Two years ago, as North Melbourne began its AFLW Season 7 finals campaign, Erika O'Shea lay in bed not knowing if she would ever regain full vision.

Though the blood that had filled her eye socket had been drained, the Irish defender's view from her left eye was a void.

"It was pure black," O'Shea says.

"I had no idea when I was going to get my vision back. It was a mad time, so scary. I was lying there really worked up with all these thoughts just rushing into my head.

"How are you going to be a footballer when you've only got one eye?"

North Melbourne had been clinging to a narrow lead in the dying minutes against Richmond at Arden St when O'Shea, playing in her 10th AFLW game, sprinted back towards the ball. In a sickening accidental collision, she ran headfirst into a Tigers player coming the other way, the player's elbow striking O'Shea on the point of her left eye.

Rushed to hospital, O'Shea underwent emergency treatment for an extreme hyphema, in which blood fills the eye's anterior chamber.

She was 19 at the time, and doctors offered no guarantee her vision would fully return.

Remembering the experience, O'Shea remains grateful for the "incredible" support she received from the club, including doctors, coaches, support staff and her teammates.

Kangaroos captain Emma Kearney collected her from hospital and took her to live with Kearney's extended family while she recovered.

Not wanting to worry her parents, a hemisphere away in Ireland, O'Shea told them she had regained her sight.

In reality, she stayed with Kearney's family for two and a half weeks before the function in her left eye began to return.

"It started getting a bit brighter, but it was still really, really blurry and dark," O'Shea says.

"Then it slowly returned but it was so gradual that you could barely tell."

The feeling when she finally regained clear sight? 

"Huge relief. Oh my God. I can't describe it."

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Growing up in Cork as the youngest daughter of a greyhound trainer, O'Shea surprised her parents by being the only one of their four children to take an interest in Gaelic football.

"None of the family was sporty," she says.

"My mum didn't know much about (football). My dad knew a bit but wasn't huge. But I started making County teams and oh my God, they jumped on board straight away. Every training session they could be travelling two and a half hours just to bring me, and they sat outside having tea and coffee and watching."

In her mid-teens, she was cut from the County team. She remembers it as a formative moment.

"That's when I learned resilience as a child, to be able to come back and work on stuff that I need to work on," she says. 

"I'm happy I was dropped because I don't think I would have worked as hard if I did make the team straight away.

"And my mum and dad were amazing through that whole period and afterwards. I genuinely owe my career to them, and I wouldn't say that lightly."

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North Melbourne's interest in County Cork's tearaway star arrived partway through 2022, via Instagram DM from recruiter Rhys Harwood. 

"I was a diehard Cork footballer at the time and I was also very young, so at first I said to my mum, ‘No’," O'Shea says. "But I got such support from her. She said, ‘If it's your dream, then go for it.’"

The raw pace that had caught Harwood's eye made her an instant asset for the Kangaroos. 

The AFLW's youngest ever Irish recruit, she played every game in her first season until the eye injury.

While pundits noticed her zip and creativity, the praise disguised what had been a rough start for a teenager thousands of miles from friends and family.

Her dad John flew over to help her settle during her first pre-season, chain-drinking cups of tea while he virtually lived at the club for eight weeks. But when he returned to Ireland, O'Shea found herself abruptly alone.

"It's a laugh now but my mum had always cooked me food, and I couldn't cook," she says. 

"I had pasta for dinner every single night for about four months.

"Basic things I found so difficult, and I think I was just a bit naive too. When I first came out, I was on the tram and someone asked me for my phone. So I gave it to them. And they took my phone. 

"One day before training I gave myself food poisoning, because I ate raw chicken. I cooked it, but I didn't cook it fully."

Learning the standards required of a pro athlete also took time.

Running had become a mental release for O'Shea, and whenever she felt stressed in her first year at Arden St, or missed family, she would go for a jog, not realising coaches were strictly managing players' training loads. She'd never before been to the gym. Never lifted weights.

"I suppose I had to grow up," O'Shea says. 

"It was an extremely difficult year, especially with the injury, but I learned a lot. And it definitely shaped me more as a person."

She credits the "lifelong friends" she forged at the club that year for pulling her through. 

"I do consider North my second family. Whenever I was feeling isolated, I just reached out to one of them and in an instant, I was going for coffee with someone. 

"And Kearney's family did become my family. When I stayed with her when I was injured, me and her aunts became so close. 

"I couldn't imagine myself in any other club or any other place in Melbourne."

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Two years on and with nearly three AFLW seasons under her belt, O'Shea has added power and craft to her game.

Her pace helps launch the fast transitions that have become a feature of North Melbourne's footy, while there's no better example of the strength she's developed than her run-down tackle of Adelaide's Hannah Munyard in Week 9; O'Shea locking cheetah-like onto the Crow forward and hauling her to the ground.

At games this season she's been greeted by an army of flag-bearing friends bringing the love from back home. Queen of Cork boxing Christina Desmond was in the crowd for the Roos' final home game. So was Orlagh Farmer, a Cork Gaelic legend who won six All Ireland medals ("She was one of my idols growing up", says O'Shea).

The O'Sheas have been regulars, too.

After initially hiding the full nature of her 2022 eye injury from her family, O'Shea eventually broke down to her mum on the phone. 

When they knew the true situation, her parents immediately flew over. They've returned each season since, including this year as the Roos earned their first minor premiership.

Greyhound trainer John continues to support his daughter the way he knows best. 

"He always says to me, 'You put in what you get out', so if you put in good food, you're going to have a good engine, you're going to keep going," O'Shea says.

"He used to give a spoon of honey to the dogs before the race, just to give them a bit of energy. So when I started playing football, it was a spoon of honey before the match every time. And he'd feed the dogs steak the night before every race, so I would get that too."

Does he still try to feed her steak and honey?

"Oh, he does. After training the other day, he put two steaks in front of me. I was like, 'Dad. I'm going to explode, that's too much'. 

"So I am definitely the greyhound now."