The 10th AFL Women’s season is set to play out in 2025, and the competition has come a long way since its first round of matches about eight years ago to the date.

As a way to celebrate the milestone, Rookie Me Central will be catching up with some of the pioneers of the early AFLW era to reflect on their careers and see what they have been up to since retirement.

In the next article of the series, it is time to catch up with former Brisbane Lions captain Emma Zielke.

Emma Zielke was one of the big names of the early days of the Brisbane Lions, being appointed the side’s inaugural captain and going on to be the first AFLW premiership captain of the club.

“I suppose it was all completely new for us,” Zielke said, speaking on being one of the pioneers of the AFLW.

“Coming into the AFLW in 2017, I’d been playing football for around 10 or 11 years in the Queensland Premier League prior to that. It’s been an amazing and I suppose with Queensland footy, it’s still growing at a rapid rate, but when I first started it was very amateur. So it was awesome to be a part of those inaugural years and help shape where it’s at now.”

Despite being outside the Aussie Rules obsessed bubble that engulfs Melbourne, Zielke said that there was plenty of hype and build-up in Queensland to the inaugural AFLW season.

“I suppose the league did a pretty good job in terms of promoting it nationally. I think AFL Queensland definitely made a lot of noise around it, got our community clubs involved,” Zielke said.

“I remember we had our first official practice match down at Coorparoo Football Club and it was a little bit of the unknown at that point as to if we were going to get a crowd. That day was a pretty wet day I remember, but we ended up having around three and a half thousand people show up to our first ever praccy game, and from there we were all really excited for the season ahead just because we just didn’t know what to expect, and to see the crowd show up in that first ever game was pretty cool.”

Speaking on what it was like to be named the first ever captain of Brisbane, Zielke said it was a “very huge honour”, especially having been voted into the role by her peers and the coaching group.

“I suppose playing at Coorparoo for the years before coming into the Lions, I was the captain there, so I had a little bit of leadership experience,” she said. “I’d also captained the Queensland team for a couple of years. so I suppose they were looking for a little bit of experience in that area, and I was probably the most vocal in the group and ended up getting voted captain.”

After a couple of heartbreaking near misses in the seasons prior, 2021 was finally the year Brisbane broke through to win its first premiership.

“We had those two really disappointing losses in the first two years… but I think that made it all that sweeter winning our first ever premiership,” Zielke said, reminiscing on that title win.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling, and I feel like that year was a really incredible group and that we had the energy and I suppose the connection we had within the group was amazing. One of the best feelings I’ve had within a group before.”

That Grand Final would ultimately be the last time she would be an AFLW player, as Zielke retired on top.

Since then, coaching has been Zielke’s chosen path; first as an assistant coach with the Lions, and now as head coach of the club’s women’s academy.

“It’s different feeling to as you are as a player, but being able to celebrate their success and me having a little part to do with their journey, it’s super rewarding and I absolutely love it,” Zielke explained.

Zielke has always found coaching to be a passion of hers, and would not rule out becoming a head coach in the AFLW but is not rushing towards that aspiration.

“I guess if an opportunity arises, it’s just going to obviously be the right one, but it’s always going to be a goal of mine to get back into the W one day,” Zielke said.

“But I absolutely love being a part of the development of these young players, and there’s just in my academy alone some serious talent coming through, which excites me.”

It has been a transformative 10 years for Zielke, but if the 2025 version of herself went back and told her 2017 self about everything she had achieved in that time frame, she is not convinced she would believe it.

“I started football at 19 and that’s a late starter. The girls starting now are starting at five and six years old, which is fantastic, and I’m from North Queensland, where I didn’t even hear about AFL when I was growing up,” she said.

“From everything that I’ve achieved in AFL, and hopefully there’s more to come, I wouldn’t believe it. It’s been an incredible, incredible ride, and I’m so, so grateful for the opportunities that this league and playing in the AFLW has given me, it’s opened up so many doors.”