Maddi Shaw was in the middle of her Outdoor Ed class at Drouin Secondary College when she received a phone call from Hawthorn VFLW coach Paddy Hill.
“Paddy asked me what I was doing on Saturday and I said I was coming to watch the game," Shaw explained.
“Then he said, ‘well you won’t be, because you’ll be playing'".
The 17-year-old will make her Hawthorn debut this weekend when it takes on the Darebin Falcons in Round 3 of the VFLW.
“Straight away I went and told my teacher, then I told my mates and then I rang my mum and my dad.
“It was a bit of a shock actually, I didn’t think I would be playing for a while."
Shaw will become the first under 18 player to play for Hawthorn this season and the first ever player to come from the Gippsland Power.
The half-back who lives in Bunyip, a small town about an hour south east of Melbourne, has represented the Power in the NAB under 18 League for the past two seasons.
This year she was named in the best in eight out of her nine games.
Since the conclusion of the NAB competition at the start of May, Shaw has spent her time training with the Hawks.
“I was a little bit starstruck when I walked into Hawthorn.
“It’s weird because once I was looking up to these people and thinking, ‘wow, imagine being able to play against them or alongside them' and now I’m actually doing it.”
As Shaw doesn’t have her licence, she relies on her mum and her brother to drive her from Bunyip to Box Hill twice a week.
“Mum picks me up straight from school to take me to footy.
"She sits around whilst I’m training so she gets a bit bored, but sometimes she does her work, and then we drive home.
"It takes about an hour and 15.”
Shaw can’t wait to pull on her new colours for the first time.
“I'm going to be very appreciative because it’s something that not everyone gets to do.
“I’d love to take my jumper off at the end of the game knowing that I made an impact.”
Hawthorn play Darebin at Bill Lawry Oval this Saturday at 12.00pm.
