“Sydney and the Swans love a big forward, we’ve seen that with Buddy,” says the AFL’s head of women’s football Nicole Livingstone. “Now, we’ve got Chloe.”

From Warwick Capper and Tony Lockett to Adam Goodes and the recently retired Lance Franklin, bigger-than-football characters have drawn otherwise resistant Sydneysiders to the AFL. According to Livingstone, that torch has now been passed on.

“Chloe Molloy was the big marquee signing they were really hoping for,” she says.

The claim is bold but the evidence is building. At just 24, Molloy is the symbol of the new Swans, the major story of season eight of the AFLW. From winless in their first campaign last year, Sydney are now preparing for Saturday night’s semi-final against minor premiers Adelaide in South Australia.

The praise for Molloy has been steady, and growing in volume. She came into 2023 already a two-time All Australian from her stint at Collingwood, but in new colours the 24-year-old has produced her best season. She is second in score involvements, three shy of top goalscorer, and has 11 majors in her past four games.

Over the weekend, the Age newspaper named her third best player in the league. Her coach, Scott Gowans, went further. “I’ve always said she’s the best female footballer I’ve ever seen, and I’ll stick by it,” he said after her three-goal performance against the Gold Coast.

And, like Franklin, the off-field impact of Molloy’s arrival has been significant. The Swans recorded the highest average attendance in the league this season, at more than 4,600 a match. It’s not all Molloy’s doing – craft beer and cheese boxes help – but attend a match, and it’s clear the No 5 is a fan favourite.

Ask Molloy herself though, and she says she isn’t there to replicate Franklin’s – or anyone else’s – formula.

“To hear Nicole say that, for a split moment, I’m like, God that is really cool to hear,” Molloy says. “But then I quickly go, ‘oh, but I didn’t come here to be that’.”

Instead, Molloy is treading her own path. She says she is driven by a commitment to the team, and the broader community. Her worldview is influenced by her mother, Deb, a teacher with a strong sense of social responsibility. She regularly contributes to off-field causes and in May appeared at the official pledge by sporting organisations in support of the Indigenous voice to parliament – the only AFL or AFLW player at the announcement who is still playing.

“What I’ve come to learn is, when you become an athlete, when you get put in the spotlight, you have influence, and you have a voice,” Molloy says. “Mum’s really ingrained that in me because she’s always put others before herself.”

Deb Molloy – a regular on the sidelines alongside father Sean – tells the story of how, in junior basketball, her daughter would be reluctant to shoot, preferring instead to involve others. “She consistently prioritises the team’s successful over personal recognition,” she says.

But the Swan is never far from the spotlight: sociable, quick-witted, and comfortable in front of the camera. Her goal celebration on the weekend, rebuking a rowdy Gold Coast fan, was not of someone averse to attention.

Molloy says she doesn’t want to come across the wrong way. “I was called arrogant in the early days in my career, and I think that really shaped me,” she says. “Because I never want to be described as that again.”

The person who has enjoyed the best vantage point of Molloy’s impact this year is her Swans co-captain Lucy McEvoy, who describes Molloy as “energetic”, “loving” and “a pioneer.”

“She’s got such a lovable personality that everyone is just drawn to her, and what she can do on the footy field speaks for itself,” she says.

As the AFLW strives to break out after eight seasons, Molloy is the league’s most powerful asset in Sydney, a market of strategic priority. But Australian rules almost missed out on her entirely.

A junior representative and WNBL basketballer, Molloy had even committed to going to American college VCU. The posts remain on social media, a glimpse into an alternative reality: “If you want to eat, sleep, ball, repeat, then college is for you.”

But, when the AFLW launched in 2017, the niece of former AFL player Jarrod Molloy realised football could be in her future. Her parents had spent thousands on sneakers and crisscrossed Victoria’s courts, investing time and energy chasing a basketball dream that had finally been secured. Despite that, Molloy’s first sporting love was irresistible.

The then 17-year-old just had to tell her parents. “She actually slipped a note under our bedroom door, but we weren’t going to yell at her,” Deb Molloy says. “She loves football and the year before she went into the draft, that was when the AFLW started, so it was kind of like a no brainer.”

Six years later and it is clear Molloy’s decision has paid off. The Swans signed her to a five-year contract this year, the longest in the competition.

“I came here to be loved by the club, and embrace the club,” Molloy says. “And hopefully, when I walk away at the end of my football career, everyone’s path that I crossed, they remember how I made them feel. And hopefully they only have good things to say about me.”