Abbey Dowrick has seen an impressive beginning to her AFLW career, averaging 17.5 disposals and seven tackles in the first four rounds of the season. Image: AFL Photos.

IT is amazing how dreams become reality when opportunity presents itself to youth.

Not so long ago, Hannah Ewings and Abbey Dowrick would have been told to move on to netball, hockey, basketball or any other sport that offered a pathway for young women. Their journey in Australian football would have ended at 15, as it did (for a while) for Port Adelaide AFLW captain - and Olympian, in basketball - Erin Phillips.

The pathway from junior football to a national league for women is now in its sixth year. And never before in Australian football has the emergence of a new generation of players offered such a dramatic - and positive - change as the latest teenagers of AFLW.

In 2015, when Phillips was signed by Port Adelaide for a national league team at Alberton, the view at AFL House in Melbourne was that South Australia did not have enough homegrown talent to support an AFLW team. Today, South Australia has some of the best female talent for Australian football - as noted by the undefeated under-18 State team with which Ewings earned her All-Australian honour before being drafted to Port Adelaide.

Those among the 2741 at Alberton Oval on Saturday afternoon - and the many more watching on television - would have seen (with joy) the midfield tandem of Ewings and Dowrick with a new appreciation of what the AFLW is doing for the sport of Australian football, not just women in Australian football.

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Goal of the Day: Round 4 | PTV

Hannah Ewings kicks the round 4 Goal of the Day.

For those who grew up through the Baby Boomers generation, the way Ewings and Dowrick worked clearances to goals was a throwback to the 1970s era of Brian Cunningham and Darrell Cahill. It is a phenomenon to feel the past while watching the future at Alberton Oval with this AFLW adventure today.

Ewings, 18, followed up her Rising Star nomination in round three with history in round four. The midfielder is the first player on the AFLW national stage to collect nine clearances and score three goals in a match. The All-Australian selectors would have to be impressed - even more than they were the week earlier in handing Ewings a Rising Star gong.

Port Adelaide list manager Naomi Maidement's call of Ewings as the first player drafted to Alberton for Lauren Arnell's "Inaugurals" was well made.

And what of the West Coast and Fremantle recruiting teams that ignored Dowrick? The 19-year-old West Australian came from Subiaco in Perth to play SANFLW with Woodville-West Torrens to prove her ambition was burning for a chance to play in the AFLW - an opportunity Port Adelaide eagerly offered. She too has a Rising Star nomination from round one when Dowrick stood out at Mineral Resources Park in Perth before the West Coast list-management team that overlooked the local.

Did West Coast and Fremantle truly question if Dowrick had "fallen out of love" with Australian football? Today, as a Port Adelaide inaugural player, Dowrick will inspire many others to find joy in the game.

Abbey Dowrick had a standout Round 4 performance, recording a game-high 24 disposals and 14 tackles to go along with a goal. Image: AFL Photos.

Australian football is filled with such storylines of misguided draft blunders, as noted in AFL ranks with another West Australian, Sam Powell-Pepper, who found his draft call at Alberton rather than at West Coast or Fremantle.

Port Adelaide recently - in the 2018 national draft - made the most of three first-round draft picks with Connor Rozee (No. 5), Zak Butters (No. 12) and Xavier Duursma (No. 18). This trio is part of the next generation at Alberton.

Ewings and Dowrick are two emerging stars of the new generation in the AFLW, players who will not only build the foundation of Port Adelaide's AFLW "herstory" but the game's new wing for female players. They will inspire another generation to pick up the Sherrin - a generation that can, as teenage boys have done for more than a century, play the game of Australian football without any limits, any barriers or any dead end once they turn 15.

Port Adelaide's first W in W - the 66-point win against Sydney at Alberton Oval on Saturday afternoon - is memorable for so many reasons, including how two teenagers - Ewings and Dowrick - stood out on a day when many walked through the turnstiles to celebrate Phillips' 50th game in AFLW.

Phillips was brilliant as a team player in attack - eight score involvements, five of which finished as goals.

The first play - basketball convert Olivia Levicki winning the tap and Ewings putting the clearance into a kick to Phillips leading to the top of the 50-metre arc at the southern end of Alberton Oval - had so much to absorb and appreciate.

A former basketballer, Olivia Levicki has transitioned almost seemingly into football - producing a strong set of games to begin her AFLW career. Image: AFL Photos.

Levicki, in just her fourth game of AFLW and senior Australian football after a sporting life in basketball with an elite record as an Australian player. It is some transformation from the polished boards of WNBL basketball to the manicured grass fields of AFLW.

Ewings, also in just her fourth AFLW match after senior SANFLW football with North Adelaide and with no-one denying her opportunity to ultimately become a professional Australian footballer.

And Phillips, in her 50th AFLW game with her dream in Australian football delayed - by that roadblock at 15 - but not denied.

It was a momentous day at Alberton on Saturday; herstory in the making. The greatest joy was in watching dreams come true because opportunity is no longer denied to young women who make the game better, greater and more complete for their presence.