When Mai Nguyen sat down to tell her parents she was putting her career in physiotherapy on hold to pursue an AFL career, the 26-year-old admits she was nervous.
"It was very hard. They are supportive of me in everything I do but they're more worried about my career and paying off the mortgage."
If the AFL is looking for somebody who embodies next year's inaugural Women's competition, they should look no further than Mai Nguyen at the GWS Giants.
A spritely, tenacious and exceptionally fit young woman, Mai is ready to make her mark in the new league.
She's clearly willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. Mai sees great personal reward in the journey, while her parents question the actual reward on offer.
Mai's father came to Australia as a refugee in the early 1980s and his wife followed a few years later. The couple settled in Cabramatta in Sydney's south-western suburbs.
"They came here to provide myself and my three older brothers the opportunity to get educated and to pursue a career, which they never had a chance at," Nguyen says.
"My parents both worked full time so us kids could eventually create our own pathway."
As a non-marquee draftee in next year's inaugural competition starting in February, Mai could be on base pay, earning as little as $5,000 for a 22-week contract that will require at least nine hours of week training along with approximately 20 hours of club and match-day commitments.
That works out to be approximately $8 an hour. Health insurance is not included.
"I've done a bit of budgeting and I figured if I can work close to 30 part-time hours a week, that should be enough for me to get by," she says.
And so Mai Nguyen will combine training with her work — a commitment of close to 60 hours per week.
In September, chief executive Gill McLachlan defended the AFL's initial pay proposal saying the inaugural Women's competition "lacked commerciality".
Gender-equity issues aside, there is unquestionable risk with a ground-breaking project such as this.
But it's not like AFL is struggling. In 2015, the code signed Australia's biggest ever sports broadcast deal guaranteeing $2.5 billion in revenue over the next six years.
In October, before a ball had been kicked, or a game even scheduled, the fledging AFL Women's competition secured a major sponsor in a deal worth a reported $2 million over three years. Enough to make most sporting leagues envious.
As Australia becomes a more educated and rounded nation, women's sport continues to break new ground.
Codes are scrambling to secure their piece of a market that they know has seismic commercial potential.
Don't discount the intangible benefits either. The presence of the AFL Women's competition will ensure the male form of the game and its popular Auskick program remains well supported by an increasingly influential female footy patronage.
The AFL will owe much of the future success of its new league and indeed its entire movement, to the sacrifices of Mai and the rest of its first generation of semi-professional players.
"It's the beginning of the journey for me that's only going to get harder. Once I get my parents out to the game they might understand a bit more. They'll see what I love about it and why I am doing it."
Negotiations between the AFL and AFL Players Association to finalise the 2016 / 2017 AFL Women's contracts are ongoing. The AFL Women's season opener is scheduled for February, 2017.