Rising AFLW star Ally Anderson isn’t simply making an impact on the field, as seen when she collected a clean sweep of coaches votes and took home AFL Players Association’s Round 4 MVP, after the win over the Western Bulldogs.

She’s also making a significant impact off it, with her work in local Indigenous communities in and around Brisbane.

Anderson is joined by Allen Christensen as the two playing members of the Brisbane Lions RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) Committee that meets on a regular basis to plan how the Club can better engage, learn from and ultimately invest in the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, not only in the greater Brisbane area, but in the Club’s Fitzroy roots and across Australia.

Anderson manages to juggle going to University, playing AFLW and being an ambassador for local Indigenous initiatives in Brisbane through the Deadly Choices program, who are a partner of the Brisbane Lions.

“The stuff that I do, football is building that media platform for me which allows me to do more stuff with Indigenous kids,” Anderson told RRR radio.

“I recently re-joined with Deadly Choices, which is a program back in Queensland who have joined with the Lions and we get to promote good healthy life choices for Indigenous kids.”

Anderson is thankful for the platform that playing AFLW has given her.

“I went in and did a little talk the other day on the radio to get the word out. Being able to do that type of stuff is because of footy. I don’t think I’d have had that opportunity four years ago. Just having footy as that platform that I can sort of touch Indigenous lives,” she said.

“That’s something that means the most to me. You get to play footy and that’s fun, the other stuff you get to do on top of it is a bonus and just really exciting.”

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Being out in Yuendumu with @reddustoz has been one of the most incredible and touching experiences of my life. I’ve learned so much about myself and our culture in only one week and can’t wait to be apart of it again. Such an amazing Red Dust crew and a community who truly welcomed and embraced us all and taught us so much. Thank you Yuendumu!

A post shared by Ally Anderson (@allyanderson18_) on Oct 20, 2018 at 1:42am PDT

While her work in the community is a priority for her, thankfully for Lions fans she has managed to work in playing football around her studies.

“I’m a student at university, maybe a bit old but still. I’m a paramedic-science student, and I could have graduated last year but I wanted to come into this season fresh, and it was towards the end of the year I had to do my prac (practical theory) and it would have disrupted my pre-season,” she said.

“I sort of chose to focus on footy which is OK because I live at home.

“Hopefully at the end of this year I’ll be able to finish it and see where I go from there.”