IT’S ALMOST poetic. In the final home and away round of the 10th NAB AFLW season, three iconic players will notch up their 100th career games.

Jasmine Garner, Shannon Campbell and Anne Hatchard all have a few things in common.

All inaugural players, they’ve all won at least one flag. And they’ve all been awarded a Grand Final best on ground medal.

Hatchard did so in 2022 S6 as Adelaide won its third AFLW premiership. Garner landed hers last year in North Melbourne’s breakthrough flag. Campbell in 2022 S7, the only player to win the award in a losing team.

As a trio – although they’ve never played together and ply their trade in three different states – they represent the hardness and professionalism that was required to establish, then grow, the AFLW.

“In 2017 we had a vision, but the players actually brought it alive, and all these three players had a helping hand, and particularly them being in different states,” Australian Football Hall of Famer Debbie Lee told AFL.com.au.

Garner will bring up the century on Friday evening, when her Roos – whom she now captains – take on Hawthorn for the first time in the League’s history.

Following 14 games with Collingwood across 2017 and 2018 as a key forward, Garner became the player we know today in her shift to North Melbourne upon its addition to the League in 2019. A smooth-moving, tall midfielder who neatly slides into attack and hits the scoreboard, she has become the prototype midfielder who others want to emulate.

Notably, Garner is just three goals away from becoming the first player to kick 100 since the AFLW began, so that’s another slice of history on the line in her milestone match.

“She’s had such longevity in the game prior to the AFLW starting, she’s really been part of the growth model,” Lee said.

“She was probably the first unique player that we saw early days, that was just a different type of player and she carried the can through the lead-up to exhibition games, and then the AFLW. She’s someone people want to come and watch, the way she can perform in AFLW has been outstanding, but her contribution has been more than just AFLW.”

Garner has been part of the many phases of women’s footy, prior to the AFLW and then since the League’s launch in 2017.

“She’s a generational player because of the different moments that she’s been part of,” Lee said.

“I think what many people don’t understand is that she hasn’t just turned up. I think a lot of even her teammates didn’t quite understand the helping hand that she provided to the sport more nationally.”

Hatchard’s evolution through the AFLW has been well-documented. A basketballer who was initially drafted as a defender who could offer support in the ruck, a decisive shift in her fitness following the 2018 season turned her into the elite midfielder we know today.

It was a change that propelled her to four All-Australian selections in the next five seasons, and three Adelaide best and fairest awards.

“She brings a real uniqueness, she’s a new, different style of footballer,” Lee said of Hatchard.

“She came to a crossroad, didn’t she, and she had to actually make the decision (to play footy over basketball). Now, I think she probably made the right one in the end, in terms of where she landed, and the longevity she’s has in her career has been pretty outstanding.

“Moving to the midfield from the backline has added so much to her game, but also what she brings is her culture.”

Campbell is likely the lesser-known member of the trio. But not to Lions fans.

She was playing college soccer in the USA when the AFLW was being built, and a phone call from Craig Starcevich drew her back to Australia to return to her favourite code.

Brutally courageous, she is all too often seen throwing her body on the line in order to save a score. Known as that hard nut defender, she holds her own little piece of history, as Brisbane’s first ever goalkicker, back in round one of 2017 in stormy conditions at Casey Fields.

Her heroics in the 2022 S7 Grand Final, although not quite enough to help the Lions claim victory, took so much out of her that she was physically unwell at the conclusion of the game. But it was enough to be rewarded by the panel of voters.

“The way she’s been able to endure her long tenure in the game, also coming from a different sport, is quite unique. Early on when we started the first years, we were looking at cross-coders and that was a big thing, because we were trying to find really elite athletes. And Shannon Campbell was one of those,” Lee said.

“She’s versatile, strong overhead, all that sort of stuff, but I think for someone to be in a non-Victorian state where NRL is strong, for her to have a long career in this game is unbelievable. And she’s been a focal point for Brisbane as well, in terms of the growth.

“She’s so committed and so intent at the football, and she’s relentless as well, which is a really unique part of her game and one of her strengths.”

The trio represent three very different pathways to the women’s game, but all three have reached the pinnacle. What they share is that commitment to the code, and desire to improve week-on-week, year-on-year.

And over round 12, they will become the sixth, seventh and eighth players in the AFLW to play 100 career games.