North Melbourne captain Emma Kearney knew she was leaving the Western Bulldogs before last season

North Melbourne captain Emma Kearney has revealed she asked the Kangaroos to poach her before the start of her final season with the Western Bulldogs. Plus, which Roos are starring on the AFLW track?

North Melbourne captain Emma Kearney has revealed she asked the Kangaroos to poach her before the start of her final season with the Western Bulldogs.

Kearney won the AFLW best-and-fairest, earned All-Australian honours and starred in the Dogs’ premiership last year before telling the club a week after the Grand Final that she was off to North.

The AFL industry has long struggled with the idea that players can stay committed to one jumper when they have secretly agreed to play elsewhere.

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But Kearney’s mature approach helped her piece together a decorated season.

“I was really disappointed when North didn’t get an AFLW licence initially, because they’d done a mountain of work for my VFL club, Melbourne Uni, and were super genuine about women’s footy,” Kearney told the Herald Sun.

“I thought they deserved one and was really disappointed they didn’t get one.

“As soon as (North) got announced as having a licence I contacted (football boss) Laura Kane and said, ‘Once you’re allowed to start poaching players I’ll put my hand up to play there’.

AFLW best-and-fairest winner Emma Kearney. Picture: Andrew Tauber

Emma Kearney in action during the AFLW Grand Final.

“I made that decision before the season started.

“But for me it was like, ‘I’ve made the decision, I can move on and I’m purely focused on playing for the Bulldogs in that season’.

“I’m ultra-competitive, so whatever jumper I’m putting on I’m going to give my all to that jumper.”

Kearney confided in close friend Aasta O’Connor but didn’t tell any other teammates until after the premiership, although a few started to cotton on.

Kearney now works at North Melbourne and is an Australian Almonds ambassador as the AFLW profile starts to grow.

“Coming from a teaching background I didn’t want to do teaching my whole life,” Kearney said.

“So working in a sports club sets you up and you can’t really refuse that.”

The Kangaroos’ poster girl joined the fight for the AFL to fixture more games and suggested the AFLW season should start after the men’s Grand Final.

North Melbourne's AFLW captain Emma Kearney hard at work using the battle ropes.

“You’ve got to play every team once, I think. We’ve got 10 teams in the competition, so nine games plus two weeks of finals,” Kearney said.

“That’s 11 games, and they’ve got to maybe look at trying to find a different time frame. Is it straight after the AFL men season, so October, November, December?

“Something’s got to give because all the girls want to play more games, the fans want more games.

“If the AFL is serious about the women’s game then we need to be playing more games at a high level for the standard to lift.”

The WBBL is set to move to October as a stand-alone tournament this year.

Kearney backed midfielder Jenna Bruton to enjoy a big season and said forward Jasmine Garner boasted the best hands in the league.