They sought out youngsters like Jeremy Cameron and Toby Greene, then pinched established guns such Heath Shaw and Callan Ward from rival clubs.

But Amanda Farrugia may prove to be the GIANTS' best acquisition yet — and one of the AFL’s most valuable resources.

The league, earlier this decade, pledged to grow the game in western Sydney. But the latest frontier is women’s footy.

Getting bums on seats at games is one thing. But encouraging young boys and girls to nominate AFL as their sport of choice is an entirely different, and much more difficult, proposition.

It involves capturing the imaginations of a generation whose parents’ and grandparents’ weekends were spent watching, playing and loving other sports, most notably NRL.

But Farrugia may hold the key to unlocking it all.

As a PE teacher at Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta, the 31-year-old deals with the AFL’s target demographic daily.

“I am spreading the message to play AFL out there like wildfire because I love the game so much,” Farrugia told foxfooty.com.au.

“I want the girls at my school to realise what a wonderful game it is and in some ways break down those gender barriers and gender stereotypes that still exist, particularly culturally.

“I think with some cultures people believe, because it’s a contact sport, women shouldn’t be playing. But it certainly is. The challenges, the friendships, the leadership skills you can develop playing this game are totally underrated.”

Farrugia is the latest teacher to join the AFL fraternity. She follows in the footsteps of coaches, including Carlton’s Brendon Bolton and Brisbane’s Chris Fagan.

As Bolton and Fagan have highlighted, a schooling in education can be equally, if not more, effective in the AFL bubble than a decorated footy career.

Yet with one foot in the classroom and one on the field, Farrugia has a unique ability to transcend both spheres.

She’s a favourite at school, where her new-found fame has enamoured her with her students.

“All they say to me at the moment is, ‘yeah, we get it miss, you play for the Giants’,” Farrugia laughs.

“I think they’re kind of sick of hearing about it to be honest, but they’re super supportive.”

Farrugia, 31, didn’t start playing AFL until 2011.

But the sport wasn’t entirely new to her either.

“I got interested in it because my brother was obsessed with it,” Farrugia says.

“He would watch it on TV every weekend. He was a mad stats man and he would sit in front of a TV and write down every statistic of every player for Hawthorn.

“Having it on in the background, I thought ‘this game looks all right’. We started kicking the footy in the backyard and I thought ‘I really enjoy this’.”

The iconic sounds of AFL must have stuck with Farrugia, because when she was looking for an alternative game to basketball and touch footy, it was the first sport that sprung to mind.

She discovered there was a league for women in Sydney and never looked back.

“I turned up at Macquarie University and when I saw how keen those girls were and how much they loved it, I thought I want to be a part of this,” she says.

Only a year after Farrugia started her footy journey, the GIANTS were catapulted into the AFL.

Since then, the profile of AFL, the GIANTS and its players have grown. And while it has been a slow burn, Farrugia says the growth has been “significant”.

“A lot of that credit has to go to the GIANTS,” she says.

“The amount of community work they’ve done has been phenomenal. Prior to any of my involvement with GWS we had them come out with coaches to our school and teach a year 10 program to our students.

“They’re very willing to come out and promote the game and give back to the community. It’s that stuff, a lot of which is unseen and unnoticed, that is growing the game in Western Sydney.”

Now Farrugia is not only a part of the GIANTS army, but cemented in the school system which the Giants have been visiting for the best part of six years.

Farrugia says she’s “lucky” to come to school and have “footy chats”.

But the AFL and the GIANTS are arguably the biggest winners.

Originally published by Foxsports.com.au as GWS AFLW skipper Amanda Farrugia may prove to be an invaluable resource for AFL on Thursday, Februray 2nd 2017.