The story of how Adelaide's two-time All-Australian midfielder Anne Hatchard improved her fitness is well known, but the rapidity of the transformation even surprised her own mum.

Hatchard was a relatively inexperienced footballer when she was drafted by the Crows with pick No.87 in the inaugural NAB AFLW Draft, having primarily played basketball as a kid.

She played seven of eight games in her first season (including the 2017 premiership triumph), but managed just four games the following year, playing as a key defender and undersized ruck.

But by the end of the 2019 season, she was an All-Australian midfielder.

"She worked extremely hard, harder than what I imagine a lot of people could do, once she set her mind to it," Claire Hatchard said.

"She just didn't give up once she started. It was quite amazing, it seemed to be quite a short time between the old Anne and the new Anne."

Hatchard's self-belief shot through the roof after her arduous off-season, and along with her fitness work, it had a direct impact on her on-field performance.

"After the 2018 season, the challenge I faced was having a few confidence issues. I'd get anxiety going into games because I expected so much of myself," the Crow said.

"I was a bit overweight, I wasn't as fit as I should've been. I loved fast food, hated salad, I'd be going through the drive-throughs on the way to games even.

"I felt like I was letting my teammates down, letting everyone down. I was dropped more games than I played, and it just sucked.

"From there, it kind of clicked that I might not get another contract. That off-season, I went out running a lot more, eating a lot better, and when I came back for the 2019 pre-season, all the girls were like 'who is this?'"

In 2021, Hatchard is averaging 19 disposals, five tackles and three clearances a game after a career-best, Club Champion winning year in 2020.

She believes the pressure has been taken off her in 2021 with her teammates stepping up and improving.

“I think we’ve really come together as a group and we’ve built solid platforms to go off, we are all playing our roles and not just relying on a few people to get the job done,” Hatchard said.

“The ball has been evenly spread amongst the whole team and it’s really shown throughout this year.”

Now, Hatchard and the Crows are focused on their first match against Collingwood since 2018, where the two sides will be fighting for a top two spot heading into finals.

“It’s really important to try get a win this week – if we have a really solid game it can get us a top two spot which going into finals will give us a lot of confidence,” she said.

“It’s quite exciting to see what we bring Collingwood – they are a really strong side, they’re really contested and really attacking as well, so knowing how we played against the Bulldogs, hopefully we can bring that next week and into finals as well.”

Tickets are still on sale for Adelaide’s Round Nine clash with Collingwood.

The match is getting underway at 12:10pm on Sunday, March 28 at Norwood Oval.