That's a lot to pack in for a 30-year-old, but now Farley's Mollie Gray wants more.

She is midway through a Bachelor of Film degree at Sydney's SAE Institute and is excited by what the future holds.

"I've always just taken the opportunities that have come my way rather than plan too far ahead," she said.

"So I'll get through this course and see what happens. But the thought of making film and television, documentaries ... I find all that really appealing."

Let's start at the beginning.

In January 2008 she joined the Army and four years later was deployed to Afghanistan.

"I'd always wanted to be deployed so it was exciting," she said. "I was part of the artillery administrative support team, so I didn't get my hands dirty as such."

She has trouble pigeon-holing her Afghanistan experience.

Was it scary? "No, I can't say I ever felt frightened, but I guess you get desensitised over time," she said. "I didn't know what to expect, the country was beautiful, it was a great experience in a lot of ways."

But the overarching memory was of the bullying she suffered from a colleague.

"I didn't know bullying it could affect me the way it did," she said. "Maybe its because you're a long way from home, away from your family and your support base, but it took a toll."

In the end, she had a choice - it could scar her forever, or she could find a way to climb above it.

"And that's what I did. It made me stronger. Now when I look back I wouldn't change it. I certainly didn't enjoy it but I'm glad I experienced it because it made me who I am today."

Rugby came along about then and for someone down on confidence, the timing couldn't have been better.

Back in Australia an army colleague invited her along for a game one day and Mollie reluctantly agreed.

"I was a swimmer growing up, never a footballer," she said.

But then when she got out on the field something totally unexpected happened. She relished the physical nature of it. The pool was out and a crash tackling rugby forward suddenly emerged.

"I just love a hit," she says, clearly surprised by what she's saying. "There's no feeling quite like it when you line someone up in defence ... it's empowering. I played loose forward which meant you're always in and around the action and I love that."

Her talent was obvious from early on.

She was picked in her first Test matches in New Zealand in 2014, and later that year the World Cup in France.

Her career was going from strength to strength when she suffered a huge setback ... a teammate fell on her right knee in a ruck and she did her medial ligament which required serious rehabilitation over four months.

Still she pushed herself, and was so committed that she was back in time to be selected in the Australian Sevens team in 2015.

"I was a 15s player, not sevens, so while I made the squad I never debuted."

Her next goal was the 2017 World Cup in Ireland, and with her knee injury behind her, she looked a certainty. But things took another twist.

She "destroyed" her other knee - it made her previous injury look like a scratch in comparison.

"Both cruciate ligaments, the medial, dislocated my kneecap, tore my cartilage and my meniscus ... it was pretty bad."

Rehab time was estimated at nine months if she worked hard.

"But I was a bit insane, I was so focused on training that I managed to get back in five."

It also meant that she made the squad for the World Cup in Ireland. But lifting weights in a gym is one thing, running, changing direction and being tackled is something else altogether.

For the first time in her career, she was doubting herself - and it showed.

"I was in the team for all six matches, but was thinking this is a terrible idea," she said. "Maybe I was a bit nuts, this crazy athlete. It affected my game and by the end I was back on the reserves bench.

"Looking back now I wish I hadn't played, that I'd given my knee more time to heal."

That as reinforced when she learned she had damaged it again upon her return, which meant another couple of operations.

With no action on the field, she was approached by Fox to join their Kick and Chase team alongside Nick McArdle and union greats George Gregan and Drew Mitchell.

"I remember walking in and seeing these two great players and thinking 'what am I doing here'," she recalled.

"But I had two years there and really loved it. But it made me wonder how it all comes together on the other side of the camera, and that's probably what started my interest in a Bachelor of Film."

So now it's her next project and, like everything she does, she's throwing herself into it wholeheartedly.

When means don't be surprised if youl see the name Mollie Gray associated with some award winning film before too long.

After all, this is a woman who loves a hit.