The 33-year-old, who is an assistant principal at Scottsdale High School, played her first year of football in 2018 as co-captain of George Town's TWL North side as she also took the field for Launceston on three occasions.

From there, North Launceston came calling and Clifford led the side to the finals in the team's first two State League seasons.

Bombers coach Dean Smith announced her retirement to the playing group at three-quarter-time of North's preliminary-final loss to Launceston much to the shock of some teammates.

"I'm not getting any younger and therefore, it's getting a little bit harder in the recovery sense of things," she said.

"The girls keep saying to me 'you're still the fittest on our team' and in terms of running, I probably am but it's the recovering from the bumps and the knocks and getting up off the ground - that's the stuff that hurts.

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"I'm not out to have the longest career, I've enjoyed the time I've had playing footy, so let's do it now."

The George Town local played with her brother and cousins at a young age but had to wait until the growth of women's football to play competitively.

Looking back at her time on the playing field, she wished she could be 15 years younger to give the game a real crack.

"My involvement in footy from this point forward is trying to encourage young people to be involved - particularly our young girls.

"They've got so many opportunities now and I guess I feel like I missed out on some of those opportunities but the future of women's footy is pretty bright.

"With the AFLW, there's no reason why our young girls can't be really striving to develop their skills."

She said the growth in the 16-18-year-old players that have been playing for up to five competitive seasons has been fantastic as they play with a natural ability.

Launceston coach Ange Dickson, who will face Glenorchy in Saturday's grand final, described Clifford as "a dominant figure".