New Hawthorn recruit Casey Dumont was just casually scrolling through Instagram when a message from Bec Goddard popped up.

The Hawthorn coach initially asked how Dumont’s season with Melbourne Victory was going and if she was doing well.

After that, Goddard went on to ask if the 31-year-old was open to a new opportunity in AFLW.

Dumont obliged and signed with the Hawks as a rookie, completing the team’s 2023 list and becoming a dual-sport athlete in the process.

“It was just an opening and I wanted to try something new,” she said when asked what drew her to Hawthorn.

“The Hawks were showing me that they were going to support me with everything going on in my life.

“That’s what you want when you want to be a professional athlete is that support behind you.”

In terms of how she’ll manage both sports, Dumont said the timings of the A-League Women’s and AFLW seasons worked in her favour.

The AFLW season will begin in the first week of September while the A-League Women’s season has traditionally kicked off in November, meaning there is minimal crossover.

“(Footy) actually fits in really well because we’ve just finished (soccer),” Dumont said.

“We unfortunately lost in the prelims so I’ll now carry on to the pre-season with Hawthorn and then go straight into the season and straight after that, I’ll go into soccer, so it works out great.

“I’ll always love soccer so I don’t think I’m ready to give it up yet.

“Hawthorn’s been great in making sure that’s still a possibility.”

Even though Dumont hasn’t played footy before, she has plenty to offer in the brown and gold.

“I’ve been a professional athlete for a long time now so the professionalism, the resilience with a lot of knocks that I’ve had… is what I can offer,” she said.

“One of my strengths with goalkeeping is crossing so I’m really hoping once I have everything down-pat that I might be good at taking a few marks and see how I go after that.”

Outside of being a professional athlete, Dumont is a nurse.

The 31-year-old would often work a shift after playing a full 90 minutes in the goals and will continue to do the same this AFLW season.

And while she thought her days of studying textbooks were over, her partner has given her one more to run her eyes over.

“My partner did buy me a book on AFL for Dummies so that’s going to be interesting, I’m going to be picking up a lot of new skills,” Dumont said.