Emily Gough made a strong return to the big stage in 2026, embracing every opportunity after an extended stint on the sidelines.

Having played just five AFLW games before suffering an ACL injury, Gough made her long-awaited return in round one, quickly finding her feet and continuing to build on her promising start in the red and black.

A member of the side’s emerging leaders group, Gough has shown maturity beyond her years, providing a steady presence both on and off the field throughout a challenging season.

Reflecting on her return from injury, the group's resilience and the lessons learnt along the way, Gough shares her thoughts on the season that was and what lies ahead in 2027.

Gough on… round one return post-injury

Yeah, it was pretty cool.

I think I'm very lucky for the Club support and the girls around me, for the support to be able to come back in round one and also play a few practice games. 

Even though we didn't win, I had a lot of fun out there. It's always good coming back. 

You kind of get used to being on the sidelines, especially if you're on the sidelines for a year. 

but, um, yeah, I'm used to feeling a lot being able to run out with the girls and yeah, I had so much fun. So yeah, it was good.

Gough on… biggest learnings for the group

Probably the resilience from the group. 

The resilience from the group to show up on our review days a couple of days after the game and be able to still show up with confidence in how we're going to play the next week and the weeks after, and especially from the coaches. 

Especially with a younger group being able to still have a bit of fun in that. 

It's quite hard when you're losing a lot of games, but we still have a bit of fun with friends and still learn lots in the way. 

We’ve learnt so much this year. From a football perspective, but also from ourselves and how we show up as people around the club.

Gough on… season highlight

Definitely my favourite game was the Cats game.  

It was a great team game, no, we didn't get the win, but I thought we had a few passages there where we got our ball movement going how we want to play the game, which we've probably seen patches throughout the year. 

But I think in the Geelong game is where we really showed parts of that for a longer period of time.

Gough on… where she plays her best football

Right now, it's definitely forward of the ball. 

I love working in the forward line. I am very lucky to be surrounded there with Bonnie Toogood, with her leadership, but also how good she is on field, and then also Madge ( Sophie Alexander).

She’s retiring, but she's been so good to me and taught me so much.

I feel like we all underestimate how much people around us teach us until we probably reflect on how much they've helped us. 

Madge has been a huge one in my development over the past three years, especially even last year. 

I wasn't playing, and a lot of the girls were getting around me, but Madge has been huge in that, so I’m really grateful for her and the wise older heads for supporting me.

Gough on… the group connection

It's like playing with 30 of your best mates. 

I mean, it's quite cliché but we're very lucky to have the group that we have. 

When you go through tough times like this, I feel like it brings a group closer, so in that way, we're quite lucky, and I feel like we're all very ready to have a big off-season and bring our best foot forward into 2027.

But I feel like, you know, the year hasn't been what we wanted it to be, but we've learnt lots. We're definitely ready to crack in for 2027.

Gough on… tackling the off-season

I’ll have a good break. 

Obviously coming off my knee injury, I didn't really have a break at all, so I probably had a little bit of a burnout, but was able to probably manage that a little bit more with help from coaches.

A few of us are going to Europe, which will be nice. 

But then cracking in.