When December 25 rolled around last year she was preparing to go under the knife to repair a ruptured right anterior cruciate ligament.

Twelve months before that she was recovering from a broken hand making it three major injuries in a little under two years.

Before the broken hand, it was a broken shoulder that required a bursectomy so the Port Macquarie Makos secretary hopes that her run of bad luck is over.

Everyone knows bad luck comes in threes, but she won’t forget the afternoon in Wauchope last year when she went to hit a hole only to find her ACL give way.

“I was playing in Wauchope on a Monday night, a hole opened up, I went to change direction and it just went snap,” Bullus said.

“The sideline heard it, I laid there in agony and my teammates pulled me off the field and that was it.

“This time last year I was about five weeks away from having my knee operated on for a reconstruction.”

All it took was a couple of words from her sister – who doubles as her physiotherapist – to provide the motivation to return for the 2018 NSW State Cup.

“I wasn’t supposed to play this year because I was told I’d need 12 months to recover,” she said.

“My sister said ‘you won’t get there’ so I said ‘watch me’ and I worked really hard, hit the gym and got the all-clear from the specialist last week.

Bullus started playing touch football in 1994 when her dad was president and has been involved ever since, but this year will be just her second State Cup event.

“I coached last year because I missed out on playing and never played at a rep level so it’s been good,” she said.

Western Suburbs – who also have a Port Macquarie flavour through Laura Coleman – are expected to progress deep into the women’s open competition.

“We’ve got a fresh new team and are looking to definitely beat last year’s results; I think we can get to the semis,” Bullus said.

“We only know our draw for Friday where we have two games and a bye so we’re looking at Wests as being our biggest game on the first day.”

Bullus said the first order of business will be getting through the weekend injury-free.

“It would be nice to have a Christmas with no injuries, play well, keep our cool and have fun. We want to make the championship.”

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