As Sarah Rowe scrolled through her emails in late 2017, a message popped up from a sender that she didn’t recognise.
The 22-year-old had just played off in the All-Ireland Gaelic football championship final for county side Mayo and was forging a career in the native sport, having already excelled for her country in soccer.
Those talents had caught the eye of AFLW recruiters with the competition in its inaugural year and looking to grow, using the success of Irish imports in the men’s competition as a launching pad.
But Rowe was none the wiser at the time, even thinking the message that lobbed in her inbox must have been spam.
“I got an email when I played an All-Ireland final of Gaelic football in Ireland and then I got an email asking me to come out and have a look at the six clubs in Victoria at the time,” Rowe recalls.
“I remember just being like, ‘this is a scam, I don’t even know what AFL is’. All I knew was International Rules.
“Then I came out here and I looked at six clubs at the time - Geelong, North Melbourne, Collingwood, Bulldogs, Carlton, Melbourne - and then I remember coming into Collingwood and being liked instantly ‘this is where I need to be, this is my place’.
“That was 2017, I came out in 2018 to have a look and then I actually signed in 2019, so I think I signed in the third year of the competition.”
Things have moved quickly since then, and now the messages she finds in her inbox are those of congratulations as she prepares for her 50th career game this Sunday afternoon against Carlton.
Rowe will become just the sixth current Collingwood player to reach the milestone – something she couldn’t have imagined when she first arrived in Australia.
“It’s crazy to think that it’s been as long as it’s been, I feel like it’s only yesterday since I came and then I actually reflect on how many relationships I’ve built around here and how close am with everyone,” she says.
“I actually feel like I’m part of the furniture now, the club does mean a lot to me so it’s a real privilege.
“It’s hard to believe it because I always think of myself as a novice of the game because I essentially didn’t grow up playing it.
“I am experienced and have been here five years and I know the group pretty well and even just knowing the staff and how the system works it’s great.”
Rowe has also been a seminal figure for fellow Irish players, paving the way for the now 33 players in the AFLW.
The midfielder was the second of those and says the quality resources and staff have helped the competition cater for imports.
“I was blown away by the system and the set up, I couldn’t believe the facilities and how you had so many people around that were there to make you a better player,” she says.
“I feel like in Gaelic football you have a manager, a coach, a strength and conditioning coach and you have one or two other staff and that’s probably it.
“I had heard about footy in Ireland through word of mouth and you saw things online but didn’t know as much as I did as soon I came over here.
“Now there’s 33 Irish girls out here playing which is an incredible number…it is so cool to see the growth in that and even just kids at home being like to me ‘it’s my dream to play AFL’.”
“I didn’t even know that it existed in my time as a kid, it just kind of happened and I was here and I’m here five years later so time flies.”
Growing up in a different environment and excelling in two sports has meant she hasn’t been without her mental challenges throughout her career though.
Representing her country at junior level in soccer, as well as a host of club sides, Rowe had always thought she wanted to play at the highest level for an extended period of time.
That desire was put on hold for her AFLW dream, but it came back to a head earlier this year when she took the opportunity to resume her soccer career in the AFLW off-season after the calendar was restructured.
“It was an interesting one, I wasn’t enjoying my season of AFL last year and I kind of couldn’t put my finger on as to why,” Rowe says.
“I was really looking inward, and I really missed playing Gaelic football and soccer and sometimes I probably feel like I’m missing a part of myself being so far away from family.
“I felt like going back to soccer to a new challenge and going into a new environment would give me a better perspective to go ‘what’s important to me and what do I want to do?’
“When I was younger I had opportunities to go to College in America and I had opportunities in soccer but I kind of came up in the middle of that and decided to go here.
“Obviously, five years down the track I’m still here, but with unfinished business in soccer so it actually worked out perfectly with the season timings.”
Rowe didn’t ease herself into it though, signing with A-League side Melbourne Victory and discovering just how challenging the road back would be.
“I could’ve gone to a local league but I went straight to Victory and I spoke to Western United and a couple of other clubs and said ‘what’s the go with soccer around here?, what’s the standard like?, how does it compare to Ireland?,” she says.
“If you don’t ask the question you don’t know any different, so I was just putting myself out there to see and then I met Jeff Hopkins the Victory coach and he was amazing.
“I was like ‘I haven’t kicked a soccer ball in eight years so there’s nothing to suggest I’ll still be good at that game’, but I did reassure Jeff that I would be resilient and will bounce back and work my absolute socks off to get to where I feel I can in the game, but you just need to be really patient with me.
“He put like ten cones in front of me and was like ‘just dribble through those’ and I was like ‘easy I can do it in my sleep’ and I couldn’t do it, I was knocking every cone.
“I was like ‘this is going to be harder than I thought’ so I feel like I went back soloing the ball, the way I was doing things was different as I’d become an AFL player.”
Things did eventually click, with Rowe going on to play three games for Victory and then 13 for Irish side Bohemians as she headed home during the Australian Autumn.
It all allowed her to one, rediscover he love for the game of soccer, but two, come back a better teammate and player for Collingwood.
“You learn so much playing games, three games for Victory and then the games at home and then back out here, I came out much more refreshed and I learnt a lot,” she says.
“I learnt a lot in that time and through my separation I really appreciated the Club letting me go do that and I think I was so respectful towards that because I’d said to Steve (Symonds) ‘you’re letting me play soccer, I will promise I will give you my everything when I get back and you’ll see the best version of me’.
“He knew me as an individual and has known me for so many years now and knew that that was best for me.
“I came back really loving the Club and being away I spoke to a sports psychologist…and I kept talking about Collingwood and they were like to me ‘what’s this got to do with Collingwood?’ and I was like ‘I want to come back a better player to them’.
“I have to develop myself as a person and a better leader. I want to be really reliable and consistent to my teammates because of the nature of my life being so transient and bouncing between Ireland and Australia, I’m not always reliable.
“You want to be a person of your word so I did tell Steve I’d give him my all and I really want to follow through on that and I just mostly want to be consistent for the girls so they know they can trust and count on me on the field.”
Giving her all Rowe is, as she enjoys a career-best season in 2023.
Leading the charge the past two weeks as the Pies look to surge back into finals contention, the 28-year-old says the connection within the group has been key.
“It feels really connected and we definitely had a few cracks last year and I think we ironed them out. Sport is a really hard environment, you get feedback all the time,” she says.
“Everyone took the feedback on the chin and went and reflected and that’s definitely what I did and asked, ‘how can I contribute to this group better?’
“The win last week connects all the dots together because you believe in what you’re doing, but you have to see it done.
“When it’s done you go ‘this is the reason we do it’ and everything we’ve been stressing over and practicing, when it comes to fruition you go ‘we’re on the right track’.
“We’ve just got to keep going and stay connected because it takes a lifetime to build trust, but it takes a minute to break it so the biggest thing for us is to continue to trust each other and trust the process.”
