Fit, selfless Baker excited for how 2024 is looking

Naomi Baker continues to grow as a leader at Swan Districts and already two games into the 2024 WAFLW season she is feeling the best she ever has both on a personal and team front about what lies ahead.

Baker might still be only 21 years of age herself, but she stepped up into the vice-captain role at Swan Districts last year once captain Jess Cox went down injured.

While Baker has confirmed herself as one of Swans' best and most consistent performers going right back to her WAFLW debut in 2019, there's been frustration with injuries early in seasons along the way.

That included last year when she hurt her knee that delayed her first appearance until Round 7, but she quickly became a key part of Swans' dramatic form turnaround into the finals.

What she was hoping for more than anything was to be able to come into the 2024 season able to capitalise on her hard work over pre-season by not having an injury setback and so far so good.

"I'm pretty happy that I haven't got injured yet so that’s always good when that happens," Baker said.

"I personally love pre-season and I love that stage of training and getting the opportunity to connect with everyone, and just set those expectations and standards for the rest of the season.

"I personally love pushing myself and I tried to do that this pre-season and I think I'm in a good space, and I haven't got injured yet so that's the big difference to the past few seasons.

"I've got injured in pre-season matches or in Round 1 and that halted my progress a little after the work I'd done in the pre-season but I'm hoping that doesn't happen this season and I can keep injury free and keep on building. Hopefully it will be a good season."

She's happy with how she is feeling physically and her game early in the season, but it's a focus on the bigger picture for the whole team she has in 2024.

"I'm my own worst critic and I have very high expectations of myself so it's always hard to please myself coming out of games, but I found that on the weekend it was probably the first game where I actually had fun and just enjoyed myself out there," Baker said.

"I think that's the most important thing and I have also set myself some goals on what I want to do on the field, and the main one is to be selfless.

"That's my big thing this year is to be selfless not only when we're playing, but also off the field by connecting with other people and putting others before yourself especially being in that leadership role.

"That's something that I really want to focus on and emphasise this year that it's bigger than footy."

Baker is certainly far from old herself still aged 21, but she is now in the experienced category as a leader at Swan Districts with a team that continues to have more and more young faces all the time.

She loves that and encourages players to get into the WAFLW team as quickly as possible because as she learned from experience, that only speeds up your development.

"The team does keep on getting younger, but it's so exciting too and a lot of the girls who played their first season of league last year, this is now their second season this year and they have got that whole year of experience behind them so are feeling more comfortable," Baker said.

"That should help them on the field, which is exciting, and it's always good having young girls coming into the team and I personally started playing league very young as well.

"I think it just sets you up for the future and I'm just so happy for those girls to get a taste of it now so they can keep building on it for the future. So it's very exciting for them."

It's not all about the young faces at Swan Districts this year. Baker couldn't be happier to have former teammates Emily McGuire and Brianna Hyde return along with some new recruits with AFLW experience like Emma Humphries and Tayla Thorn.

"It's been so, so good having those girls back especially Em and Bri to come back," Baker said.

"It feels like they've slotted back in and never left so it's been so good seeing them back in black-and-white colours," Baker said.

"Then even having Emma Humphries down this year, she's brought so much wisdom and knowledge, and it's been really good see her fit into the group and especially from a midfield point of view it's been really beneficial having her voice in the conversation, and having her guidance on things.

"It's been so good having those girls part of things with us."