Raised in Melbourne, Perko played netball and soccer before playing Australian rules football. At thirteen, Perkins was told she would no longer be able to play contact sports due to a spinal disc herniation, so she concentrated on netball for the next three years. However, she decided to start playing Australian rules football at sixteen, joining the Eastern Devils' youth side in 2009 and becoming a two-time Victorian under-18 representative before playing in the Devils' senior side in the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) in 2012.

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In 2016, she kicked fifty-two goals and finished third in the leading goalkicker award, behind Moana Hope and Katie Brennan, and was named in the VWFL team of the year. In the eighteen months before being recruited, she lost forty kilograms to fulfill her dream of playing AFL football.

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Highlights from the episode:

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- Intro

- About Sarah Perkins

- How Sarah's brother and neighbor inspired her to start playing footy

- Sarah's footy positions

- People who supported and influenced Sarah's footy career

- How Sarah got drafted and how her footy career started

- Her greatest surprise and challenges she faced as she joined the footy club

- How she stays motivated and gets better

- How her VFL schedule and workload look like

- Sarah explains off-league conditioning and when is it used

- Her recovery routine after a game

- Her plans for 2021 VFL and AFLW

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People mentioned:

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- Meg Hutchins

- Bec Goddard

- Elizabeth Keaney

- Georgia Bevan

- Leah Kaslar

- Erin Phillips

- Jamie Stanton

- Jade Pregelj

- Kalinda Howarth

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Connect with Sarah Perkins

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perko29/

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𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐀 𝐏𝐫𝐨

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West Coasts Eagles Strength & Conditioning Coach

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