Coach Lisa Arundell said Ryan, who has up to 15 years A grade experience at Warrnambool and District league club's East Warrnambool, Merrivale and Nirranda, had taken her game to another level this year.

Ryan, 33, believes it comes down to easing pressure on herself and making a pre-season promise to enjoy the season for what it was.

"Sometimes I can be really hard on myself," Ryan said. "I hold myself to a certain standard."

The premiership goal defender said while her benchmarks remained, she is playing with "more freedom" as Arundell pushes Ryan to try new things.

"I think when you're really happy with what you're doing it comes out in a better way," Ryan said.

With the unbeaten Nirranda touted as premiership fancy as early as pre-season, Ryan said her teammates were disciplined not to get too far ahead of themselves and instead focus squarely on the round ahead.

She said Arundell re-reinforced this by setting targets to work towards each week, both individually and as a team.

"There is no time to look outside the boundaries, thinking about other things," Ryan said. "Every week there is something you know you should be working on. We certainly haven't rested on our laurels."

Nirranda is undefeated with a round to go in the home-and-away season. Already guaranteed top spot heading into finals the Blues' are bidding to return to the top of the competition for the first time since 2018.

Ryan said new recruits in goalies Amanda Gilbert (Camperdown) and Chelsea Quinn (Old Collegians) brought "something different" to a Nirranda side that was well-established.

In a "team-within-a-team" in defence, Ryan, who has a long playing history with goal keeper Lisa Anders, said communication was key to the Blues' title as the most stringent back court in the competition. The Blues have conceded an average 24.1 goals a game, including seven games of 20 or less goals.

"We work on the things we really want to get right," she said of Anders, Georgia Haberfield and Cloe Marr. "Whether it's boxing out or certain amount of rebounds."

Ryan is looking forward to a tough challenge against top three Panmure to round out their year.

"It's a good way to finish the season," Ryan said. "(Panmure's) great, they're really up there."

With a direct route to the semi finals, Ryan expects the Blues to stay busy in their bye week with a practice match or training session.

MORE SPORT:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:

Now just one tap with our new app: Digital subscribers now have the convenience of faster news, right at your fingertips with The Standard: