Hannah Grady is known as a back-to-back Ovens and Murray premiership player, but the Magpie admitted there was plenty of "character-building" involved in getting Wangaratta to where it is today.
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After riding the highs and lows, the talented defender will step on court for her 150th A-grade game this weekend against North Albury.
"In 2012 we won a C-grade premiership and that was pretty exciting for my first year at the club," she said.
"Then going from that into the struggles that our senior sides were going through before we had our success, it was really good character building and a good way to build up that resilience towards a loss.
"The first year we made finals was a big thing for me.
"The year before that we just missed out on finals by percentage, and that was pretty hard to go through at the time when you're striving to be in that top five.
"That first year it was the realisation that we're competing with those top five teams, even though we bombed out.
"It was about getting that finals experience."
With 2018 marking the end of the Magpies' A-grade flag drought, Grady can still recall how everything fell into place.
"Although we had struggled previously, being with that core group of girls really impacted it, having played with them for such a long time," she said.
"It did just take time for us to mature a little bit, because we were so young at the time.
"Also playing against the same core groups in other teams, you get used to who you're going to play on, so it gets better as it goes on."
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Starting out in the Ovens and King League with Tarrawingee, Grady was later lured to the Magpies by Lou Byrne.
With former coach Kellie Keen returning to her home club Benalla this season, Grady now finds herself at the helm alongside Chaye Crimmins.
She admitted she never expected to be a senior coach so soon.
"Circumstances allowed for it and I love being able to do it with Chaye," Grady said.
"We do have very different personalities and we see things very differently, but we're really good at communicating and bouncing ideas off each other.
"It's very much a team effort, when we come off court it's a discussion amongst everyone."
Grady is believed to be the second Magpie to reach the milestone, with Katie Dean ticking off 150 A-grade games back in 2019.
Wangaratta Rovers' Jenna McLeod will notch up her 100th A-grade game this weekend, while Lavington's Maggie Thompson will ring in 150 club games in the Ovens and Murray league.
The occasion will be marked as Thompson lines up against her former club Wodonga Bulldogs.
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