AFLW: St Kilda's Renee Saulitis counts down to second season as a Saint

The South Warrnambool export, who played three games in her debut season, lives with 33-gamer Kate McCarthy.

They've recently moved into an apartment in Elsternwick after living together elsewhere during Saulitis' first season as a professional.

Saulitis was drafted to St Kilda in October 2020 and finished her VCE at Ballarat Grammar shortly afterwards.

"When I got drafted and I had the option of living with her, mum and dad were like 'yeah that's a really good option to live with a teammate'," she told The Standard during a visit home to the south-west this week.

"I think it's helped, even just going to training with someone else, carpooling.

"She's got a couple of sausage dogs. I wasn't a dog person before I got there but I am now."

Saulitis, 18, is enjoying the city lifestyle.

She is also studying exercise and sports science at Deakin University's Burwood campus which provides an outlet from football.

"I have gotten used to it. There's more cafes and things on each street," she said.

"Living in Ballarat (beforehand) definitely helped."

The 14-team AFLW competition has had an overhaul with pre-season now starting in September and the round one to kick off in December rather than late January.

There will also be 10 rounds, up on nine, and finish in March - a week before the AFL men's competition begins.

Saulitis expects to train four nights a week during pre-season.

"As soon as the VFL finishes I think we'll start training one night a week leading up to pre-season," she said.

"I am having a break at the moment and enjoying that before it all starts up again.

"I went and watched the South Warrnambool girls on Sunday which was pretty cool, they got a nice win."

Saulitis featured in the VFLW, which runs during the AFLW off-season, for a number of rounds before she was encouraged to step aside and rest.

She enjoyed her time in the state league and believes it will help her have a bigger impact at AFLW level next season.

The 163-centimetre forward, who is one of the smaller players in the competition, said she'd savoured her debut campaign but now wanted to cement a spot in the Saints' side.

"It was pretty exciting but there's always the highs and lows as well with not getting picked and not winning," Saulitis said.

"Living out my childhood dream and round one were pretty special, running out in front of the crowd."

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