Laura Daniel didn't know what she was getting herself into when a friend convinced her to join the Blayney Bears in 2023.
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Although she'd dabbled in a few footy codes during her time in high school, the Orange woman had never played a competitive game of league tag in her life.
With a laid-back attitude, Daniel thought "yeah, righto" and signed on for the Western Premiership campaign.
She was given a shock when "only six or seven of us" arrived at the first few training sessions.
"I would show up and think we're not even going to field a side," Daniel recalled.
"Then we got around game time and all of a sudden 12 showed up and we made it happen."
And while the club was as welcoming as Daniel could have hoped, the results on the field weren't as positive.
The Bears failed to win any of their 14 matches and scored just 46 points. They finished the season in last place.
Little did they know, change was afoot.
The Bears, along with fellow Group 10 stalwarts Cowra Magpies, shifted to the Woodbridge Cup ahead of the 2024 season.
"Thinking last year in Group 10 how we didn't win a single game, it was like 'how is this going to go'," Daniel said on the move.
They got their answer pretty quickly.
Victories in round one and two against the Magpies and Orange United had them riding high.
Although the Bears were brought back down to earth with consecutive losses against perennial powerhouses Manildra and Canowindra, Daniel has loved the "country footy" vibe.
"I think we surprised ourselves," she said of the results.
"We've got a few new players this year and we've trained our arses off."
The Woodbridge move didn't deter the fans either as they continued to flock to King George Oval.
The Bears will now play host to Molong Bulls in all three grades on May 19, doubling as the club's Ladies Day.
Daniel knows how "awesome" it would be to get a win in front of the fans to mark the occasion.
"The one thing I've learnt that I love the most about playing footy is the social aspect of it," she added.
"I didn't know a single person on the team and now I've got a whole team of friends."
Tickets for the Ladies Day event are $20.
