Najwa Allen only had four years of football under her belt before she joined the Crows.

The No. 37 draft pick had made the switch from soccer in 2016 and “never went back” after soaking up football’s atmosphere

“I used to play premier league soccer in Canberra and one of the friends I played with made the switch,” Allen told AFC Media.

“She kept saying to me ‘you’ve got to play footy, you’re going to love it and you’ll be good at it’.

“So I gave it a go and played them both together and it was just so much better.

“I loved the culture, loved everyone getting around each other, loved learning all the new skills… so I just stopped playing soccer and never went back.”

Allen moved across to SA in January, alongside fellow draftee, now Gold Coast Sun Hannah Dunn, and joined Norwood.

“Steve (Simmonds, Norwood’s coach) knew Hannah’s coach in Canberra and he called and said ‘there’s a girl you should pick up for the SANFL season’,” Allen said.

“Then Steve asked if there are any others that were good enough to come across and she asked me.

“It’s the luckiest thing that I’m actually here… It’s like the butterfly effect.”

Allen led the SANFLW for disposals in 2019 and finished top 10 for marks, clearances and inside 50s.

She was named the 2019 SANFL Women’s Best and Fairest winner in her first season and was selected in the Team of the Year.

“When I won the Best and Fairest I was like ‘this is crazy’ and not what I was shooting for, so it was even better,” Allen said.

Beyond that, the 25-year-old never envisioned making it onto an AFL list.

“It’s unbelievable to get drafted, it’s a culmination of work, I’ve been in disbelief ever since I found out,” she said.

“I was going to go to Melbourne after the SANFLW and play VFLW. 

“Because I wasn’t working towards it, it is really nice because I was just working hard to play well in the SANFLW.”