After the Sherrin spiralled into the Princes Park twilight to begin the first ever AFLW game back in 2017, the first player to touch it was Emma King. 

Nine years on from that historic night, North Melbourne's dual premiership ruck-forward prepares to play her 100th AFLW match. 

On the eve of her milestone game against the Saints on Saturday, King shared three moments that have shaped her career.

I've been playing footy since I was six. I'm one of two sets of twins. There's me and my twin sister Dana, and Jasmine and Keifer, who are 16 months older.

My dad just loves footy, but I always wanted to follow in Keifer's footsteps and do whatever he was doing.

Our local club in Western Australia was Quinns District, which is where the Hill brothers are from. Keifer played with Bradley Hill later on. When I started playing I was the only girl in the team but my brother and dad Julian were both super supportive.

I went through to under-14s playing with the boys, then straight into open women's the next year. I used to play out on the wing, just to avoid the bigger bodies. 

I took a few years away from the game, then when I came back I was six foot two. They said, 'Well, you're playing in the ruck, there's no other position'.

I was competitive. I wanted to see how far I could get. But I liked the team aspect most of all. The friends you make, the camaraderie. That's something that's made me always come back to football, and kept me in football.

I've been playing now for 26 years, which is wild. I went through our team the other day and there are 13 girls who weren't even born when I started playing footy. 

I wouldn't say that stat is overly important in itself, but it's pretty nice to have as a moment in time. Being involved in the game is something I'll never forget.

I'd been drafted to Collingwood out of the WAFL, where I'd played with West Perth for a couple of years and then the Coastal Titans, which is now Subiaco. So I'd come from playing local football and state league football, where even at the WAFL level you still had less than 200 people watching a game. To go from that to a 24,000 sellout game, it was unreal.

When we were walking out of the race at Ikon Park, it was absolutely deafening. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. The whole game you couldn't hear your teammates. 

To be out there, all women, and know that everyone's there genuinely to support you, that was pretty hard to go past. It was a moment in history that's really special to have been a part of. 

Lifting that premiership cup in 2024 was so special, but sometimes people think we'd just had a really good year. It took five seasons under 'Crock' (coach Darren Crocker) to get us to that moment. All that preparation building is why we've been able to hold on to it being a successful program. 

I've played every single one of my 100 games with Jasmine Garner. We started at Collingwood together and came to North together, so by the time we reached that point of playing for the premiership in 2024, we'd been playing together for nine seasons. The group we've got today is pretty special, but it definitely hasn't come without hard work over time. 

Individually, the last two seasons have been my biggest challenge. I had my first serious injury (a hamstring in 2025), and then had to work myself back into the side. I also moved from the ruck into the forward line, which is what the team needed at the time.

It's been an absolute privilege to work with the group we've had over those years, and the great leaders from 'Jammin' (Garner) to Emma Kearney to Crock and others. We built that culture over time, as a leadership group and as a whole program to get it to where it is now, a consistently hardworking, high-standard and team-first premiership side.