While many of her North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos teammates were celebrating the AFLW's best at Monday night's W Awards, Lulu Pullar was finishing up a late shift in the emergency department.

For the 25-year-old, an average day can start on the training track at Arden St and end in the Sunshine Hospital, where she works as a doctor within the Western Health team. 

“I missed the entire awards ceremony … you get allocated to different areas in the emergency department and essentially are just seeing patients and treating them,” Pullar told the Herald Sun this week.

“You really have to go in there with no bias.

“Sunshine is a massive community in Melbourne. It’s a vulnerable community with a lot of immigrant population and non-English speaking backgrounds, which leads to people presenting quite late to emergency departments and with quite advanced clinical signs and diseases, which makes my job as a doctor quite challenging but also incredibly rewarding.

“I go to work and you do have to be switched on and give a lot of time and energy to these people – Melbourne is a massive city and the service that Western Health offers out there is probably one of the biggest in the state.

“I actually really thoroughly enjoy working in this demographic, because you truly feel like sometimes you are making a difference which is really nice.”

Pullar, who moved down to Melbourne from Brisbane for work opportunities at the end of the last AFLW season, and is set to play against her old side in Sunday's Grand Final.

Her work within the Western Health team can feature everything from broken bones and major traumas to kids presenting with croup. 

It's a world away from the AFLW environment where she spends half her week as a tough-as-nails defender for the Kangaroos.

“(The footy) is actually probably a little bit more terrifying, to be honest,” Pullar said.

“Football is incredibly unpredictable and there’s so many more emotions and bias involved in a game of football, as opposed to treating patients in a hospital.

“On the footy field, because I have that mindset (of asking for help) at work and I’ve had that kind of training, I’d like to think I get less rattled on a footy field, but of course there’s always moments and you do get quite rattled and make a couple of errors in a row.

“Crock (coach Darren Crocker) always says ‘bring yourself back to the present’ – you can’t control what’s happened in the past, you can’t control what will happen in the future, and I think my studies and my training in medicine has actually kind of helped me translate that to football as well. Which I am hoping for dear life carries me in good stead on Sunday.”

Pullar usually works four 10-hour shifts across the hospital's seven-day roster, but has reduced her workload this week to ensure she is well prepared for Sunday's big game.  

Despite having played at the Lions, who made last year's decider, the Grand Final will be Pullar's first. She was an emergency for last year's Grand Final, which Melbourne won by four points in Brisbane.

“I at least know what’s coming. I didn’t play … but trained and soaked up that energy,” Pullar said.

“If it’s taught me anything, it’s that these games are really hard to make. They’re really hard to win. And if you’re lucky enough and you’ve earned the right to be there, you’ve got to make the most of it and you’ve got to enjoy it. I just see a brilliant opportunity ahead of us and I think right now I’m just thinking about main training and how can we best prepare?

What more can we do to prepare, so when that day does come on Sunday, you’ve done everything you possibly can.”

A big cohort of Pullar's family and friends are making the trip south to support her at Ikon Park on Sunday. You’ll hear them, she says.

“Grand Finals are special days. You want your closest family and friends here,” Pullar said.

“They wouldn’t miss it for the world. They will be loud … and hopefully not too obnoxious.”