RECEIVING a diagnosis of osteitis pubis (OP) at any stage of your football journey is always going to be a frustrating and shattering experience, but for West Adelaide’s Steph Tredwell, it was a moment she never saw coming. Speaking to Rookie Me Central at South Australian Preseason Testing Day, Tredwell detailed her challenges, as well as her determination to get back to her best in 2025.

The average age for women who are diagnosed with OP is 35.5 – though it can impact a little earlier for athletes – so when the then 16-year-old Tredwell started feeling groin soreness at training, it was not even a fleeting thought. At first, she thought it was just general soreness, but she quickly realised she could not run without immense pain. That was when she got her answer.

“I got pulled out of training with groin soreness, didn’t really know what it was about November 2023 and they just thought it was a little groin strain so then I was going back into running and I was like ‘hmm it still really hurts’ and so they sent me off for scans in January,” Tredwell said.

“Then they came back with the results and the doctor told me what it was and I was like ‘I have no idea what that is’  and they were like ‘oh it’s a three to six month injury, yours is quite mild’ so I was like ‘okay I’ll be back middle of the season, all this stuff, and then it’s just an injury that kind of lingers’.”

Unfortunately for Tredwell, that lingering caused her to miss her entire bottom-age season. Having shown potential as a classy forward for West Adelaide and SANFL Women’s level in 2023, she was looking like having a big 2024 until she was struck down.

Determined to remain close with the football club, Tredwell went to every training session and game she could. It was far from easy, but she looks back now with a sense of pride and accomplishment.

“It was lots of setbacks but I think it’s mentally helped me a lot in a weird way,” Tredwell said. “I think I’m a different person now.”

It helped that Tredwell was not alone, finding support in a couple of fellow Bloods who were going through the same arduous journey.

“There were actually a couple of League boys at the time who also had it, so we were all kind of in the same boat and we did sometimes train on the same night so we were just all in the gym, at least I had some people who were like ‘oh I had that’ or ‘yeah I know what you’re feeling like’,” she said.

“But they were all like ‘you just wake up one day and it’s gone’ and that’s literally what happened to me, and then I just eased back into running and now back to full training which is so exciting.”

Fast forward to the 2025 season, and Tredwell is back fit and firing. Though yet to crack into the League team, she played throughout the Development season, and the past fortnight has headed back to the Plympton Bulldogs, her junior club. A class above at that level, she has booted bags of three and four goals.

Still trialling to get into the State Academy, the main goals for Tredwell in 2025 was just to get back and play some consistent football.

“I just think trying my best and training hard, play and just get myself in the game and just be happy I’m out there really,” she said. “Just show everyone that I can still play because people haven’t seen me play in a year. Just prove myself I guess.”

A natural forward who can take great marks but also crumb cleanly at the feet of her taller teammates, Tredwell considers her aerial ability and defensive pressure among her best strengths, while still developing her skills and fundamentals.

Tredwell is a former basketballer who fell more and more in love with the oblong-shaped ball game and from running around as a nine-year-old in the Under 12s to representing South Australia at state level, he has had some real highs and lows along the way.

“I grew up playing basketball for a lot of years, and then I grew up with an older brother who plays at Westies,” Tredwell said. “I always looked up to him and thought ‘oh footy looks so fun’, so then I joined Plympton when I was young. I was playing in the Under 12s on the half oval, me and Eloise (Mackereth) played together, it was lots of fun and then I went back to basketball because I wasn’t going to play basketball, and then I went back (to footy) and haven’t really looked back.

“I slowly stopped doing basketball and picked up more footy and I’ve never lost the love of it. Basketball was starting to be a bit eh, but footy I loved everything about it.”

Tredwell burst onto the scene in her debut season, kicking a couple of important goals for the Bloods in what would eventually be a tight loss to South Adelaide. Her back-to-back third quarter majors gave her side a buffer against the home team down in Noarlunga, and though it was not meant to be in the end, the clash gave her great confidence.

“I think in the first year of Westies, it was really just getting used to versing women’s because I always versed girls my age and maybe a little bit older in school, so I was quite little, I didn’t have much size to me so I think that game I realised that I could do it, and actually do it if I have the confidence,” she said. “That game was pretty fun but we did just lose so that was said.”

The teenage talent has a lot of influential people who have helped along the way, from coaches at West Adelaide and her school to her parts and friends who went on to get drafted, Tredwell has not had to search too far for inspirations. It is why she also admits she does not support one particular AFLW club.

“I don’t think I go for a club I just go for my friends because I’ve got so many friends all at different clubs,” she said.

It’s a different story for the men’s competition though, with Tredwell a Crows supporter through and through. So loyal to the tri-colours is Tredwell that when her boyfriend Charlie West got drafted to the Magpies last year, Tredwell remained true.

“I go for the Crows in the men’s,” Tredwell said. “My boyfriend plays for Collingwood so I just go for him. “He got drafted last year. “Don’t know if I can bring myself to go for Collingwood though!”

As for her own potential relocation to chase her dream at the highest level, Tredwell had no fears about travelling interstate.

“Yeah absolutely, I’d be happy to go anywhere really just any opportunity,” she said. “I’d love to move interstate.”

Ahead of the year, Tredwell’s goals were “simple”. She just wanted to get back to playing the game she loves and of course with the longer term view of reaching the top level.

“Well I guess going more simple just playing every game and actually being out on the field is definitely my biggest goal, and then playing my game and see where it takes me,” she said. “The big goal is to get drafted, that’s been a dream for years and years and years, and now’s the year to put in the work and get it done hopefully.”