If it’s happened in the AFLW, chances are Sabrina Frederick has seen it. If there’s been a first, she’s probably been involved in that too.

‘Sabs’ was there at the inception of the league back in 2016 and the first season in 2017, signed by Brisbane as one of 16 marquee players for the inaugural eight clubs. If you’re wondering who the Lions’ first ever goal-kicker was, I bet you can guess.

She was there in 2019 when the first two expansion sides in the Cats and Roos joined and she was in the middle of the next iteration the following year, joining Richmond who were added alongside West Coast, St Kilda and Gold Coast.

Hell, she was even there playing for Melbourne before the league even kicked off, in those brilliant exhibition games between the Dees and the Dogs in the mid 2010s.

And then she was at the Pies by the start of the 2022 season – the first of two that year mind you – and she’s been at the Club ever since, putting her on the path to another first which will come to fruition this week.

As the Pies look to notch up their second win of the 2026 season this Saturday against the Saints, celebrations will be in full force for Frederick, when she becomes the first Collingwood player to reach 100 AFLW games.

It’s something the 29-year-old is not taking lightly, as she immerses in the adulation coming her way from all parts of the globe.

“I feel like I’ve hard to really force myself to sit in it and be present and enjoy this because in football you just don’t get many moments to do so,” she said.

“I have been forcing myself to reminisce and go down memory lane and think about the decade career that has gone into 100 games.

“It’s been nice to go down memory lane about it all.”

The rollercoaster of the above timeline has all been part of Frederick’s journey and has been inherent in the league’s evolution too.

Not to mention having grown up in England before moving to Western Australia before the age of 10, Frederick’s career has had it all since she joined the Lions as a teenager.

It’s what the ruck thinks back to when conceptualising what 100 games means to her, crawling back through the highs and lows of a decade-long career that has pioneered how the AFLW will look in the years to come.

“The biggest ones are definitely the back to back seasons in the calendar year,” Fredrick said when quizzed on the most memorable years of her career.

“That was a huge one because I felt like at the time, the players had to take a sacrifice for the longevity of the game.

“That was a really short turnaround and getting used to playing in the summer and then flipping it on its head to now not only playing in the winter effectively but also while the men are on as well, it was a real shift in terms of how the competition was.

“The second biggest thing that stands out for me is probably a couple of years ago when the player minimum was at a place where people could choose to focus on their craft of football if that’s what they wanted to do.

“That was huge and it comes down to sacrifice of players, we really pushed for that and I never thought I would see that in my career span.

“Having those conversations of what it could look like, I never thought that I’d actually still be playing to see that.”

Those past few years that she alludes to will be part of Fredrick’s legacy forever.

With names like Lucy Cronin and Ash Centra coming into the Club while the league has become increasingly more professional, Fredrick’s nurturing nature has come to the fore.

Always imploring her teammates to be themselves, her soon to be 100 games of experience has been constantly imparted on the younger members of the side who will grow the game even further.

“I hope that those two like Lucy and Ash, I hope that I’ve rubbed off a little bit and they’ve embraced who they are a little bit more and haven’t shied away from that,” she said.

“When you’re young, you can easily go the other away and feel like you have to be something.

“That’s what I would say in terms of being a veteran and leading in a way that is true to myself.

“I hope to see that day that Lucy and Ash play 100 games and I hope that they live out the full embodiment of what it is to be a professional athlete.

“I can’t wait for that day to see what more we can achieve in the next decade because the reality is it will move as quickly or slowly as we want it.

“This group of AFLW athletes are still just as ambitious of trying to make this the number one sport for women in the country, so I don’t see us slowing down.”

It’s there for her kids and many others’ as well.

With a young family, Frederick is proud of having helped forge a path that means both her daughter and son can play football at the highest level if they choose to.

“At the time when AFLW started I obviously knew it was important and there were so many firsts to be had and for how people looked at sport for women, but I was young and didn’t realise the impact it was going to have until now,” she said.

“All the people I have met over the last decade and even just speaking to people about this milestone and people wanting to come out and support me, you’re really forced to think about the impact you have.

“It’s on the community as a whole, not just women in sport and not just in clubland at Collingwood, it’s actually very big.

“Now I have two kids of my own, a daughter and a son, and I think ‘how cool that I’ve played a part in making sure if both of them want to play football both of them can’.

“I didn’t have that, so that is so cool and I don’t know if they will play, but they can and they both could play for Collingwood is awesome.”

That last point around the black and white in particular is what is making this week so special Frederick.

While 15 players have raised the bat before her around the league, being the first to do so in Pies colours is of special significance to the UK-born veteran.

Having played for three different teams, her identity as a footballer could be split depending on people’s perspectives, but Frederick is proud to have spent the most significant part of her career and notched over half her games at the Magpies.

Saturday will be her 62nd in the black and white, with the Club a place she’s seen many things grow within herself, the game and the environment.

“From afar, you grow up and you hear the name Collingwood and there’s lots of different things that people throw around but the one thing that I always say is people are always talking about Collingwood,” she said.

“Regardless of what they’re actually saying, it’s always front of mind for people and I think that’s just due to the impact and the gravity that this football club has on his country.

“I think that’s the part for me that I feel so honoured because the club has so much history and has had such an impact in the sporting landscape, not just the AFL world.

“There’s a lot of things that people will argue and deliberate in the years to come but the thing they can never take away from me is that history says that I’m the first and that hit me that that’s something that people can’t argue or change.

“To be mentioned as the same sentence as one of if not the biggest sporting organisations in this country, there’s not really any words and I feel very grateful.”