After receiving a position in the leader­ship group with North Melbourne AFLW, Nicole Bresnehan is proving to be a force to be reckoned with this this season.

Where in Hobart did you grow up? I grew up at Seven Mile Beach. I’ve lived in the area my whole life with my family but have since relocated to Melbourne for work.

What do you love about Hobart? I love the fact that wherever you are you can almost guarantee it will only take you half an hour to get to the closest beach. Living in Hobart is a really cruisy lifestyle and I love that all my family and friends live so close.

Tell us a little about your work? I work with AFL Tasmania in the Talent Department as the Operations Lead. The majority of my work is looking after the day to day operations of our NAB League boys and girls teams, the Tasmania Devils. I started working at the AFL before I was drafted to North Melbourne as I’ve always been passionate about working in sport. There’s a great culture and work life balance which has been really handy when juggling my AFLW commitments and working remotely whilst in Victoria.

What does the camaraderie feel like amongst the Tasmanian AFLW players? We often get called the ‘Tassies’ at the club which I love even though we all live in Melbourne now during the season. We definitely have a special connection as most of us have family and friends back in Tassie that we miss. We also all under­stand the impact that we can hopefully have on young girls in Tasmania looking to one day play in the AFLW which is really special.

Two games this season are being played in Hobart, what does a home game on the Apple Isle do to your mindset when running onto the field? We all love home games in Tasmania. It’s great we can continue to play half of our home games in Tasmania especially when we have eight girls in the team with that Tasmanian connection. Tasmania was where we won our inaugural team’s game back in 2018 so it definitely always holds that special feeling when running out.

What do you love doing outside work? Outside of work, I enjoy spending as much time as possible with friends and family. I’m going on 10+ years with most of my best friends but we still always make sure we find time for brunch or a coffee most weekends! I also spend plenty of time at the beach with my Bernese Mountain Dog, Boston who most of the time takes me for walks.

Who do you admire? Working in sport, I really admire female leaders and I have been really fortunate enough to work alongside or cross paths with Laura Kane and Trish Squires. Both have different leadership styles, but share a common work ethic and passion for what they do. It has been great to learn from many suc­cessful female leaders within the AFL but those are two that come to mind.

Favourite podcast or tv show? I’ve never been one to listen to podcasts until recently a friend got me on to Jay Shetty’s podcasts. He has some really great words of wisdom and fascinating conversations that I find very relatable. On Netflix at the moment I’ve been binging Selling Sunset and Manifest. I’ve also started watching The Office because I often get outed in group chats for not having watched it. Cardinal sin apparently!

What was your first job? I started working at Donut King when I was 14 and worked there for five years. I defi­nitely thought I would be there forever and honestly thought it was the best job ever!

What are your daily news/social media habits? Instagram definitely takes up a large portion of my screen time but I often use a bit of Facebook and on the odd occasion Snapchat. I will admit that I can sometimes find myself in a TikTok vortex, and end up watching two hours’ worth of videos.

Your favourite place when back in Hobart for…

Breakfast: Sisterhood or anywhere that does an Eggs Benny.

Lunch: Room for a Pony – I would also almost always order Eggs Benny for lunch as well!

Dinner: Bar Wa Izakaya is hands down my favourite restaurant of all time.

Coffee: Big one for any coffee snobs travelling down from Melbourne but Groundsman Espresso if in Bellerive and Island Espresso if in Hobart are my daily go-tos.

Favourite team? I’ve always supported Hawthorn in the AFL but obviously huge support for North Melbourne in the AFL as well, especially with a few Tassie boys on their list.

Favourite Hobart secret? Not really a secret but Five Mile Beach down from where I live. I love taking the dogs there because you’ve almost always got the whole beach to yourself.