For 10 beautiful minutes, Kate Sheahan was finally a footy star.

Like too many other football-crazy little girls, Kate Sheahan was told her footy career was over at the ripe old age of 12.

Devastated, she swapped her big red, oval-shaped ball for a fuzzy little green one and channeled her energies into playing tennis.

She’s made a career as a tennis coach, but Sheahan — whose dad is veteran sports journalist Mike Sheahan — never forgot the first game she loved.

Fast forward to 2017, and on Saturday night the 35-year-old mother-of-one made her debut in Round 4 of the inaugural AFL Women’s season.

It was a dream, years in the making, and it lasted right up until the Collingwood rookie’s first touch of the football.

Missed it? Here’s what went down in Round 4:

“I took the ball and felt right at home. I saw two Dogs players ahead and remembered Wayne telling us to use the boundary when kicking into the wind. So I decided to turn the opponent inside out and planted my left leg and went to change direction. BANG. My knee gave way. It snapped,” Sheahan wrote in a column for the Herald Sun yesterday.

“This surge of pain ran through my body and I went down like I had been shot, but to be honest that’s how it felt. I remember screaming: “My knee, my knee.”

“The look on the medico’s face said it all. I wanted so badly to get up. But I simply couldn’t.”

Doctors later confirmed she had an ACL tear. Her dream was over.

The first four weeks of the AFLW have been marred by injuries.

In Round 2, Melbourne’s star defender Meg Downie was knocked out cold in the most brutal clash of the season so far.

The 28-year-old was stretchered off the ground after colliding with Collingwood’s Sophie Casey.

It didn’t end her career but it did end her season, and after watching it live on TV her father was furious.

Elliot Downie described it as a “line in the sand” moment for the AFL.

“You can’t let this happen,’’ he told the Herald Sun.

“Violence is banned in the men’s competition, so they shouldn’t allow it in the women’s game.’’

Regardless of contact, growing injury lists are becoming a problem across the board.

GWS's Mai Nguyen also ruptured her ACL over the weekend and will sit out the second half of the season — as will Carlton's Sarah Last and Fremantle's Kim Mickle.

The Western Bulldogs have been suffering without their marquee star Katie Brennan, who is out with an ankle injury.

Meanwhile, Carlton's Bri Davey is out for at least two weeks after taking a knock to her lower back on the weekend.

Every challenge we successfully conquer serves to strengthen not only our will, but our confidence, and therefore our ability to confront future obstacles. Can't wait to be back in the ???????? #roadtorecovery ????: @lizvaggphotos

A post shared by Katie Brennan (@_katiebrennan) on Feb 27, 2017 at 2:50am PST

The spate of injuries has been blamed on a combination of women's 'biomechanics', the age of the players in question, and the sudden jump from amateur footy to the national competition, but AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan believes the problem will resolve over time.

“It is [a concern], but I think the context is the step up and the short period of conditioning to do that,” he said on Tuesday.

“The incidence of knee injuries for men is significantly higher at the start of the season because it’s the fastest they’ve come in and they’re the fittest and freshest.

“I think that it will be mitigated when the women have a second year of conditioning and are better able to deal with it.”

Many have also called to let teams recruit more players in 2018, as allowing 28 a side is starting to look painfully optimistic.

In 2017, Mamamia is committed to covering all aspects of women's sport. Check out more of our sports stories here.