WHILE 2025 was far from her perfect scenario, West Australian Mia Russo ended her top-age campaign “happy”. While Russo admitted she had “bigger plans” for herself, the West Perth star was able to continue her development and remain among the top 10 talents in this year’s AFLW Draft.

“It was a really good year, especially with Under 18s, we did pretty well as a state,” Russo said. “We could have done better but I’m happy with what we did. It felt really good to be part of such a good team and talented team.

“West Perth I wish that went better, we got pretty unlucky throughout the season which was unfortunate but we still stuck to it as a team and did well. “Individually I had bigger plans for myself, but I’m happy with where I am, and I’m content.”

Russo is widely regarded as one of the toughest players, quite often battling through niggles or injuries here or there, and while it was frustrating at times, she still performed strongly.

“It was hard because I just wanted durability this year, I didn’t want to get injured, but I unfortunately did and I can’t control that so I just did whatever I could to get better as soon as I could which I did,” she said. “I was lucky enough to get back for the state carnival because I did get injured before that, so at least I got back in time.”

Her form at the national championships saw Russo earn All-Australian honours, ticking off one of her goals coming into 2025, and outlining her gratitude at achieving the feat. Russo said it made it a lot easier working alongside Carys D’Addario, Juliet Kelly and Renee Morgan in the Sandgropers’ midfield.

“I don’t think I’ve worked so well with a midfield group before,” Russo said. “With Juliet, Carys and Renee, never been able to click so well with some people, so definitely my inside mid work, working it out of the contest, give and go’s, first gives, decision making, and it was much easier to do that.”

Following the National Draft Combine, the temptation for athletes is to continue pushing all the way to the draft, and while Russo will look to maintain her fitness and continue to get stronger, she is looking forward to a little break to rest the body after a hard year.

“We were just talking about that with our physio,” Russo said. “We’re going to have a meeting soon enough about what we want out of it, and what we’re looking for.

“I’ll be looking for maintaining my fitness obviously, its going to be off-season and I haven’t had an off-season yet so it would be nice to have a bit of a rest and give my body a break. “But I’d like to keep training, maintain it, then looking to gain heaps of strength through this off-season.”

With only two West Australian clubs, Russo’s chance of having to relocate east seems a high possibility, and that is a prospect that sits fine with the Falcons young gun.

“I’m content with moving away, it’s a massive possibility for me so it is what it is,” Russo said. “I’m open minded, I’m open to absolutely anything. “I’m just grateful to say I’m here and I can have these opportunities and talk about this.”