IF Tasmanians work on island time, then Claire Ransom is doing exactly that. The standout Apple Isle product came into her top-age campaign with plenty of plaudits having earned AFLW Academy honours, but maintains she is taking things “one step at a time” in the build up to this year’s draft.

“I’m just working on still ticking away at a lot of skills and things that I want to develop a bit more, but just aiming everything all towards the draft,” she said. “I’m pretty open to it all at the moment. I’ve just been trying to focus on getting the NAB League season out of the way, then focussing on Allies and taking it one step at a time.”

Having turned out for an improvised Allies side consisting of Tasmanian and Northern Territory products last week, the 18-year-old is quickly becoming accustomed to making friends of foes. Speaking on her first representative experience for the year, she said the “vibes” were on point.

“It was a really good game, I thought that we all gelled really well together and I was pretty proud of everyone and the way we came together in less than 24 hours,” she said.

“It’s always great to get a mix of people, not just Tassie. I think that we all gelled really well together considering we only just met (a night before the game), but we had really good energy around the group and the vibes were really good.”

Now, Ransom gets the chance to represent the combined Allies squad against Western Australia, in a team which also consists of talent from last week’s opponents, NSW/ACT.

“I knew some of their players already and they’re always really nice and nice to play against, no one’s ever rough of anything like that so I think they’re just excited to be joining with us as well,” Ransom said.

While it may seem so from the outer, Ransom’s 2022 journey has not entirely been all smooth sailing. She suffered an injury setback which saw her miss some NAB League footy, with her game against NSW-ACT the first one back. Positional improvisation has also come into play, but Ransom is going with the flow.

“I ended up missing the last two (NAB League) games due to stress responses in my foot, so I managed to get one full 100 per cent training in before the game (against NSW/ACT), which was my first game back,” she said. “It was a bit of a shock to the body but I pulled up alright.

“I don’t really mind where I play too much, obviously I predominantly play in the midfield but I’m more than happy to play forward or back when it’s needed.”

“Excited” for what the future holds, Ransom will turn her attention to AFLW Academy camp and an outing with the national group later in the year, after her remaining representative duties.