MADDY Prespakis knew the attention was coming in 2020.

Having arrived as a highly touted draft pick at the end of 2018, the midfield gun proved the hype was accurate. Her debut season ended in winning the NAB AFLW Rising Star and a club best and fairest.

There was no doubt about it: she was going to be the number one target for opposition teams this year.

It happened straight away in Round 1, but Prespakis rose above with a best-on-ground performance.

In Round 2, however, she had a season-low of 17 disposals as Collingwood did everything it could to stop Carlton’s No.4.

That’s when the text message came through.

“I remember the next morning [after the Collingwood game], seeing a message on my phone and it was from Patrick Cripps,” Prespakis said.

“I was like ‘oh my God, this is incredible’.

“For Patty to message me and say that he was watching, saying some great things about my game but also some things he can help me with — to have someone who’s taking his time out to help myself is awesome.”

As Prespakis said herself, Cripps is just about the “go-to” player in the competition in terms of dealing with opposition attention.

So when the three-time John Nicholls Medallist gave her pointers, she was all ears.

The results were immediate, with Prespakis averaging over 22 disposals in the remaining five weeks on the way to a second consecutive Carlton AFLW Best and Fairest.

“I was very happy when he messaged me, especially when it comes to tagging and things like that,” she said.

“He gave really simple advice and didn’t make it too complicated. Going into games, when certain things were happening, you’d think about it quickly and I was able to do it.

“Keeping the messages on my phone and constantly going back to read over it was really nice and it definitely did help.”

With five Carlton best-and-fairest awards between them, Prespakis is hoping to sit down with the AFL co-captain prior to the 2021 season.

She said the investment from the AFL playing group towards the Game Changers was something that continues to go from strength to strength.

“I watch his game very closely: we’ll have to sit down in pre-season and do some vision. It’s nice that they’re so supportive,” she said.

“We’re always receiving messages or they’re following us on Instagram to follow up and they’re up to date with what we’re doing, just like we’re up to date with them.”