Inaugural Hawthorn AFLW Vice-Captain Jess Duffin achieved one of the more remarkable feats this year.

Not only did she finish the season as the team’s leading goalkicker, she did so while pregnant.

Duffin told SEN that she found out she was pregnant in Round 2 and thoroughly assessed the risks before deciding to play on.

“It was explained to me that I needed to have a car crash (to cause complications),” Duffin said.

“Obviously I asked about the risk factors as I further went along and they basically said that up until 12 weeks, it would have to be quite a significant impact because where the baby was sitting at the time was quite protected.

“I had one doctor tell me that it would be fine. Then I got advice from another two to make 100% sure.

“I was pretty confident after speaking to all three doctors that everything would be okay.

“I was happy to continue and my husband was happy for me to continue so that’s all that matters.”

Duffin joked that her playing style meant she wasn’t going to cop much impact anyway.

“If anyone knows me as a footballer and my family tell me all the time, I don’t go in and get tackles anyway,” the 33-year-old said.

“I run in the other direction so I was pretty confident that nothing would happen.”

With pregnancy often comes sickness and Duffin said she had some close calls throughout the season.

“I never threw up but I felt nauseous,” she said.

“That’s why I told Bec (Goddard) early on in case something happened or something was wrong that she knew why. I had a really good connection with Bec from the start.

“I was quite confident in telling her and just being aware of what might happen.

“Like any other woman going through pregnancy, you’ve just got to push through and that’s what I did.”

In terms of what comes next for Duffin, she has retired from AFLW but has left the door open on her cricket career.

“I think I’ve passed footy,” she admitted.

“Footy and cricket are different sports. Footy’s a lot harder on the body. These kids coming in are little whipper-snippers through the midfield.

“I’m quite content with being done with footy.

“I haven’t retired or anything from cricket, I’ve left that open. I haven’t played cricket for over 18 months and if I come back, it’ll be two years so we’ll just have to work that out when it comes.”