MARIAH Gilchrist has added plenty of items to her Australian rules highlights list since she first laced up her boots and kicked a Sherrin, but Saturday's Central West AFL premiership win with the Bathurst Giants ranks amongst her best.
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As the final siren sounded at George Park 2 on Saturday to confirm the Giants as 7-8-50 to 4-1-25 victors over the Bathurst Lady Bushrangers, Gilchrist was overcome with emotion.
It was not because it was her first premiership success - in fact Gilchrist has a premiership medal every season she has played in the CWAFL women's competition. It was because the win came in a match she wore black armbands.
"The feeling today, it's a big difference after losing a good mate yesterday," she said.
"A good mate of mine, his Nan passed away and she was pretty much my Grandma too. For the first five minutes it was pretty rough trying to focus, but then I got myself together.
"The family we've got here at the Giants is also a big change."
In 2015 when the CWAFL introduced a women's competition, Gilchrist was one of the Bathurst Lady Bushrangers foundation members.
In her first game she booted four majors as the Lady Bushrangers beat Orange Tigers 18-8-116 to nil.
She went on to win premierships with the Lady Bushrangers in 2015, 2016 and 2017, while along the way Gilchrist also represented NSW/ACT at the AFL Women's Under 18s Championships.
She did not play CWAFL last season, but returned this season as a Bathurst Giant. In the charcoal and orange she played some of the best football of her career thus far.
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In July she notched up her 50th senior women's appearance in a game they won against Orange Tigers.
In Saturday's decider her tackling was a highlight - more than once she earned the Giants a free kick for trapping a Lady Bushranger with Sherrin in hand - while her positional play and thumping clearances both into the breeze and with it were valuable as well.
It was those sort of efforts which also acted as inspiration to her team-mates as they held off a determined challenge from the Lady Bushrangers.
It demonstrated how much not only Gilchrist has improved, but the standard of the competition.
"It was rough out there, Bushies came out firing but so did we and yeah, we kept that pressure up," she said.
"I feel like I'm coming together a lot better now. After doing a season in Sydney last year and learning the ropes down there, coming back has been a big change and I think I'm coming together as a footballer finally.
"From the start of women's league in the Central West to now, there's been a big up lift, a big change and it's unreal."
And to add one more special undertone to Saturday's success, it was the first title for any senior Giants outfit.
"It's unreal having been one of the first players and unreal being one of the first of the Giants to win a premiership, it's the first ever senior premiership for the Giants."
