Three AFLW seasons, two premierships, two league best and fairests, two All Australians, and the honours go on and on — it is beyond argument that the Crows' Erin Phillips has been the standout player of the league thus far.

There is plenty of talk already suggesting the AFLW's best and fairest award should be renamed the Erin Phillips Medal, such has been her impact on the game in those three years.

But what is it about the Adelaide star that sets her apart?

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Fifteen years ago, a young Phillips was part of an Adelaide institution, the Slowdown charity match between teams of ex-players and local celebrities representing Port Adelaide and the Crows.

At that stage she was already playing WNBL for the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), having had to switch from football at the age of 13 because of the lack of a pathway for girls to keep playing.

Six years on, having chosen basketball as her sport, her desire to play football was still crystal clear, as was her talent.

I was covering the game for a newspaper that day at Adelaide Oval, largely because of the presence of tennis star Lleyton Hewitt, who was drawing the crowds playing for the Crows.

The surprise factor, however, was Phillips. Playing against opponents who were bigger and stronger than her, she was a solid runner, with a safe pair of hands and excellent disposal.

She just seemed like a natural footballer. I don't think I was the only person watching who wondered what might have been.

With her natural sporting ability and her family background — her father Greg was an eight-time SANFL premiership winner for Port Adelaide who also played VFL for Collingwood — perhaps it shouldn't have been so much of a surprise.

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Phillips had been an excellent junior at St Michael's Old Scholars club in Adelaide, before running out of time to pursue her football dreams.

Aussie Rules's loss was clearly basketball's gain.

The year after that Slowdown, Phillips moved to the Adelaide Lightning, where she would be named in the WNBL All-Star Five.

She became a regular in the Australian Opals, winning a world championship gold medal and an Olympic silver, plus two WNBA titles in the United States.

Fast forward to the latter stages of 2016 — Phillips was 31, and into the latter stages of her sporting career.

The announcement of AFLW's inaugural season for 2017 was too big a draw, and she ended up returning from the US to play for the Adelaide Crows.

Phillips returns to dominate AFLW

She was one of many players from other codes who earned a spot in the first season of the league.

Unlike many of the crossover players, she had had several years of footy as a junior. However there were plenty of players from Victoria who had been playing in the VWFL who had much more recent experience at a higher level.

Despite this, and the fact she was a few months shy of 32 when the season started, Phillips almost immediately dominated for the Crows.

Her natural athleticism and balance was one thing. But combined with her innate skills, game awareness and an A-grade football brain, she was a real threat.

At 173cm she was hardly the tallest player around, and neither was she the biggest. What she had was fitness, fierceness, strength, smarts and athleticism.

She could body off a defender to hold her ground for a mark, and she was capable of booting goals from anywhere, including snapping from ridiculous angles deep in the forward pocket.

One of her biggest strengths was her ability to size up the play quickly and respond with the right option, such as taking advantage of a free to kick quickly to a teammate for a set shot.

An example of this ability to read the game can be seen at the 45-second mark in this highlights package from the 2017 grand final.

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The Crows are bursting forward inside 50, with two players from each side — including Phillips — racing towards it.

Three players continue, seeking to either grab the ball or tie it up. Phillips hangs back half a stride, and is perfectly placed when the three collide and no-one takes control.

The ball spills and she is there to scoop it up and kick a goal, putting the Crows three scores clear late in the third quarter.

She kicked 10 goals in her first season, as the Crows won the inaugural title.

Erin Phillips has averaged just over a goal a game for the Crows in her time in the AFLW. ( AAP: Roy Vandervegt )

One of those scores was named the goal of the year. Against Carlton, with the game in the balance in the final quarter, Phillips held herself away from a pack, positioning herself to receive the ball.

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When it came to her she whirled and off three steps kicked long from 60 metres out, bouncing the ball through.

Phillips missed much of the 2018 season with a quad injury. Adelaide had a chance to reach the grand final but fell short, thanks to a loss to Collingwood in the final round.

She returned for 2019 with renewed intensity, and so did her teammates.

Phillips poses impossible dilemma for AFLW teams

The question once again was — how do you stop her?

At her best, she effectively became two players for the Crows. As a midfield clearance operator she was second to none, but Phillips has also kicked the third-most goals in AFLW's short history.

Oppositions try to stifle Phillips with pressure, but much of the time it doesn't work. ( AAP: Joe Castro )

Her endurance could lead to a tag from a midfielder, but her aerial ability and goal-scoring meant a run-with role often wasn't enough.

If all that wasn't enough, there was her toughness on the field. Because teams quickly realised her abilities, Phillips often got hit hard … and sometimes she intentionally drew the fire of oppositions so she could create space and time for her teammates.

In a year when observers were almost unanimous that the standard of play in the AFLW had gone up, it was the veteran Phillips who was still the one to stop.

Three goals against Geelong in round three, 25 disposals (including 23 kicks) against Fremantle in round four, and six marks against the Giants in round six were just some of her highlights.

It can be argued that in a league this new, her years and years of professional elite sport experience count extra and have given her an inbuilt advantage.

But it doesn't fully explain that her skills and awareness are still better than many younger, faster players.

Even in the grand final, with the intensity turned up and a record crowd of 53,000 roaring on the home side, Phillips kept her composure and led from the front as the Crows beat Carlton by 45 points to earn a second flag.

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She was clearly the best on ground, even if her game did come to a halt through injury late in the third term.

She had lifted her game for the finals, laying six tackles in the prelim final against Geelong and another four in the decider against Carlton.

In her second grand final Phillips kicked two goals, had 18 disposals and three marks and appeared largely the same player she had been throughout her three seasons in the AFLW.

Now approaching 34, and with an ACL recovery ahead of her, there are questions over whether she has played her last game.

As the league matures, the pathway will allow girls who started in Auskick to accumulate the necessary years of experience to arrive in the AFLW ready to go.

The standard of the league will improve and there may well be more Erin Phillips that capture the public imagination.

For now, we can be sad that Phillips did not have that opportunity … or we can be thankful that whatever happens from here, the AFLW has been given a true star to shine in its formative years.