Some AFLW players are drafted at 18 and make an immediate impact, while others are forced to bide their time at VFLW level until given their chance. Jas Ferguson is certainly one of the latter.

After making the VFLW Team of the Year last season for her strong performances at Collingwood, the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos selected the key defender with the 51st selection of the NAB AFLW Draft. 

Ferguson has been a constant in North’s backline for the first four games of the season, and her calmness and composure both with the ball and in the contest has left fans wondering why it took until the age of 22 for her to earn her crack at the big time.

After performing well in North’s first three games of the season, Sunday’s clash with Carlton presented Ferguson with the biggest individual challenge of her young career, taking on two-time All-Australian and reigning AFLW leading goalkicker Darcy Vescio, one of the competition's most dangerous forwards. It’s a test she passed with flying colours as Vescio was restricted to just seven disposals and one goal for the game.

“We knew coming in that Darcy can be really damaging. I don’t think they’ve had a season they’d have liked to yet, so we were really mindful of the possibility of them hitting form against us. We just wanted to try and nullify them, keep them out of the contest and make Carlton use different players when they went forward rather than Darcy,” Ferguson told North Media.

"We know when Darcy's not around the goals they’re a really good user of the footy. As a group we wanted to keep Darcy high and wide, so if they got the ball it was outside the 50 and they couldn’t use their skills.

“I think we played really well. With Dani (Hardiman) going out a bit later in the piece - we thought she was going to play but she couldn’t get up - it might have thrown us a tiny bit. We had to really come together and all play our roles. Since Dani was out I played a bit more as that deeper defender. I’m practising it a fair bit at training and even when she’s there we switch in and out so I can get a bit of experience at it.”

After a tight opening half which saw Carlton leading early in the second quarter, the Kangaroos' relentless pressure proved too much for the Blues, with the Arden Street side eventually running out as five-goal victors.

While the performances by North’s midfielders stole the headlines, North’s defence allowed just one behind in over two quarters of football, with Carlton kicking their only goal of the second half in the final minute of the game.

Ferguson says it was a matter of not just the defence but the whole North side maintaining their focus until an opportunity to take the game presented itself.

“From the start ‘Crock’ (senior coach Darren Crocker) said Carlton was going to be hot. It’s at a point in the season where they probably need to start winning so we knew they were going to come out and throw absolutely everything at us, but we also knew they were coming off of a five-day break so they were probably going to open up a bit at some point.

“We just needed to stay in our structure. It was a really frantic first half but Crock just kept driving home that if we kept that structure we were going to be able to come out on top.”

While Ferguson may be the newest defender through the doors at Arden Street, she’s not necessarily the newest player to North’s backline. Emma Kearney is still learning her new position after her move into defence, while Brooke Brown is improving every week after transitioning from a ruck/forward into a rangy and athletic key defender.

The new personnel coupled with the chopping and changing that naturally comes with the ongoing pandemic and fitness issues means the Kangaroos have started each game this season with a different back five. That lack of early continuity means the backline's best is yet to come, according to Ferguson.

“There’s been a lot of changes, so at the start of the season I think we were trying to figure out how each of us play to our strengths, but now we’re a few games in we’re starting to learn that really quickly. 

“‘Duff’ (Jess Duffin) is a really good intercept defender with a beautiful mark, Brooke can run off, ‘Kearns’ can run off as well and makes us almost unstoppable when she gets going. We’ve got ‘Gilly’ (Aileen Gilroy) who can really drive that footy 60 metres when she gets going, and Sarah Wright who runs all day and is always where she needs to be.

“It’s taken us a couple of games, but I think we’re really starting to hone in on how each of us in the backline play. I think it’s really starting to come together."