The Bulldogs donned guernseys with white ribbons to show their support in stamping out men’s violence against women in the team’s round 13 clash with Geelong. 

O’Brien met with the team last week to share her story and raise awareness of domestic violence. 

In 2012, O’Brien was horrifically bashed with a baseball bat in front of two of her three children. 

O’Brien spent a month in a Brisbane hospital’s intensive care unit with a team of surgeons working to put her face back together and has had several more surgeries in the years since. 

O’Brien’s ex-fiance is serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempted murder.

O’Brien has bravely turned her tragedy around, joining forces with White Ribbon Australia to attend events as a guest speaker and sharing her story with the country. 

She said sharing her story had been vital to her recovery. 

“I can remember being in my hospital room and I thought that was me for the rest of my life,” she said. 

“I had to break the barrier. I never got depressed. 

“My middle daughter Ashlyn said to me, ‘mummy, I can’t believe you can speak in front of so many people’. 

“I said, ‘neither do I darling’. It’s like there’s another person there and I’m just trying to get my point across.

“It’s such a relief to get it out there.” 

O’Brien said every Western Bulldogs player embraced her, told her she was courageous and welcomed her into the Bulldogs family. 

“I kept saying to them ‘it’s not me that’s going to change a nation, it’s us as a team’,” she said. 

“Not just the Western Bulldogs but the whole of Australia, we need to work to make this change.

“The Bulldogs CEO called a meeting Friday night and told them that me speaking was the most inspirational and best thing that’s happened to the club. 

“That hit hard in my heart. I just thought ‘wow’. It was unbelievable.” 

O’Brien said every club needed to do its bit to keep domestic violence on the radar. 

“Having men saying they want to make change is so much more powerful,” she said. 

“The level of respect I received is helping show other men and younger guys in the Wimmera.” 

O’Brien will head to Geelong Football Club in two weeks, to work with the club in raising $20,000 to renovate a house that struggling women and children can go to. 

“Knowing they want to renovate this children's area just makes me even more determined to keep talking because if i don’t speak, that next person sitting next to me isn’t going to speak,” she said. 

“Who else will?” 

O’Brien is currently working with Wimmera Football League on plans for their white ribbon round on July 23.