When 2025 Riewoldt Family AFL Excellence Scholar Kierra Zerafa arrived at the Bull Sharks, it was like the gun mid-fielder had landed on her feet.
Days later she could only use one of them.
Zerafa, a Health Sciences student, had already won two QAFLW premierships with Southport Sharks before learning her scholarship application to Bond had been successful.
But the excitement of combining sport with learning quickly soured.
In Bond’s final pre-season game – her first run as a Bull Shark - her left ankle was twisted and crushed in an awkward hip-drop tackle.
She ruptured pretty much everything on and around the joint.
“I heard a big, loud crack and thought I’d broken my leg, but then the shock of the pain passed, and I actually thought I was OK.
“I later found out the nerve damage that came with a snapped syndesmosis and all the ligament damage meant I couldn’t actually feel much.”
What followed was an intricate operation and lengthy, gruelling period of rehabilitation.
“It’s called tightrope surgery,” Zerafa says.
“They literally thread four or five little ropes through the bones and pulled them together to stabilise everything to allow it to heal.”
“After that I had to learn to weight-bear again and re-learn the mechanics of running.
“I’ve been rehabbing pretty much twice a day ever since.”
When all this occurred, Zerafa had really only just started at the club and in her course.
She didn’t know anyone, and with her family and partner back home in Darwin it all could have been a horribly lonely experience.
The opposite proved true.
“The girls wrapped their arms around me from the get-go,” she says.
“Andy and all the coaches were amazing, giving me lifts when I needed them and whatever else.
“Nothing has ever been a problem.
“It’s actually made me super eager to really push myself in rehab so I could get back on the field and repay the favour.
“I absolutely love the place.”
Although immersed in Health Science for now, Zerafa has an eye on the Master of Nutrition and Dietetics once her undergraduate program is complete.
Having academic responsibilities outside of sport has been important.
“I was just starting my degree when the injury happened and, in a way, having small class sizes helped.
“It made it easy to connect with people.”
But when Zerafa runs out against Broadbeach this weekend it won’t be university or rehabilitation that’ll be front and centre of her thinking.
“I’ll just be proud of myself,” she says.
“There’s been emotional ups and downs that you don’t really understand until you’ve been through something like this.
“I’ve learned a lot about resilience and gratitude over the past few months.
“I’m just going to be excited that it’s finally happening and that I’ve got myself back playing footy surrounded by a really good group of people.”