Sara Edwards Rohner punts the football to her teammate and runs through to complete the drill, arms spread in a mock shepherd.

"Carn girls, eyes on the footy!" comes a shout from somewhere.

It all seems so Australian. Except it isn't.

The stars and stripes flutter nearby. The snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains frame this incongruous sporting scene.

The Denver Bulldogs' first training run for the season is doubling as a farewell for 34-year-old Edwards Rohner, who is Australia-bound for trials with clubs in Melbourne and Brisbane.

"To make it into the AFLW would be me realising a goal inside my heart," she explains when asked what it would mean to be successful.

Edwards Rohner says Australian Rules is the perfect match for her skill and aggression. ( ABC News: James Bennett )

From the sideline, her husband John and three-year-old son Michael watch on.

"I think she has what it takes," says James Waddell, a former WAFL player and the Denver Bulldogs' director of coaching.

'Burning desire' to test herself

In 2007, Waddell began encouraging women interested in football to train alongside the men's teams, a move he says "simply made sense" for player development.

Last year, after the AFLW had begun to gather steam, Mr Waddell and friend and player agent Cam Richardson were watching a women's USAFL match in Los Angeles, discussing the AFLW's planned expansion in 2020.

Four new teams, and at least 120 new contracts, were on the way.

"Wouldn't it be great if we could get some girls from America?" Waddell recounts he and Richardson wondering.

James Waddell said it "simply made sense" for male and female players to train together. ( ABC News: James Bennett )

Edwards Rohner was among those on the field.

She had bought a ticket to play in LA "willy nilly", as she puts it.

Her then-two-year-old son had recently started preschool, giving her more time for the game she had poured her heart into before becoming a mother.

"We posed the question to Sara," Waddell says with a grin, "expecting to plant a seed".

He describes her as ferocious mobile forward, an athlete with a "burning desire" to test herself.

James Waddell says the time is ripe for an American woman to break into AFLW. ( ABC News: James Bennett )

Journey to Aussie rules via football and rugby

Edwards Rohner grew up in a family of women who challenged boundaries.

"My mum and her two sisters formed a women's ice hockey team in the 70s," she says.

"They just said 'down with the patriarchy!'"

Edwards Rohner played football as a child, then switched to rugby after a high school teacher goaded her, suggesting she try "a real sport".

Rugby was her thing for 12 years through her teens and 20s.

She thrived as a kicker, playing semi-professionally.

Edwards Rohner played rugby for more than a decade. ( Supplied: Sara Edwards Rohner )

Aussie rules was Sara's 'perfect' match

Her introduction to AFL came, ironically, via the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

The American broadcaster screened Australian rules games ahead of the rugby matches.

"I remember watching thinking, what an interesting sport," she says.

In 2013, she gave in to a friend who had been insisting she try it.

Edwards Rohner was spellbound, labelling Aussie rules a "wonderful and perfect" match for her skill and aggression — "a game based purely on kicking, and full contact without pads!"

The insistent friend was Colleen MacNab, an American woman who says she abandoned Gaelic football in favour of Aussie rules because, in contrast to the Denver Bulldogs, her Gaelic club had opted to keep men and women separate.

"This club embraced us," she says, gesturing at Bulldogs players warming up, one of whom is instructing a female American recruit on the drop punt.

Colleen MacNab encouraged Edwards Rohner to try Aussie Rules. ( ABC News: James Bennett )

Edwards Rohner was so smitten by football that a year after discovering it, she found herself in Australia, playing for the American team at an International Cup.

She recalls one passage of play vividly.

"I picked the ball up on the run, evaded a girl and kicked a 50-metre goal.

"People couldn't believe it — I couldn't believe it — because 50 metres is a long way out, especially for a woman."

That, she figured, was her pinnacle. She and her husband John started a family, giving birth to son Michael.

But she kept playing club footy. Including the game last year in LA.

Time is right for an 'international cross-coder'

Waddell's question about trying for the AFLW "lit a fire in my heart I always knew was there", Edwards Rohner says.

She enlisted some of the local men to help improve her kicking and fitness.

"The time really is ripe for an international cross-coder," Waddell says, referring to the four new women's teams forming for 2020.

"And [US Collingwood recruit] Mason Cox proves this can be done."

With the assistance of Waddell and his friend Richardson, Edwards Rohner began contacting clubs.

She has received positive responses from St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs, with whom she will train while in Australia.

Collingwood player Mason Cox has shown that Americans can succeed at the highest level of Australian Rules football. ( AAP: Julian Smith )

At 34, Waddell believes even a single-season contract would be a massive "door-opener" for the AFLW to talent in America.

"She knows this is about more than just her getting a kick," he says.

"She can be an ambassador."

'She's going to show Oz what Americans can do'

That prospect excites Edwards Rohner.

Ugly backlash to Tayla Harris's kicking photo notwithstanding, Edwards Rohner says the AFLW is a bright spot for women's sport.

"Having professional women's teams who play in the stadiums, who wear the uniforms, who have the same access to facilities — it's just absolutely massive.

"You would never hear of that here — for the Chicago Bears to have a women's team, or the Denver Broncos to have a women's team."

While some Australians might find earnest American talk of believing in dreams cheesy, Edwards Rohner is genuine, steely, as she explains her mother "always told me I could do anything I wanted".

"You can do anything, if you put your mind to it and you find something you're good at and something you love," she says.

She laughs when asked about her family: "I pretty much told my husband I was doing this".

Edwards Rohner doesn't want to die wondering whether she could have made it in Australia. ( ABC News: James Bennett )

Husband John, who she met through rugby, is supportive and relaxed.

"My company has offices in Melbourne," he says, explaining the plan if she's contracted.

"Maybe I'll work from there, or just take a long vacation."

As training wraps up, friends and teammates gives hugs and words of encouragement.

"She's going to show Oz what Americans can do," MacNab says with a wink.

Edwards Rohner is philosophical. "I'll give it all I've got," she says.

"If it works out, great.

"If it doesn't work out, I'm OK with that, because at least I won't have that nagging question in my mind: 'Would I have been good enough to make it?'"