Essendon’s AFLW star reconnects with her roots, giving back to the community that shaped her through the club’s Bomber Kids program.

Approximately 60 kilometres north of Melbourne, the suburb of Romsey sits beneath the rolling hills of the Macedon Ranges. Its main street is characterised by gold rush–era buildings and the autumnal glow of elm trees. At the centre of the town, both geographically and symbolically, lies the local football oval.

Home to the Romsey Football Club in the Riddell District Football League, the ground is a focal point of community life and the setting for many of Essendon AFLW star Maddy Prespakis’ earliest and most formative memories.

Prespakis began her football journey at Auskick as a four-year-old kindergarten student, initially playing on the soccer field at Romsey Primary School before moving to the main oval with the Romsey Redbacks.

“I played with the Redbacks until I was 14,” she says. “Dad coached most of my junior teams, and a lot of the boys I played with I still keep in touch with.”

At the time, girls’ football pathways were limited. With no girls’ teams in Romsey, Maddy and her younger sister, now Geelong AFLW player Georgie Prespakis, often played as the only girls in mixed teams.

“There were no girls’ teams when I played,” she says. “But I still think playing with the boys was one of the best things I ever did.”

Despite the lack of opportunity, Prespakis never stopped dreaming.

“You can’t be what you can’t see,” she reflects. “Most of my role models were AFL men’s players because that’s all there was at the time. But when the boys said they wanted to play AFL, I wanted that too.”

A lifelong Essendon supporter, Prespakis idolised players like Jobe Watson, who inspired her to wear the number four.

“My primary school colours were red and black, my junior football colours were red and black, and now they’re red and black again,” she says with a laugh. “I remember Essendon players visiting Romsey training sessions and coming to our school. Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti and Patrick Ryder were two of them. We were pretty lucky.”

Today, Prespakis is not only returning to her junior football ground, but also the kindergarten she once attended. As part of Essendon’s community team, she plays a key role in delivering the club’s early learning program, Bomber Kids.

“It feels really special,” she says of running a session at her old kindergarten. “My twin sister, my younger sister, my brother and I all went here.”

“As a kid, my teachers would ask what I wanted to do when I was older, and for me it was always to play AFL,” she says. “Even without female role models, I still believed it was possible. Now, to be someone others can look up to, whether it’s a boy or a girl, is so special. You have to appreciate the impact you can have.”

Despite her success at the elite level, Prespakis remains grounded, community-minded and unmistakably shaped by the small town where it all began; Romsey, a town rich in history, but one whose future now sits in places like its local kindergarten.

Essendon's AFLW team kick-off their season at Windy Hill on Sunday August 16.