“I remember coming home from the first ever women’s game and getting the boxing gloves out and sitting down, obviously I couldn’t stand, and punching it out, just saying to myself ‘that’s going to be me one day’.”

Jess Trend, North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroo, speaks to the importance of resilience and how it has helped her navigate through the journey of life.

“I think in life you’re going to come across many hurdles that you might have to face, and challenges, and I think resilience is part of growth,” she said.

“Resilience isn’t just overcoming something, you also learn something from it.

“Every challenge and hurdle I’ve faced in my life I’ve had to be resilient, but I’ve also been able to reflect and think about what I’ve learnt from it and how I’ve grown as a person. I think that’s really important to have as a value.”

Speaking in a feature for the True North Portal, Trend recounted some defining moments through her journey so far. 

“I did my ACL in 2016 and that was when the first ever women’s draft was on,” she said. 

“All my friends got drafted but when I reflect on it now, I look back at it, that it kind of happened for a reason, because I was just finishing my teaching course and I was putting everything into footy and ignoring teaching.

“When I did my knee it was kind of like a moment where I got to reflect and think 'OK, now I can put everything into teaching'.

“When I had my surgery I had time at home to put everything into my resume and I got a job straight away. Now I reflect and I think it was the universe telling me a little bit like you know, ‘hey, there’s more to life than footy’.

“I remember going to the first ever women’s football game and inside of me, I was just punching everything, but outside of me I was trying to be happy and be supportive.

“People were trying to say things that were like ‘you know 'Trendy', this will be you one day’ and I just looked at them like 'I wish it was right now'.

“I guess it was a bit of jealousy and a bit of anger towards why this happened to me. Now I reflect I don’t see it as such a bad situation, but in the moment I was fuming, I was angry, I probably acted like a little bit of a victim as well.

“I think you’re allowed to act like a victim for a period of time, but then there’s a time when you just have to kind of accept it and move on and use it as fuel.”

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