time lucky next year — even though right now, the 2021 season seems an eternity away.

If things were going smoothly, you’d start casting your mind towards pre-season. The questions are about ‘When can I start ramping things up?’, or ‘How can I better myself from last season?’. This time around, football doesn’t even seem like a reality at the moment.

It’s all about ‘How do we get to next week?’, and ‘What does the AFLW competition look like next year?’.

There’s been a bit of talk recently about the future of the AFLW competition. In my view, it’s not even a question: the AFLW is here to stay.

It’s a juggernaut in terms of the demographic the competition appeals to and it’s not going away. From a Carlton aspect, the investment that has been shown from Mark LoGiudice, Cain Liddle, Brad Lloyd and Ash Brown has been absolutely remarkable from day one.

They have made themselves really accessible to myself and all of the players: I’ve had calls from all four within the last fortnight, congratulating the team on the season but also providing the support and as much reassurance as they can. They’re really committed to the Carlton AFLW team.

Nowhere along the line did we think their support was a bit of lip service. The investment has been there from day one and it gives me so much confidence going forward that the Club is going to back us and be around to give us what it is that we need.

I get really proud of when I talk about the Carlton family and this is no exception. The Game Changers aren't going anywhere.

In terms of the year, it’s hard to go past Maddy Prespakis when it comes to our best and fairest as well as the conversation around the MVP of the competition. Teams tried so hard to combat what she was doing and they failed. She had her challenges this year in overcoming teams and she did exactly that, and she grew so much from the year.

Patrick Cripps reached out to her after the Collingwood game to speak about how to overcome those challenges. She took a lot of confidence out of that and the positive messages which ‘Crippa’ gave to her meant so much. ‘Doc’ did the same thing for us and ‘Simmo’ was in our defensive meeting at half time of that game. The boys’ support throughout the year has meant a lot.

It’s a really cool environment at the ‘Baggers and we’ll all be able to get through this. The playing groups will be strong and we can’t wait to get back out on the park again in front of our amazing members and supporters.

But right now, everyone needs to put the health and safety of themselves, their family and the community ahead of anything else.