My first encounter with Krstel Petrevski (KP) is one I’ll never forget; I had walked into Melbourne Football Club age 29 and a bag of nerves. I was awkward meeting the staff, stumbled over my words and was undoubtedly difficult to understand, speaking quickly even by an Irish person’s standards.

KP, who had been recently drafted, however, was fist-pumping staff all around her and had pulled head coach Mick aside to get him to learn a handshake with entirely too many shakes, high fives and first bumps for me to be able to process, in what can only be described as my state of panic.

This 18-year-old was exhibiting confidence I could only dream of at that exact moment. From day one, she has been an exceptionally friendly and easy-going teammate, providing hugs, fist bumps, high fives and most impressively for a teammate so much my junior, she provided me with great support.

This friendly and bubbly demeanour is of course closely linked with KP’s gorgeous personality and generous nature. Her confidence, however, in the given circumstance of our first few days/weeks at Melbourne as two women a decade apart in age, is something that has always impressed me and is something that I have always looked up to.

As mentioned, this can be linked with KP’s amazing personality but there is no denying that KP’s life experiences through her teenage years have also elicited from her maturity and self-awareness beyond her years.

Some may mistake KP’s outgoing, fun-loving nature as the opposite of maturity, but I can assure you the way she trains, goes after marginal gains, her open-minded attitude to both football and life, and her generosity of spirit are exceptionally mature and are all attributes that I admire so much in KP.

Recently I had a sit-down chat with KP, and she spoke to me about leaving her family and life in Halls Creek, Western Australia, to go and attend school in Sydney. She spoke of knowing at that young age what she wanted from life both from a footy perspective and an education perspective.

She also spoke of disappointing educational standards in her community and in similar communities to hers, and how she believes access and opportunity of education should be the same, regardless of your socio-economic status, cultural background and locational status.

KP explained to me that it was common for teens from her area to leave Halls Creek to receive their education elsewhere, but usually at the age of 14 or 15. KP was much younger than that and left her parents, family and community at the age of 11.

Given the discrepancy in access and opportunity to education, KP described to me how “I knew what I wanted to do when I was young, and the opportunity I had at the time I was like ‘I’m going to take it regardless of my age.’”

And speaking of knowing she wanted to be footy player in the future, KP was certain: “Absolutely I knew and I obviously knew too I wanted a better education”.

When I first met KP, she was in the midst of her Year 12 exams, but now a year or so on, she is studying Sports and Exercise Science with social work.

She explained to me how she wanted to add the social work element to her degree so she could develop a means of giving back to her community back home in Halls Creek and to other similar communities: “Social work will help me a lot with the role I see for myself as a person in society.”

KP has a great sense of her identity, who she is and who she wants to be. Of her culture, KP spoke about how much she loves it and how she preaches about it everywhere she goes.

She has always been so forthcoming in helping to educate me personally about Indigenous people, their traditions and their history, both recent and old.

It was fun knowing that out on the track I could happily tell her that I think she is only deadly.

Of my ignorance regarding her culture and its history, I have always been apologetic, but she has always assured me she is so happy to help me understand.

Speaking of learning, accepting and respecting Indigenous communities, KP explained to me that “for us today, its teaching others but obviously it has got to go both ways; we can give so much but you have to give as well. We can give you the tools and educate you, but then it’s like what do you do with it? Do you choose to educate others or do you choose to keep it to yourself and not make change?”.

KP is so very proud to be a part of the AFLW community. She believes the AFLW community is one that is a safe environment for people from every culture and from any background.

The endearing quality of expressing gratitude is something that to me, is very evident in KP and the way she lives her life. She is ever grateful to her family and the people in her life who have helped provide opportunities that have led her to where she is today.

On a broader scale, she also expresses gratitude to the AFL and how the AFL actively goes about trying to make and implement change. On top of this, she is appreciative of the platform it gives her to speak about her culture.

Although I had already been looking forward to it myself, she evoked in me a much deeper sense of meaning and pride. She spoke of how we will be able to reflect back to this time and tell our kids and our grandkids that we were involved in the first-ever Indigenous Round in AFLW and now it is something that happens every year.

It is a round that acknowledges the earliest history of this nation and looks to celebrate Indigenous Australia, while seeking to bring communities together, and as put by KP herself, “that’s why we love the game so much. It’s not just the game itself, it’s what the game brings, and it’s how it connects people from everywhere”.

I could genuinely write about KP all day, but I will leave you with one of the many valuable insights that she has given me. When I arrived in Australia for this season, Sinead, Lauren and I had to complete a two-week hotel quarantine.

During this time, our Melbourne teammates along with the coaches were very good to us, keeping us busy with Zoom sessions, training and checking in regularly to see how we were doing. While in quarantine, I was in touch with KP, expressing how I couldn’t wait to see her and catch up. She ended the text conversation by telling me she loved me.

Quarantine being what it was gave me a lot of time to reflect and think. I thought of how it was unusual where I’m from to express and use the word love so openly. I myself barely tell my Mam, who I idolise and adore, that I love her.

So, it wouldn’t have been unusual for someone to think that KP saying this was just a flippant remark which held no weight but knowing KP as I’ve come to know her, I know she loves me, she loves her culture, she loves all her friends, all her teammates and her footy club and she’s not afraid to tell them.

There are lots of lessons we can learn from KP and expressing your love and care for people is just one of them. So here I am signing off for today and confident in saying, I bloody love you KP xx.