She grew up in a loving but manic household as one of eight sisters and so joining a new AFLW club full of strangers and different personalities is light work for newcomer Mikayla Pauga.

An AFLW premiership winner with Brisbane last year at just 20 years old, Pauga joined the GIANTS in the off season along with pick 73 in exchange for sending pick 24 to the Lions.

A bubbly personality who recently finished a Bachelor of Psychological Science, Pauga says her eventful upbringing in a family of 10 – consisting of eight sisters and her parents - has her well positioned to thrive in her new environment with an entire new playing group.

“I’m one of eight sisters and all of us are very, very close,” the 21-year-old said.

“It was pretty hectic when we were growing up and I often tell people how I didn’t even have my own [bed] room until year 11 or so, so I’ve always grown up with not much space,” she laughed.

“My sisters and I are all different and so I’m used to having to share spaces with a mix of personalities and having to work with others to make things work as none of us were ever on the same page about anything.

“We were really lucky that our dad was so supportive of us all and loved the girl energy and it was nice living in a house with so much female energy and I feel I’ve learnt a lot from that, and it makes it easy joining new environments like this.”

Spending most of her childhood moving around Brisbane as well as living in Utah in the United States as part of her dad’s job, Pauga started playing footy in year seven where she eventually earned a spot in the AFLW Academy before ultimately being drafted by the Lions through eye-catching performances with Bond University as an 18-year-old in the QAFLW in 2021.

In a touching story of kindness, Pauga credits her journey to the AFLW largely to one of her Queensland school teachers by the name of Ashleigh Hales who worked selflessly to provide the keen young footballer the opportunities that being part of a family of 10 previously didn’t allow her.

“With so many siblings my parents couldn’t really get me to training- plus with the sports fees with all of us, the cost would have been insane- but I had a schoolteacher that was really determined for me to play and so she would help me fundraise at school [to pay the fees]. I was the girl selling the chocolate in those boxes,” she laughed.

“Then after school she would drive me 45 mins to the ‘Sunny Coast’ for training and then drive me all the way home, so she really helped me keep pursing footy.

“My family is also religious so I couldn’t play club footy because that was on Sundays and so she [Hales] fought to get an exemption for me to go play with her in her women’s team as they played on Saturdays. Then she’d drive me to the games and to all my trainings.”

Asked if she’d have made it to the AFLW without Hales’ help, Pauga was quick to credit the crucial role the caring teacher played.

“No, not at all. She helped me do everything,” she added.

“She even helped me get my driver’s licence and things like that. She knew it was hard for me to work around family things and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to pursue footy if I didn’t have her there. I was very fortunate to have her at my school.”

Turning her attention to the upcoming AFLW season, the new GIANT can’t wait to get started in her new role as an inside midfielder at the GIANTS.

“I’m so excited. Different team. Different role. Different expectations,” she said.

“At the Lions I was playing more as a small forward but coming here I’m coming into more of a midfield role so a big focus for me is building my tank so I can make the most of my time in the midfield as I know my strength is my contested ball so it’s about building the tank so I can utilise those skills.

“I learnt a lot from the midfielders at the Lions and I want to bring that into a team that probably needed my strengths for that part of the game and I’m excited to grow as a player and be like the Lions girls were for me with some of my new teammates and help bring other players up with me as well.

“After I won the premiership [last season] I kind of wanted to branch out and move away and become my own player and use what I’ve learnt and bring that to another club and it’s really exciting.”

Pauga is one of eight new GIANTS for the upcoming AFLW season, which will get underway with an exciting clash with the Bulldogs in Canberra on Saturday, August 31.