The Ballarat football export jumped at the chance to help pupils sharpen their skills so she could spend more time with her nephew Ollie, who would dearly love his club North Melbourne to have an AFLW team for Ashmore to play in.

Asmore was amazed to see the wide range of team alliances on show in her hometown, especially compared to when she was growing up. Except there was no She particularly noted the influence of her former club Western Bulldogs on children in the region.

And the support for women’s football was booming.

“It’s been amazing since the first season of AFLW,” Ashmore said.

“Our local footy (VFLW) grand final will be played at Etihad Stadium for the first time this weekend with the VFL (Victorian Football League final) and televised. It’s actually really cool how far women’s footy has come.”

Ashmore has little time for rest. Her VWFL club Melbourne University was knocked out in the semi-finals and she will travel back up to Brisbane at the end of October to begin an intense block of AFLW pre-season training.

In between, Ashmore wants to spend as much time with her family as possible. Ashmore will soon have another nephew or niece and the Lions have granted time off for her to return to Ballarat.