On a historic day for the Essendon Football Club, the Bombers are preparing for their first-ever NAB AFLW Draft.
Tonight at Marvel Stadium, the Bombers will welcome seven new players to their inaugural squad, completing their list of 30.
The Bombers will have national picks No.4, 8, 32, 35, 46, 62, 73 in tonight’s draft.
Essendon general manager of football Josh Mahoney said the club is excited to complete its list after successful Expansion and Sign and Trade periods.
“This is a really exciting opportunity to complete our list. During the expansion period, we did really well by attracting some girls from other AFLW clubs,” Mahoney said.
“Then with the open age signings, we have 23 players on our list and we get to complete it on Wednesday night with seven new players, which is exciting for the club and exciting for those young players.”
Unlike the men’s competition, which is a national draft, the AFLW Draft is a state-based event meaning players must nominate for the state they want to be drafted to and the Bombers will only be able to select players in the Victorian talent pool.
“It’s a bit complicated that our first pick is pick four in the national draft but two in the Victorian draft, so we can only draft from the Victorian pool,” Mahoney said.
“We have selections two and four and then 17 and 19, so effectively four picks in the first round which is really exciting going into it.”
With seven spots to fill, Mahoney said the Bombers’ AFLW list and recruiting team were impressed by the depth of talent available for the Draft.
“Harmit Singh has done a great job as our recruiting manager to go through the list, along with Georgia Harvey. They are just looking for the best available and I think the standard is just getting better and better from the NAB League so it’s really exciting to watch them,” Mahoney said.
“We have our eyes on a few girls at pick two and four, it depends on what Hawthorn will pick at pick one, but we think we will get some highly talented players at pick two and four as well as 17 and 19.
“Probably in the back half of the draft, we will probably start to look at what our needs are overall and then be more selective on positional roles.”
