SOUTHERN Saint Melanie Bertuna has loved the game of Aussie rules football for a long time, but had a few familial hurdles to overcome to even start playing the sport at all.

As she recounts, Bertuna signed up to play football with her dad, but was met with a stumbling block when her mother found out.

“Mum had no idea and then we came home and she was like ‘Where have you guys been all day?’,” Bertuna said. “I said ‘Oh, I’m playing footy this season’ and she was like ‘oh my god, you are wearing a helmet, you’re doing all of this, I can’t have you getting concussions and things’,” Bertuna said.

“My first club season I proved not to be too bad in the YJFL and then I got picked up by the Oakleigh Chargers, so I played there for a few years an then got a call from Peta Searle when she had just started coaching at the AFLW, and I think Paddy [Hill] was still here [at the Saints] and they said ‘We’d love to have you a part of the club’ and I was like ‘I’d love to be here’.”

The Saints were not her only potential VFLW home. After trialling with both the Hawks and Pies, Bertuna felt like she was the fittest she has ever been, but ultimately went with the Saints because they sort her out and made her feel so welcome and at home.

The physicality is what drew Bertuna to the sport initially.

“I feel like I was always a little bit rough as guts growing up a little bit. I got into soccer early on and basketball and things like that when I was younger, but I was like ‘I feel like there’s something missing’ and my dad really supported me through footy. I just love the physicality, that’s one of my favourite things about it.”

These days, Bertuna plies her trade in the midfield, but that was not always the case.

“I used to be a small forward when I played at Oakleigh and then when I started here I was training with the forwards and I even played a couple of games as a forward,” she said. Then Dale [Robinson, former Saints VFLW coach] was like ‘She’s small, and she’s quick, let’s try her in midfield’.

“It was very daunting, there’s a lot to remember. VFLW in general is just very different to club footy. There’s so many structures and things like that, but being in midfield there was a lot to remember, to do and think about, but I feel like I came into my own and I also got grow as more of a physical player in the midfield.”

After not initially being close with her, Bertuna now looks up to former teammate and now AFLW Saint Deanna Jolliffe, and really admires how she goes about her preparation.

Although she does have a goal of making it to the AFLW, Bertuna’s focus at the moment is playing her best VFLW footy because as she put it, “if you can’t be the best where you’re at, then it’s harder to make that stepping stone available and make that opportunity arise if you’re struggling.”