PENSHURST export, Jess Rentsch, has capped off a strong debut AFLW season with the West Coast Eagles, collecting the club’s Best Emerging Player Award.

Despite the former Bomber missing the back end of the season with injury, Rentsch told The Spectator she was shocked to receive the award.

“It took me by shock, I missed a quarter of the season with my ankle injury,” she said.

“I had in my brain that I assumed I wasn’t going to get it.

“The club award – there has been other first-year players who played the full season,

“I had nothing prepared, and as they start listing out the attributes, I was thinking shit, this is sounding like me, and I don’t even know what to say, my heart was beating so fast.

“I am super grateful, but I was not expecting it.”

Rentsch is still rehabbing her ankle, and will start running later this week or next week, with her end-of-season chat with her coaches giving her a clear vision for the future.

The 19-year-old said it wasn’t as daunting as she expected.

“I was probably more harder on myself than they were, (senior coach) Daisy (Pearce) said I had built my toolbox up nicely, and gave me a few things to work on during the off-season,” she said.

Rentsch was also the Eagles’ nomination for best first year player at the AFLW MVP Awards.

“I feel like like some other teams had some blowout first year players, it is still a massive achievement, and I think all the players voted me in,” she said.

When asked about her season highlight, she looked across the development of the team and was excited about what was ahead.

“My highlight is probably the ability to rely on my teammates to get their job done,” she said.

“When the game plan and structure comes to fruition, it is really exciting, and the potential we have and what we’re building.

“We have progressed so much as a team and I am excited to see how far we can go.

“As for my personal highlight, in round one during my debut, there was a moment where I was 1 on 1 in the goal square, and I won the ball and ran and cleared the ball out of danger, I was just thinking that I’d arrived.

“I got a bit more freedom to run up the field against Hawthorn as well.”

Travel has also taken some adjusting, with the Eagles doing a lot more travel than most sides.

“I remember in the off-season we went to the Gold Coast, that was a seven-hour flight,” Rentsch said.

“I couldn’t get to sleep, I was up and about and then the next day I felt like I had been hit like a truck, but proper recovery and hydration helps.”

With all her responsibilities ticked off, Rentsch will now focus on continuing her ankle rehab and recovery, before returning to the region in the middle of December to spend Christ with family.

Rentsch said she was also hoping to tag along with the family’s annual ski trip to Robinvale, but might not get on skis, due to the risk of injury, as she looks ahead to the 2025 AFLW season.

The pre-season gets underway on May 19.