The two siblings used to kick the football as youngsters on their parents' cattle farm near Jindera and remain tight.

Joel had become a football star in the Ovens and Murray league while Emma had to stop playing footy as a youngster – as was the convention at the time – instead becoming a cycling champion representing Australia at World Championships and riding in Europe.

Not that many used to understand exactly what she was achieving on another continent. 

Her brother, on the other hand, was something of a local hero. 

"I'd come home having just done the world championships in cycling and no one would really know what I had been doing but everyone would know Joel Mackie," Emma said.

But the 33-year-old jokes such recognition might be about to change, particularly if she can break into a Western Bulldogs team looking for redemption after a below-par first AFLW season.

"I might just be getting above him (Joel) a little bit," Mackie said.

Cycling flowed through the Mackie family's blood as much as football with Emma's beloved pop, Keith, a gun local rider.

With his encouragement, she took to two wheels to become a champion, carrying the photo of her grandfather whenever her tyres rolled.

She rode her way to national representation in the 2009 UCI Road World Championships held in Switzerland and established a professional career in Europe that lasted close to a decade and saw her live in Belgium.

She gained a reputation as a strong lead-out rider who also excelled on the sort of cobblestones that can turn bikes into two-wheeled jackhammers. 

"I really like that aggressive, hard on the cobbles, bumpy, physical riding. Riding the cobbles was really hard and fast and getting in those attacks breaks up the road," Mackie said. 

Mackie thinks such traits influence the way she plays football. 

"I am an aggressive little midfielder who gets in, gets out and keeps running," she said.

It's that competitive instinct that made her determined to have a crack at being drafted, even though she understood her age might count against her (Mackie is the 11th oldest player in AFLW in 2018). 

"I knew deep down inside that I could be there if I could get the fitness and skills up," Mackie said. 

After winning the Box Hill Womens' best and fairest in 2017, she only had to wait and see whether a club would back her in, which the Bulldogs did. 

That was her first surprise but the second one was less expected as she found herself within an environment that she claims is, if anything, even more of an elite sporting environment than the one she experienced in professional cycling teams overseas. 

Whatever is needed, the players have at their disposal says Mackie but it's not that feature she is enjoying most about her first pre-season in AFLW.

"The thing about footy I love is that team environment. It's different to cycling," Mackie said.

"You train together a lot more regularly whereas with cycling there are periods where you train with your team and then there will be time you will go away and do a lot of training by yourself."

Cycling teams generally consist of seven, perhaps nine, teammates whereas AFLW teams have a squad of 30, with Mackie describing the group as like family. 

"We're focused on creating a really good culture at the club and building those relationships first," Mackie said.

With the Bulldogs playing a practice game against Carlton in Ballarat on Saturday the time everyone is waiting for is near. 

"It has been coming along really well and [now we're] keen to have a kick."