Machaelia Roberts had to grow up young.

Coming from the Northern Territory, Roberts lived with several family members before settling on a home in Darwin with her mother, then moving out on her own.

Even as a teenager, Roberts was eager to start her family, leading to the birth of her first child, Elaine, who is now seven years old.

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But the birth of her twin boys, Rex and Raiden, who are five years old, was a much more difficult experience.

“My twin boys, they were premature,” Roberts told foxfooty.com.au.

“I rolled my ankle and I was about to come up to six months, so they were three months early.

“That was pretty scary for me, I was in hospital for two months.

“But we managed to get there in the end and brought them back home.

“We got a little home and everything together and started life then.”

At the same time, her footy life was beginning to take shape.

She had been playing since she was 15 years old, but obviously took breaks in between with the birth of her children.

But before she knew it, she had played over 100 games with the Darwin Buffettes in the NTFL, became a four-time NTFL premiership player and spent time with the NT Thunder in the VFLW.

She finally thought she was ready to be drafted last year, but said she “wasn’t thinking clearly”, and consequently didn’t get picked up by a club.

This time, Collingwood showed faith in her and selected her with Pick 94 in the AFL Women’s Draft.

That reality still hasn’t kicked in for her, though.

“It was just a big build-up,” she said.

“The pick was getting later and later and I was going: ‘Come on now, what’s going on? I’m getting nervous.’

“And when the pick came, I just didn’t know how to take it or whether to cry or be happy.

“It still feels unreal. I’m packing up my stuff and it’s like am I really going?

“It’s slowly sinking in. Maybe when I touch down in Melbourne, everything will sink in.”

There’s just one problem.

Moving to Melbourne means possibly leaving her kids behind in Darwin, which Roberts is nervous about.

“I’ve been with them every day of their lives,” the Pies draftee said.

“I’ve got a boyfriend, he’s really good and he’s just told me to go and focus and go down.

“Then hopefully just after Christmas, everything will go down well and I’ll hopefully get to bring the kids down.”

Before she met her boyfriend, Roberts was a single Mum for a while, with Elaine, Rex and Raiden’s father being in the Tiwi Islands while the 25-year-old and her children lived in Darwin with her extended family.

Being a single Mum with three kids is hard enough and playing footy as well would seem an impossible task for some mothers.

Machaelia Roberts in action for the Darwin Buffettes. Photo: Glenn Campbell

But for Roberts, it was where she was most happy.

“I had my daughter and then went away for a while and then just came back and played for the same club because I knew there was that support,” she said.

“It’s a family orientated club. There were Mums and bubs there as well so it was good.

“They understood where I was coming from.

“I never had a car so it was kind of hard to get down to training and stuff like that but they managed to pick me and my family up and bring us down to training.

“I was happy that I was a part of that club.”

Not only is Roberts’ selection as AFLW Pie a big deal for her, but it extends to her whole community.

“The community is really big,” she said.

“Everyone’s really happy and stuff like that.

“It’s kind of hard because it’s pretty far and they don’t have social media. They don’t really know what’s going on.

“I’ve got a few family members over there and I told them to make sure they spread the message to the community so that was good for them and for me too.”