The GWS Giants are poised to return to Canberra for the first time in two years as its AFLW squad comes to grips with balancing "love and life".
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GWS' Canberra comeback marks a homecoming for Britt Tully as she sets her sights on a clash with the Brisbane Lions at Manuka Oval on Saturday afternoon.
Yet this season has presented her and players across the league with a major challenge with AFL chiefs opting to release fixtures on a weekly basis due to changing COVID-19 conditions, rather than relocating teams to avoid border restrictions.
Tully says the current landscape of the AFLW means you "have to be ready for anything" as players try to manage shifts at their day jobs as training schedules change in line with fixtures.
The 27-year-old admits she has struggled with the balancing act of life as a semi-professional footballer, having missed the game when she walked away to focus on her career.
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But Tully hopes the nature of the competition will soon change dramatically.
"It's one of those things you've got to manage and hopefully in five years' time people won't have to manage it and it will be a full-time gig," Tully said.
"Until it is that, people have to manage work and life around football, which most of the girls do with no qualms because they love it so much.
"It's hard because you've got the love on one side, and then your life and career are on the other side. Football draws us all together and we all have common goals, interests and sacrifices we have to make, so we're in it together."
This week marks Tully's first AFLW game in Canberra in three years given the Giants did not play at Manuka Oval last year, while she sat out the season prior.
The Canberra product was there the day Collingwood beat North Melbourne at Manuka Oval in 2001 and was a constant at Giants games after they entered the league.
Now she says the return of the Giants can have a massive impact on inspiring the next generation of football prospects around the region.
"It's really important. The GWS academy has taken off in the past couple of years in Canberra as well, and people ask when we're going to play there and when we're going to be back around," Tully siad.
"It's a good opportunity to get all of those young girls in the academy out to the games and watching.
"It's always a lot better to watch an AFLW game in person, you get to see it a lot more and you get to see that it's actually quite similar to the boys, not much different, and we will be playing good quality football."