One tiny woman's huge AFL drive.

"This is our MCG," says Matelita Tuilevuka. She's rounding up about 30 men and women who've turned up to an AFL training session at Albert Park in Suva. Some of them have walked up to two hours to be here because they can't afford the $1.50 FJD bus fare.

Ma' may be small but the 22-year-old has no trouble commanding the attention of some of the biggest men in front of her. That's fortunate, because she's been tasked with helping the Australian aid-supported AFL programme spread the game across Fiji.

When the women's league started here four years ago, Ma was facing the toughest year of her life. Her grandmother had a brain tumour and she became her primary carer, in between school and football.

"I'd wake up early in the morning, clean the house, prepare my grandparents' breakfast. I would get detention because I was late for school. I'd get home late, and then I'd have to wash her... and even though I have school work to do, you have to stay up with your grandmother and see the pain she goes through."

But it was during this time, once when she was on the brink of giving up, that her grandmother passed on advice that still gets her through rough days.

She would say 'pain is temporary, quitting is forever'."

This story was produced by ABC International Development as part of the Pacific Sports Partnerships funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

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