2024 AFL Women's draft | |
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General information | |
Date(s) | 16 December 2024 |
Sponsored by | Telstra |
Overview | |
League | AFL Women's |
The 2024 AFL Women's draft is the upcoming annual draft that will enable the 18 clubs in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition to recruit players following the 2024 AFL Women's season. It will be held on 16 December 2024.
In June 2024, the Australian Football League (AFL) announced that long-time major partner Telstra had expanded its partnership with the league to become the naming rights sponsor for the AFL and AFLW drafts and both competitions' Rising Star awards from 2024 onwards. [1] Later that month, AFL executive general manager Laura Kane announced that the AFL Women's draft would transition to a fully national draft for the first time, following feedback from clubs and the use of an "opt-in model" in the 2023 draft, where nearly 70 per cent of draftees (including twelve of the top 16 selections) nominated for the national draft pool rather than chose to remain in their home state. [2] The draft also saw the introduction of minimum two-year contracts for draftees. [2] In August, AFLW general manager Emma Moore announced that the girls' draft combine would also become a national event for the first time, having previously been staged only as state-based events, and would be held in Melbourne in October on the same weekend as the boys' combine. [3] Players who were not invited to the national combine were also able to attend smaller state-based draft combines in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. [4]
The national draft will take place on 16 December 2024 during the 2024–25 AFL Women's player movement period, which will run from November 2024 to March 2025. [5]
The initial draft order will be confirmed at the conclusion of the 2024 AFL Women's season.
AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 14 teams in 2020 and 18 teams in 2022. The league is run by the Australian Football League (AFL) and is contested by each of the clubs from that competition. The reigning premiers are the Brisbane Lions.
The 2017 AFL Women's season was the inaugural season of the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition, the highest-level senior women's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season ran from 3 February to 25 March, comprising a seven-round home-and-away season followed by a grand final contested by the top two clubs. Eight Australian Football League (AFL) clubs featured in the inaugural season: Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.
The AFL Women's Rising Star is an Australian rules football award given annually to the best young player in the AFL Women's (AFLW) for the year. Two eligible players are nominated each round of the home-and-away season; the players must have been under 21 at the beginning of the year and cannot have been previously nominated. Players suspended during the year cannot win. After the season's completion, an expert panel votes on the recipient.
Sophie Armitstead is an Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's competition.
The AFL Women's Rising Star award is presented annually to the best young player in the AFL Women's (AFLW) during the home-and-away season. The first award was awarded in 2017. The award has been sponsored by Telstra since 2024.
Chloe Molloy is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Sydney Swans in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She previously played for the Collingwood Football Club from 2018 to season 7. Molloy is a three-time AFL Women's All-Australian, and won the AFL Women's Rising Star and Collingwood best and fairest awards in 2018. She also led Collingwood's goalkicking in 2021 and season 6, and Sydney's goalkicking in 2023. Molloy has served as Sydney co-captain since the 2023 season.
Eloise Jones is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). Jones is a two-time AFL Women's premiership player for the Adelaide Football Club, as a member of their 2019 and 2022 (S6) premiership teams.
Jasmyn Hewett is an Australian rules footballer who played for Adelaide and for the Gold Coast in the AFL Women's (AFLW).
The 2018 AFL Women's (AFLW) draft consisted of the various periods when the ten clubs in the Australian rules football women's competition could recruit players prior to the competition's 2019 season.
Madison Prespakis is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Essendon Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She previously played for the Carlton Football Club from 2019 to season 6. A midfielder who won multiple accolades at junior level and played in the VFL Women's (VFLW) as a teenager, Prespakis won the 2019 AFL Women's Rising Star award in her debut season and the 2020 AFL Women's best and fairest award in her second season. She is a three-time AFL Women's All-Australian, three-time Carlton best and fairest winner and was the inaugural Essendon best and fairest winner in season 7, and is Essendon's equal games record holder with 31 games.
Danielle Ponter is an Australian rules footballer playing for Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She played for St Mary's and Essendon in her junior career, typically as a forward. Ponter was selected with pick 48 in the 2018 AFL Women's draft and made her debut in round 2 of the 2019 season. She was nominated for the 2019 AFL Women's Rising Star award in round 4.
Eleanor Brown is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Western Bulldogs in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She played many positions in her junior career in the TAC Cup Girls and VFL Women's before she was drafted by the Bulldogs with the tenth selection in the 2018 AFLW draft. Brown debuted in the opening round of the 2019 season.
Haneen Zreika is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She is the first person of Lebanese descent, and the first Muslim, to play in the AFL Women's. Initially a rugby league player, Zreika switched to Australian rules football when she was 15 years old. Zreika played in the AFL Sydney competition before she was drafted by Greater Western Sydney in the 2017 rookie draft. She was delisted by the Giants at the end of the 2018 season, but was later re-selected in the 2018 draft after a strong season in the AFL Sydney. Zreika made her AFLW debut in the opening round of the 2019 season and was nominated for the 2019 AFL Women's Rising Star award in round 7.
The 2019 season was Geelong Football Club's first in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition. Geelong joined the league as an expansion club alongside North Melbourne, having initially been denied entry into the competition's first season in 2017. Paul Hood was the club's inaugural senior coach, and Melissa Hickey was appointed club captain.
Emerson Woods is an Australian rules footballer playing for Carlton in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She played junior football in the TAC Cup Girls and the VFL Women's before she was selected with pick 38 in the 2018 AFLW national draft. Woods debuted in round 5 of the 2019 season.
The 2020 AFL Women's draft consists of the various periods when the 14 clubs in the AFL Women's competition can recruit players prior to the competition's 2021 season.
Elizabeth McNamara is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She received a nomination for the 2021 AFL Women's Rising Star award in round 7 of the 2021 season.
Isabella Eddey is an Australian rules footballer playing for North Melbourne in the AFL Women's. She grew up in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs and attended Haileybury College.
Tarni Brown is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for Carlton in the AFL Women's (AFLW). Daughter of 1994–1998 former Collingwood captain, Gavin Brown, she played for the Eastern Ranges in the NAB League Girls before she was drafted to Collingwood in 2020 under the father–daughter rule. During the trade period ahead of the 2024 season, she joined Carlton.
The 2022 Geelong Football Club season was the club's 158th season playing Australian rules football, with the club competing in their 123rd season in the Australian Football League (AFL). Geelong also fielded a women's team in both 2022 AFL Women's season 6 and 2022 AFL Women's season 7, and a men's and women's reserves team in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the VFL Women's (VFLW) respectively.