North Melbourne AFLW star Britt Gibson on her rapid rise on and off the field

New baby, new wife, new city and new footy club — Britt Gibson is the AFLW’s change-management super achiever. Dubbed ‘The Dozer’, the Kangaroo star opens up on her move from a small country town to the big city.

North Melbourne AFLW player Britt Gibson is all smiles with her partner Jaime and baby, five-month-old Henry. Picture: Tony Gough

New baby, new wife, new city and new football club — Britt Gibson is the AFLW’s change-management super achiever.

In six months that mirrors the Kangaroo star’s barnstorming on field ways, the Tasmania-via-Queensland export is kicking goals at every turn.

Not that long ago, life was much simpler for Gibson, who grew up on a farm at Wilmont, a small Tasmanian town near Cradle Mountain, with her parents, two older brothers and a pet goat called Chester.

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North Melbourne AFLW player Britt Gibson is all smiles with her partner Jaime and baby, five-month-old Henry. Picture: Tony Gough

“We had beef cattle and potatoes,” the 26-year-old said.

“Pretty much all I’ve ever done is farming and driving tractors and harvesters.”

Now she’s in the big city, Gibson is still involved with heavy machinery, but as a stevedore at the Melbourne docks.

“I’m a wharfie,” she said this week.

“I do a lot of shift work — quite often I’m coming from shift work to training, or I’m going to there from training.

“I do a lot of night shifts at this time of the year just so I can fit everything, which is quite challenging but I love it.

“When you love something, you don’t mind too much, do you?”

No.1 on the Gibson priority list is five-month-old Henry, her child with wife Jaime.

“I don’t think people understand that these girls have full-time jobs as well as home lives — football is not the top of the list,” Jaime said.

“For most of them you don’t survive off football.”

Gibson loves a goal and is always amongst it for the Roos. Picture: AFL Media/Getty Images

Henry comes to training on Monday nights.

“The girls all dote over him, the whole club do really,” Britt said.

“He’s flying down to Tassie this weekend; hopefully he’ll run out with me.”

Jaime and Britt married in November. They played footy together at the Burnie Dockers in Tasmania, where Jaime was the first female player/coach of a premiership side.

But Jaime is happy to leave the on-field stuff to Britt now.

“I love football,” said Jaime, who will do special comments on tonight’s game for ABC radio.

“I’m nowhere near as talented as Britt.”

After two seasons as a Brisbane Lion, Gibson jumped at the chance to join North Melbourne, and not just to be closer to her Tasmanian family.

“North Melbourne is my one true love,” Gibson said.

“Obviously you get a little bit excited about the team you barracked your whole life coming into the competition, but I was very happy in Brisbane.

“They treated me really well; it was just a massive pull to be back closer to home.

“Obviously it’s a dream come true to put on the blue and white and to wear No.18 — I’ve idolised (Wayne) Carey my entire life, it was kind of like ticking one little box after the other.

“It’s been a very special six months or so for us.”

Gibson was dubbed the ‘The Dozer’ in the early days of AFLW after clearing an opponent out of the way with her head.

She’s shown those same attributes in defence at North, but in Round 1 she also showed she doesn’t lack for dash or polish, collecting a handball near the centre before taking off. Gibson shimmied and bounced and unloaded at pace from 50m for a stunning goal.

“It was a little bit of luck,” she said this week.

“I’m naturally more of a mid-forward — I don’t mind kicking goals — so when I saw my opportunity, I had to take it.

“I was pretty stoked.”

Stoked, too, are the Kangaroos, maybe the only AFLW team with the depth to be able to keep a player of the quality of the Burnie Dozer — let’s make that Dasher — down back.

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