Mai Nguyen is a pocket rocket that isn’t afraid to put her body on the line. She loves the physicality of AFL and at 162cm she is quick off the mark. Mai lives in Liverpool and works as a physiotherapist. 

Monday

The Sydney climate put on a show and it was muggy and humid by the time the girls were ready to train. There had been lightning storms during the day and the thought of running around in the heat wasn’t appealing. However, when we started training we all switched into gear and the skills went up a notch.

Tuesday

We were lucky to have a special guest speaker come in and address us before training. Katie Page, the CEO of our major sponsor Harvey Norman, spoke to us about her role at the company and why Harvey Norman chose to support our team. It was obvious Katie had a genuine passion for women’s sport and she was one of the most confident and influential people I have come across.

Possy (Jessica Dal Pos) came up with the awesome idea of running our team values past Katie to see if she had any feedback. She was really helpful and explained that there are a lot of similarities between business and sport. She gave us some really good suggestions.

After Katie left, two of our youngsters Beeso (Rebecca Beeson) and Mads (Maddy Collier) presented our team values to our Player Development Manager, Kim Green. As we are pretty much 28 complete strangers from all over Australia, it had been a difficult task. However by the end, the girls were really pleased with what we had come up with.

Then it was time to hit the gym for a weights session. Cheers to our Strength and Conditioning coach Sim for doing all she can to add a bit of muscle mass to my flimsy self.

Wednesday

I actually have Wednesdays off work so I enjoyed a little bit of a sleep in. Usually Wednesday is what I call “Me Day” and involves getting all the housework done before heading to the beach.

However, this week I caught up with the Victorian girls and showed them around Cabramatta. Surprisingly we were able to find a café with almond milk so Saucy (Alex Saundry) could have a coffee. Normally the only milk you can find in Cabramatta is condensed milk used to make famous Vietnamese iced coffees.

More importantly, the girls were super excited to have our head coach Tim Schmidt back on board after his romantic getaway. Tim just got married and had been on his honeymoon for a couple of weeks, so it was awesome to have him back. We had a massive training session and did a bit of work in our lines, finishing with some game sense drills.

Thursday

Even though we didn’t have training, Thursday was a big day for me. I worked about 12 hours at my physiotherapy clinic in Liverpool. After work I caught up with some friends and went out for dinner. I was in bed by 10pm.

Friday

I got up feeling really fresh after a good eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. I only had a half-day of work because we had our work Christmas party. Training that night was a bit of a struggle - I could feel my Christmas lunch still in my stomach.

We had a lighter session on the track, however at the end of training Sim came out and told us we would be running two 400m sprints. After those we were all wrecked - everyone except Lou (Stephenson) and Barsie (Nicola Barr) who are the best runners in the group. We then headed into the gym for a weights session.

After my ice bath I walked down the road and went to the Flume concert. It was good, but I was pretty exhausted after a big week.

Saturday

The GIANTS football girls joined forces with the GIANTS netball team for a social night out. We enjoyed a Thai banquet in Newtown before heading to watch the Sydney Flames in the WNBL.

After the game we all had a shot for goal from half court. Well done to Schmidty (Aimee Schmidt) who got the shot in first.

We also discovered a must see YouTube clip of Jessica Bibby from back in her basketball days. She used to play in the WNBL for the Canberra Capitals. 

Sunday

Sunday I had a sleep in and went to the beach. I took my book and ended up falling asleep on the beach for a few hours. It was just what I needed after a busy week. 

Phoebe McWilliams will be bringing GIANTS fans a behind-the-scenes insight into the GIANTS' AFL Women's team with interviews and articles across the 2016/2017 season. Phoebe is a Victorian priority player selection for the GIANTS' AFLW team and also has a background in Media and Communications.