Sit in the stands during North Melbourne's AFLW games and you're a good chance of having your ears scorched by a man bellowing encouragement at Ruby Tripodi.

That's Joe Tripodi, father of the 23-year-old midfielder, who has become one of the Kangaroos' breakout stars in just her second season.

"When we watch the games back (on TV), I hear him," Ruby tells NMFC Media of Joe. "He's great but yeah, mum won't sit with him. They tend to watch it separately."

A fruiterer with his own wholesale business, Joe often drops off supplies for the players after a big win. His pineapple, says Ruby, is the best there is.

But if Joe remains Ruby's No.1 supporter, he's facing competition. As the Roos have earned a third consecutive preliminary final, Tripodi has won a growing army of fans, while remoulding herself from a pinch-hitting forward into a hard-bodied inside midfielder.

Her stats sheet shows how she has become quietly essential. She ranks 10th in the league for tackles, 16th for stoppage clearances, 31st for clearances.

Joe can take at least partial credit for Ruby's love of football, though she came to the game late, switching from basketball aged 17. A former reserves player with Richmond, he'd roll footies to Ruby and her two older brothers when they were growing up.

Drafted by the Roos after winning two VFLW best and fairests at Williamstown, where her family still lives, Tripodi played nine of the first 10 games in her debut season.

But when last November arrived and coach Darren Crocker looked to stack the team with finals-ready bodies, Tripodi found herself on the outer.

She admits it triggered some self doubt.

"I did reflect on it," she says. "If you had told me I was going to play that many games in my first year, I would have been so excited and I probably wouldn't have believed it. 

"So in that sense I was so fortunate, and you've also got to look at the bigger picture and put the team first, because it takes a whole-squad mentality. But if you ask anyone, everyone wants to be playing.

"There was even a bit of imposter syndrome. Coming into football late and with Covid in the middle of all that, you're trying to build confidence in a new sport, and there is that element of, 'Am I meant to be here, or am I good enough to be here?'. And I really hadn't played a lot of footy compared to some other girls."

Not that the knockback was Tripodi's first rodeo. Her selection at No.23 overall in the 2023 supplementary draft came after she was overlooked in four consecutive drafts, dating back to her first VFLW year in 2019.

So in the nine months between last year's Grand Final - which Tripodi watched from the grandstand at Ikon Park - and September's season opener, she set about delivering a huge pre-season, hitting the track and gym in countless extra sessions.

Asked to nominate their pre-season MVP ahead of Week 1, nearly half of North Melbourne's players named 'Tuba'*.

It's resulted in a transformative year.

In locking down her spot as a coalface inside mid, Tripodi has released veteran Ash Riddell to run more freely, helping the Kangaroos develop a faster and more flowing style of football.

"That running base has helped a lot," Tripodi says. "It's given me the opportunity to play in midfield and the confidence to know I can run out games.

"It started with becoming consistent in training, which was a big goal of mine. You might not always be feeling your best, but you get it done."

Nearly all those extra pre-season sessions were with winger Taylah Gatt.

So tight are the pair at the club that when Gatt missed a trip to Tasmania when ill in Week 5, teammates jokingly worried how Tripodi would cope.

"She's such a driven, motivated, hard-working person, and she's a lot fitter than I am," Tripodi says of Gatt, who she met in her first week at Arden St in 2023.

"I feel so lucky to have such a good friendship with her. We really pushed each other and kept each other so accountable during that off-season."

Portside Williamstown, in Melbourne's west, remains central in multiple ways to Tripodi.

On Thursday afternoons for three years before she joined North Melbourne, Seagulls legends and premiership players Kim Kershaw and Lindsay Cahill coached her one-on-one. They tuned her skills and taught her how to adapt the athletic traits she brought across from basketball.

"Those guys are the best people," Tripodi says.

"To have that period of mentoring was huge for me. They're both more than mentors now. There's such a strong friendship there with both of them, and I'm lucky to have their support, too."

Do they come to her games?

"Oh yeah, they come. They've got the badges. They're all over it."

When she's not at Arden St, Tripodi fills much of her time studying. She's in her final year of a nutrition science degree at Monash University. 

On weekends outside matchdays, you're most likely to find her at home, surrounded by her large extended family. Joe's side of the family hails from Varapodio in Italy's deep south, which usually guarantees a mountain of pasta at their get-togethers, as well as zippoli, a savoury fried doughnut Tripodi says is "amazing".

"I've always been so fortunate to have that really big sense of family and connection," she says. 

"And not only family but such good support through my friends, and at the club from the coaches through to the senior players, and everyone. It's unreal to have. It's inspiring. It drives you on."

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*For the record, not even Tripodi knows her nickname's full origin story. She knows it was coined by former Williamstown teammate (and former Kangaroo) Sophia 'Smack' McCarthy. Tripodi used to get 'Ruba', so her best guess is that 'Tuba' was Smack mashing together 'Ruba' with her surname.