Not even captaining the Australian Diamonds could have prepared Sharni Layton for the intensity of AFLW.
After ten years of professional netball, the Collingwood cult hero has found herself starting from scratch in a pair of footy boots.
Trading her Super Netball dress for the club's football jersey, the 31-year-old underwent an intensive three-month crash-course ahead of her AFLW debut.
Speaking to RSN927's Breakfast Club on Thursday morning, Layton admitted that the transition has been far from smooth.
"I have been training in AFLW like a professional," she told the program.
"That’s the amount of work that I've had to do over the last three months to get even a quarter up to scratch.
"These girls are phenomenal; their strength, their fitness and skill level is more than I had ever imagined.
"Getting on the footy field was really intimidating - they aren’t intimidated by me. So, I have to go in with a different mind set."
The former Diamond and Magpies defender recently retired from professional netball after two World Championships, two domestic titles and a host of individual accolades.
But her debut match for Collingwood's AFLW side was arguably one of the biggest matches of her sporting career.
More than 18,000 people attended Collingwood's one point loss to Geelong at Kardinia Park, which was home side's maiden match in the AFLW competition.
And on her debut, the former Australian netball captain was left shaking in her boots.
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"The largest crowd before that was at the World Cup in 2015 for netball. I think we got the record for 17,500 people and that was a very good crowd.
"It's surreal to run out onto a stadium and have more people than that.
“In netball the crowd is right on top of you but even though the 18,000 people are spread out over a larger area, the noise is still so loud.
“Who would have thought that, as women, we would be able to run out in front of so many people? It's the best.
“I was so focused on what I was doing and I blocked out everything around me. I didn’t enjoy or embrace the game as well as I could have."
Coming over to Collingwood as an elite athlete, Layton had nothing but praise for her Magpie teammates.
Despite juggling full-time jobs, study and footy, the ruckman said that she has been amazed by their commitment and professionalism.
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"I’ve come into this as an elite athlete and they’ve given me a run for my money," she said.
"One of the girls in our club is a paramedic, a doctor, a teacher, flipping the burgers, or whatever, but I love that because it highlights that when they can put fulltime into it they are going to be so much better – but they already are.
"These women are working fulltime and we don’t leave the club until 9.30-10pm, so they aren’t getting home until after 11 at night. Their commitment, professionalism and everything is exactly the same as what I have experienced in netball."
Collingwood will take on Melbourne in the second round of AFLW at Victoria Park, on Saturday February 9.