ESSENDON’S Georgia Nanscawen created history on Tuesday night, winning her second Lambert-Pearce Medal in a row as the best player in the VFLW competition.

But according to Nanscawen herself, it came as a bit of a surprise.

“I certainly wasn’t expecting to poll so well,” she said. “I knew that I had a consistent season and obviously you know in a team that wins a lot of games it always helps, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be like that. We have such a strong team with so many contributors across the board, I suspected there might be a few up there with me but it’s certainly an honour to win it back to back.”

Ever the humble champion, she credits her success over the last few years to those she has had around her.

“It’s really been a huge credit to the program over five years since the start of the Essendon VFLW team,” she said. “(Coach) Brendan Major has been at the head of that and a huge credit to him. He had a vision that first year and has been able to develop it as we’ve gone and under him the staffing have contributed incredibly well to the success of the group.

“They’ve got an amazing level of care for not only players but staff and everyone involved and I think that helps the group play with confidence and when you play for people you care about I think that brings out the best in the group.”

It has been a whirlwind few months for the Bombers star, from the highs of being Essendon’s very first AFLW signing to the lows of tearing her ACL in the VFLW Grand Final this year.

Before she went down with the injury she did not get to experience too much of AFLW preseason with the Bombers as she was still juggling VFLW and AFLW commitments, but did note that the quality of training was excellent.

Bombers fans will be glad to hear that her recovery is going well.

“It’s going really well. Annoyingly almost too well it feels like,” she said. “I can sort of feel like I can jump out there, but we know there’s a long road to go and have to kind of take it one step at a time and tick the boxes, and make sure we’re doing it really well.

“But we’ve got an amazing medical team around me, and the support of the girls as well, and I know that together we’ll be able to push through it and come out stronger on the other side of it.”

Unsurprisingly, it has not been easy for Nanscawen to watch her Bombers AFLW team mates from the sidelines.

“I’d be lying if I said it’s not hard to watch,” she said “Obviously it was a really exciting time for the group and it still has been very special to be a part of and very, very exciting, but of course the goal is to run out there and it’s unfortunate that I’m not able to do that this year.

“(I am) trying to get around the group as much as possible and also trying to develop myself and my football whilst not being able to be out there, and I guess look at it from a little bit of a different perspective and try to take some positives out of a bit of a difficult time.”

While Nanscawen is on the sidelines, she is certainly not sitting around and doing nothing. She has been working with both the Essendon coaches and players on a few different things. She has been doing a bit of scouting and analysis work, making the most of the time she has to learn from the other midfields while she is not in the thick of the playing action.

She is also in the leadership group, which was voted for post-injury, proving a testament to Nanscawen herself and the kind of person and player she is.

Although she has achieved so much in her footy career, her next goal is a pretty straightforward yet unsurprising one – run out with her AFLW team mates. But for now, all her focus is on her rehab.