Now in her whopping 12th season at Brisbane, there's few sportspeople in the country more qualified to have a say at their club than the Matildas' veteran.

The two-time Julie Dolan award winner has led by example at the Roar for over a decade now, but at 30-years-old, she's now beginning to slowly transition into life after football, taking up the assistant role to new head coach Jake Goodship.

Goodship may well be the most thankful for Polkinghorne's commitment. The new coach has no W-League experience, but possesses massive wraps and positive backroom chatter after highly successful spells at Y-League and NPL level.

He has massive shoes to fill with the departure of Mel Andreatta, so all hands will need to be firmly on deck if Brisbane are going to live up to the hype and big bill of stars this season, and potentially take out the W-League Championship.

“Clare has been an incredible servant to the Brisbane Roar, the national team and female football in Australia and it’s terrific to have a player of her stature in our squad again,” Goodship said.

“She has been there for all of it in terms of Brisbane Roar and it’s great to have her experience in both the playing squad and coaching ranks this season.”

As for Polkinghorne, she's keeping her ambitions a little closer to her chest considering she still has a lengthy, illustrious career in front of her.

“I’m really excited to be back for another season – we’re building a strong team here with plenty of experienced players which will be massive for us to improve on what we achieved last year,” Polkinghorne said.

“I’m always looking to challenge myself in different areas and coaching could be something I look to do in the future. It’s a great opportunity to get some good experience working alongside a group of high-quality coaches.

“I’d love to help the next generation of players and when the opportunity came up it was one I was really excited to take.”