AFLW: Alice Mitchell gets set to take flight with Sydney Swans in inaugural AFLW campaign

In what is a dream come true, the Gunnedah gun will pull on the colours of the club she has supported since she was a child in their inaugural AFLW campaign.

The official announcement was made on Monday night and led to a flood of congratulatory calls and texts from family, friends and even people she hasn't spoken to in a long time.

"As soon as they posted it online my phone didn't shut up," Mitchell said.

She had known for a few days after initially getting a call late last week to say they were interested in signing her. They did express some reservations about her living situation but she was able to allay those during a visit down there on the weekend.

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"I just had to reassure them that this is a priority and nothing is going to get in the way of that," she said.

The 20-year old spoke of feeling a range of emotions when she got the phone call - surprise, overwhelmed, honoured.

"Then I called my dad and that's when I think all the emotions started to set in.

"I just started to cry on the phone. It all became real," she said.

"But it kind of (also) didn't feel real because I had to keep it a bit under wraps for a while."

"Definitely last night (Monday) was when the excitement really set in.

"I was a bit nervous at first but now I just can't wait, I just want to get down there and start training and hopefully get a game in."

It's a long way from where she was two years ago.

She had lost her love for the game and was ready to pack away the boots. Then she found the Bulldogs and discovered that passion again.

And she hasn't looked back since.

On the Giants' radar before moving to Gunnedah, that it is with the Swans that she will be embarking on her AFLW journey means a lot to Mitchell and reinforces her philosophy that everything happens for a reason.

Sure she would have loved to have got an opportunity with them, but she is "a Swannies girl at heart".

"I think it all just happened for a reason to be in the first Swans AFLW team," she said.

"It kind of makes me tear up a little bit just speaking about it because I can not believe that it's actually real."

She said being down at the club and being in the change rooms where the men get ready for a game and seeing the photos of them winning grand finals and walking the same halls that the likes of Adam Goodes and Buddy Franklin have was "such a surreal experience".

"Looking back to my nine year old self when I first started playing AFL and being such a huge Sydney Swans fan, I never thought I'd have this opportunity to play for the Swans in the women's side," she said.

She never thought it would even be a possibility.

"I think my nine year old self would just be over the moon and would think that this is a dream come true for me to be doing this now and playing in the first Sydney Swans AFL team," she said.

The plan is to do the pre pre-season, which starts at the end of next month, remotely from Gunnedah and then move down to Sydney for pre-season in June.

An Assistant Sales Agent at Robertson Real Estate, they have been very supportive and are allowing her to trial working from home.

"If it works out great, if it doesn't we'll probably have to look at other options," she said.

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