How AFLW superstar Erin Phillips was rebuilt to produce another stellar season

Erin Phillips is arguably the AFLW’s greatest player but the Adelaide star has opened up on the debilitating injuries she had suffered and revealed how her body was “rebuilt”.

Erin Phillips has revealed she needed a rebuild and learned how to run again. Picture: Getty Images

The quad would just keep ripping.

And even when it didn’t, she still couldn’t give her all to every session of a pre-season.

Something had to give.

For a frustrated Erin Phillips, it was going to take a rebuild.

The Adelaide star — and former WNBA guard — had suffered debilitating quad injuries in the lead-up to the first two AFL Women’s seasons, rendering her preparation all but void.

She had resigned herself to saving herself for games.

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“I went away after last season and I just thought, ‘there’s something more’,” Phillips told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“Obviously I’m a basketballer trying to play footy, and my body’s just been so accustomed to playing in the inside of a basketball court and not used to that open chain, hard-running, so much change of direction in an open field.

“I went away and went to the Michael Johnson Performance Centre in McKinney in Texas, where I live half the year. We went through basically from head to toe what can we do to avoid this from happening in the future.”

It meant a reset, with Phillips’ physique and techniques stripped back and recalibrated by performance specialist Mark Pryer and physical therapist Adam Malek.

“A lot of it was really small, technical based (things),” she explained.

“They taught me how to run again, my flexibility, my hip mobility.

“A lot of that was from being in basketball — I’m down in a stance at 90 degrees playing defence.

“It was trying to basically re-train my muscles to be able to be more flexible, be stronger and run properly.

“It was really interesting and it really helped.

“It was foot strike on the ground, being strong in your feet rather than just your legs. It was really small things that just made a massive difference.

“I almost felt like, ‘well, this is going to keep happening every year — what’s the point?’

“I can’t not kick in pre-season, I can’t not sprint in pre-season. I’ve got to go into one year at least to give it my best shot. It was really refreshing to hear them give me some different tips and advice and train with them, and here I am.”

It worked.

“I’d had pretty optimistic thinking — I thought ‘if this doesn’t work, then at least I’ve tried everything’,” Phillips said.

“I was OK with what was going to happen, but I felt really confident. I had a lot of time to train over in the States before I came here, and what I was doing with the kicking and stuff my legs got really, really strong and my body felt really flexible. As long as I could maintain that during pre-season, I thought it was going to be fine, which it was.”

There is little resistance to the argument that Phillips — who is determined to play for a few more years yet — is the greatest player in AFLW.

An attacking beast, she claimed the inaugural AFLW best and fairest medal and is on track to claim another on Tuesday.

Erin Phillips has dominated almost every statistical category this season. Picture: Sarah Reed

She sits second for possessions this season, averaging 21.9 per game and top for metres gained (2921), contested possessions (105), equal top for clearances (44), score involvements (47), inside 50s (36) and second for contested marks (11).

A shot at a second premiership looms on Sunday, two years after Phillips co-captained the Crows to the first-ever flag.

A lot has changed in those 24 months.

In 2017, Phillips and wife Tracy’s twins, Brooklyn and Blake, fit inside the premiership cup, the latter of which had kept his mum awake at 3am on game day.

Now, the pair are preparing for another sibling, with Tracy due in August.

A second grand final also poses a different beast, and to defeat the Blues on home soil would be “very, very special”.

“Five years ago I never would have thought I’d be playing AFLW. I was still playing basketball,” Phillips said.

Phillips with her twins Blake and Brooklyn after winning the 2017 AFLW Grand Final. Picture: AFL Media

“It’s like premiership one (was great), and here we are playing in a second grand final. It’s really quite surreal.

“But it’s just so good to do it with this group of girls, because we’ve stayed together.

“To see the rewards … everyone works hard. I’m not saying teams don’t work hard or deserve it. But it’s just so special to see what you put in, the hard work and the hard yards, to be back at this point.

“I would have just been so happy to play footy, let alone be playing in two grand finals. So for me, it’s just been incredible. Very, very special.

“To be at home as well … it’s going to be all of our childhood dreams come true. It’s going to be good fun.”