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There was a lot of excitement around Fremantle’s 2019 AFLW draft crop when Freo selected seven new players in October, but there is still some exciting talent yet to come through from the 2018 draft class.

Jasmin Stewart was Fremantle’s top selection in 2018 but the young midfielder was unable to break through for a debut in her first season.

Stewart said she was able to take the lessons learned from training with Fremantle into the WAFLW with Claremont, where she enjoyed a breakout season before going down with injury.

“My first half of the season felt really good after four months of training with Freo, it was just unfortunate that I did get injured,” Stewart said.

“The training put me in really good stead for the WAFLW season. I learnt a lot and I took that into playing with Claremont.

“Compared to last year, I’m definitely feeling a lot more confident and a lot fitter.

“I’m more mentally prepared than what I was last year, I feel my preparation has been good so far.”

The playing group has been back at the club for just under two weeks for a variety of education and development sessions. Under league rules, they won’t officially start training until Monday.

Stewart has played an active role, taking part in the cultural awareness session with Michael Johnson and board member Colleen Hayward, with all three sharing stories about their Aboriginal heritage.

Stewart’s great grandmother was a part of the stolen generation and she spoke candidly about the impact it had on her great grandmother and the generations that followed.

“It was important for me to be able to share my story,” Stewart said.

“For the girls, they might understand me more as a player and I think our connection will only grow stronger.

“It was great to have Johnno tell his story and ‘Aunty’ Colleen sharing a bit about hers.

“It shows how much our club embraces our Indigenous culture and I’m really grateful for that.”

Stewart said she has found all of the sessions beneficial, but couldn’t wait to get out on the track.

“In our inductions, we’ve had people come in from the AFLPA to chat to us about the support that we are able to receive and then we had Jade our dietician come in and chat to us,” Stewart said.

“We’ve had coaches speak about what the year will look like, we’ve had discussions in our lines, spoken about our past structures and how we want this year to look.

“We’ve still got another couple of days before we can finally hit the track.”