In a team chock-a-block with superstars, everybody loves Craven.

North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos winger Tess Craven is so beloved by the club's fans, her personal player sponsor is the entire cheer squad.

She's a low-fuss footballer – short hair, tatts, plain footy boots, undersized but tough around the contest, a beautiful kick and most importantly, works her backside off.

Fans are drawn to her combination of workerlike traits and clean skills, as well as the kindness and care she shows supporters at games and training, and her breakthrough game in last year's Grand Final win saw an outpouring of love online.

Jasmine Garner is the champion, Ash Riddell is the workhorse, Emma Kearney is the scrappy leader, Vikki Wall the bull, Tahlia Randall the pack-crasher, but Craven is their own home-grown heart and soul (via the suburbs of Geelong). 

"We all feel the love. We've garnered a lot of support, with how we're going and our success. And I think that's something that a lot of teams can be envious of, is that we've drawn eyes I don't think we would have otherwise," Craven told AFL.com.au.

"North Melbourne's always been a club that had to fight to be here. We had to fight to be in the VFL. We had to fight to get an AFLW license, it's always that Shinboner Spirit, you know, the underdog and I really love embracing that mentality. 

"We don't have the most fans in the League, but they will show up for us no matter the weather. The cheer squad sponsor me, which is very cute and very lovely. They've looked after me ever since I got to the club. So it's hard not to feel the love when there's so many reminders around us all the time."

It hasn't come easy for Craven.

She's been public about learning how to deal with and manage her anxiety, and a small part of her thought that maybe winning the premiership last year would lighten her mental load, particularly given her strong performance in the season decider.

"I'd love to say it's gone, because I'm playing good footy and everything's going well, but that's just not it's not how it works," she said.

"That's the illusion, right? We think, 'If I play better and if we win the Grand Final and if I'm fitter and I'm contributing to the team regularly in ways I want to, then it's all going to go away'. But it doesn't. 

"It's a good thing and it's a bad thing. I'm a little bit neurotic and I overthink everything and if I really try, I don't have to look hard to come up with something I'm not doing right. I more have to convince myself I'm doing well. 

"It's kind of a good thing in the sense of realising that external things aren't going to fix this, I have to do this within myself. Lisa, the (club) psych, has actually been such a good help to me. I just come to her, and we chat and that just seems to help me to get all my thoughts out.

"Mostly it's great, but it's not always, and that's just part of life. It's part of being in this industry. We're all very hard on ourselves naturally because we all perform. But yeah, it's certainly better, because I know myself a lot better, and I know how to look after myself better, and what's going to help me more."

Anxiety is often driven by the fear of a lack of control, or an over-emphasis on perfectionism. 

It's oddly fitting that Craven thrives on the football field, in the most uncontrollable of sports, where a game can turn on a random, right-angle bounce out of nowhere. 

"The appeal of footy is that it's chaos and you have to react on the go. I think that's something that's actually helped me, acknowledging that it is so unpredictable and uncontrollable. I have to accept that there's some things I can't control," Craven said.

"Some days, especially playing on the wing, it's just not going to come out to me. It's not always a reflection of where I'm at as a footballer. I think I have gotten better at embracing the fact that it is chaotic, it's unpredictable. I just need to make sure the majority of the time I'm doing the right thing for the team."

In 2025, Craven has followed up from a sterling Grand Final by averaging a career-high 14.8 disposals and has kicked the same number of goals – six – as she had in her four seasons prior.

"It was great to contribute. I think that's probably just the main thing is to contribute like that on such an important day for this club. I obviously hold that very close, and I'm really proud of that," she said.

"I'm sort of at the point where I don't want me playing like that to be such a big thing anymore. I want that to be expected. And so, you know, it's great to have that big stage and everything – but I want people, my teammates, whoever's watching the game, the coaches – I want them to expect that sort of stuff for me now."

North Melbourne player development manager, Esther Hassett, has worked with Craven since she joined the club as the shyest of 17-year-olds in 2021, trundling up the road as a Hawthorn supporter who grew up in Drysdale, near Geelong.

Given she was at school during the Kennett Curse era, it would have taken some guts and quiet determination on the playground to stick with her Hawks allegiance.

When Craven aged out of playing footy with the boys, she rallied her friends and formed Drysdale's first youth girls team.

"I wouldn't call her shy anymore. She's a highly intelligent person who really has a strong idea and sense of who she is, and she's really grown from when I first met her," Hassett said.

"She's very smart, great sense of humour, very dry. What I've really noticed about Tess is that she's become really comfortable in herself and the woman that she is and is very proud of that. So that's been a lovely journey to see that growth from when she first arrived at the club and was too shy to go in the gym.

"I can understand why she's a fan favourite, because when she's talking to you, there's so much depth to it and she means it. She loves the fans. It really means a great deal to her. 

"I watch her and she's one of the last out there, talking, signing autographs because it means a lot to her. I'm going to say this really kindly, but she's a footy nuffy. She loves footy, she doesn't take playing in the AFLW for granted."

Craven has changed her major at the University of Melbourne from chemistry to psychology.

In the lead up to a game, she doesn't allow herself to listen to any music that may remind her of football, least she triggers her anxiety, instead limiting herself to podcasts. 

But her goal song this year – Coldplay's "Sky Full of Stars" – is a reminder of from where the Roos have come.

"There's this TikTok or Instagram reel or something, probably both, that the AFL made last year. It showed clips of the Lions men losing in 2023, and us losing the same year, and then when the beat dropped it flipped to them winning and us winning. 

"It just reminds me of us and that year and that moment, and made the most sense for me."