Some AFLW players use the off-season to head overseas for a holiday. GIANTS ruck Fleur Davies has moved to Darwin.

The 20-year-old is living with friends in the Top End, labouring on a building site during the heat of the day, and training and playing footy in the evenings.

Having been born in Wales, grown up on the Gold Coast and started her adult life in Sydney, Davies is no stranger to moving around, and is thriving in the Top End.

This summer is the second year Davies has played in the NTFLW, having suited up for Southern Districts in the 2023/24 season and Nightcliff this time around, making the move in mid-November and playing for the Tigers just two weeks after the GIANTS' final game of the AFLW season.

Davies – the sole currently listed AFLW player in the league – has now kicked six goals in her eight matches and been named in the best on three occasions, with finals still to come.

A stack of former players have also featured at various points in this season's NTFLW, including Jordan Membrey, Ange Foley, Sarah D'Arcy, Dom Carbone, Paige Sheppard, Steph Williams, Janet Baird, Tori Groves-Little, Iilish Ross, Mia-Rae Clifford, Jo Lin and Laquoiya Cockatoo-Motlap. 

"A lot of my friends are up here in Darwin, and I would come up here on our two-week breaks and do community and club appearances for the junior clubs here," Davies told AFL.com.au.

"They suggested I should come up here and play in the off-season, and the GIANTS approved it.

"It's definitely a big shock coming from Sydney, because obviously we play almost during winter, and you come up here, and it's ridiculously hot, but you do get used to it to a certain degree. 

"But it's definitely challenging, and it makes you think about the game in a different way – rather than having to just keep running, you've got to think about how I can play out the quarter without completely exhausting myself."

Fitness is top of mind for Davies over the off-season, having been one of her exit meeting discussion points at the conclusion of last season.

The 20-year-old sat out her first season with a shoulder injury, then played nine of 10 games in 2023.

The emergence of Irish recruit Eilish O'Dowd changed the GIANTS' set-up in 2024 – at 180cm, there were no initial expectations O'Dowd would be able to thrive in the ruck – and Davies was named in only six of 11 matches.

"I didn't feel like I was getting consistent footy and playing heaps of games, so coming up here in the off-season, I've been trying to work on my confidence. I'm so young still, I've got so much to learn. So I've come back and played kind of the level down, and I'm working on my marking, my kicking, my set shots, because I want to have a go forward this year," Davies said.

"For me, [the message] was kind of the fitness side. I'm in between a big-bodied ruck and an agile ruck, so working on my fitness will help me keep up with the faster rucks, but getting stronger and using better techniques to compete with bigger rucks.

"I want to be more of a target up and down the ground with my marking, that was one of the key points that the GIANTS wanted me to work on this off-season, and coming into the finals of the NTFL, my marking has probably been one of my best attributes."

For Davies, life in Darwin is a mixture of footy, gym, adventure and her day job of labouring – a far cry from the hairdressing apprenticeship she started in her draft year.

"After work, I'll have either our club trainings (with Nightcliff) or on other days, I'm doing my run and gym programs from the GIANTS at TIO Stadium (AFLNT headquarters)," she said.

"When I came up in November, we were building a childcare centre, which we finished at the end of January, and now we're doing apartments.

"It's so random – one day I'll be a concreter, one day I'll be a plasterer, then a painter, it changes every day.

"I've loved coming to Darwin, it's a completely different type of community here. There's the bush, you go out on quad (bikes), you go out fishing or shooting with your friends, and you get to see all the different ways people live up here. Then there's the water holes, the beaches, markets, the sunset, the weather, it's such an ideal place to come for an off-season."

Davies is the second of four footballing siblings, with Giselle having made the move to Sydney last year. Gold Coast's Darcie and 18-year-old Georja (eligible for this year's draft) round out the kids, with mum Simone having danced in the Royal Ballet, and dad Darren a Welsh rugby union representative.

The family grew up on the Gold Coast after migrating from the United Kingdom, with Fleur initially the only one to have moved away from the family base until Giselle joined her in the harbour city.

"I didn't really know what to expect, I hadn't been around her that much for the past three years, but it was so good when she came to Sydney," Davies said.

"She only lives around the corner, and she's my big sister, she makes good meals for me and hangs out for me, it made my year so much better. 

"She's honestly really good at making breakfast. She makes these eggs and ham on toast with her little goat's cheese on top, really bougie."