2019 AFLW DRAFT - 22 October 2019 10:30am

[Stan Judkins]

2019 AFLW Draft Combine Results
WITH the AFL Women’s 2019 Draft looming ever closer, the AFLW Draft Combine is the final opportunity for young talent to prove their craft prior to the Draft on 22 October.
Victoria rated highly across all five tests, featuring in the top five in each and leading two, seeing Nicola Xenos coming in fast for the 20-metre sprint and Elisabeth Georgostathis exceeding in the agility test. Meanwhile, West Australian Roxy Roux and South Australian Hannah Munyard both placed in the top five for three of the five tests and Irish recruits Olivia Divilly and Vicki Wall proved they could match with the best of Australia’s young talent.
Below are the top five results for each test.
STANDING VERTICAL JUMP
Roxanne Roux (WA): 59cm
Molly Denahy-Maloney (VIC): 58cm
Marguerite Purcell (VIC): 53cm
Tahlia Hickie (QLD): 52cm
Hannah Munyard (SA): 51cm
20-METRE SPRINT
Nicola Xenos (VIC): 3.210 seconds
Olivia Divilly (Ireland): 3.258 seconds
Roxanne Roux (WA): 3.250 seconds
Vicki Wall (Ireland): 3.299 seconds
Hannah Munyard (SA): 3.307 seconds
AGILITY TEST
Elisabeth Georgostathis (VIC): 8.535 seconds
Isabel Dawes (QLD): 8.651 seconds
Roxanne Roux (WA): 8.654 seconds
Hannah Munyard (SA): 8.668 seconds
Tarni White (QLD): 8.696 seconds
YO-YO TEST
Olivia Divilly (Ireland): level 17.2
Georgia Garnett (NSW/ACT): level 16.8
Sophie Molan (VIC): level 16.4
Paige Sheppard (VIC): level 16.3
Gemma Lagioia (VIC): level 16.1
Luka Lesosky-Hay (VIC): level 16.1
Serene Watson (QLD): level 16.1
TWO-KILOMETRE TIME TRIAL
Hannah Hillman (QLD): 7min 41sec
Olivia Divillly (Ireland): 7min 48sec
Nicola Xenos (VIC): 7min 58sec
Gemma Lagioia (VIC): 8min 1sec
Ella Wood (VIC): 8min 9sec
Tahlia Hickie (QLD): 8min 9sec

THE THREE Irish prospects who tested at this month's NAB AFL Women's Draft Combine have withdrawn from Tuesday's draft.
Olivia Divilly, Vikki Wall and Saoirse Noonan were able to nominate for all of Australia in the draft, rather than the usual one state, but elected to delay their AFLW pursuit for a year.
There was significant interest in Divilly, at least two clubs were keen on Noonan – despite a knee injury preventing her from testing – and Wall displayed her explosiveness in finishing fourth in the 20m sprint.
The reason for their withdrawal is unclear, but AFLW rules differ to the AFL, where Irish players can speak to various clubs and choose where they want to sign at any time ahead of the draft.
That process also enables them to negotiate a higher wage where possible.
Female Irish players are subject to the same AFLW rookie rules as everyone else, whereby they must not have played Australian Football competitively for the previous three years.
They can, like their male counterparts, pick a club but it had to be by the August 30 deadline – well before the three Irishwomen tested at the Combine.

 

[TigermanM2]

The bulldogs pick6 is a interesting one
Who do they pick Sophie Molan, or Elisabeth Georgostathis, as both played well for their VFLW side
Both girls have high credentials and will be locked and loaded to play AFLW straight away
Elisabeth Georgostathis cut us up both times she played kicking 3 goals in the last H&A and 2 goals in the final and named in the best both times
Sophie Molan had a better U18 year by a smidge, being named in the AA U18 championship team
Both were named in the TAC U18 team of the year, with Elisabeth coming second in the TAC U18 B&F
Elisabeth was 1st in the combine agility test 8.535 seconds, while Sophie came 3rd in the yo-yo 16.4
Best outcome for us I believe would be Elisabeth Georgostathis as our first pick and Laura McClelland as our 2nd pick
The rest of our picks, anyone of Gemma Lagioia, Brenna Tarrant, Nell Morris-Dalton and Nicola Xenos would do nicely

Do you also think at 162cm we need a bigger bodied mid? She is smaller than Conti?

We have Conti 165cm, Dempsey is 160cm and Campbell is 164cm.

Think we may need more than Brennan and Woodward.

 

[Stan Judkins]

Thanks Stan. How do you rate Georgostathis's kicking? She's been quoted as saying it's an area she wanted to improve in. At pick 7 you have to find a good kick.

It's massively important as they have the last touch rule and too often we see the ball turned over by a bad kick. Lots of wasted opportunities were caused by a bad kick under very little pressure as well during the AFLW season.

Looking at our two VFLW seasons our ability to find a target was a massive improvement this year.

Elisabeth Georgostathis is a good kick, not as good as say Patrikios, McEvoy or Newton
She kicked straight against us in 2 games she played R15 3.0 goals and EF 2.0 goals
All the draftee's have said one or two areas they need to improve on, its a PR thing (clubs want to hear) to not come across as being a perfect player
She's fine, a fairly complete player, the first 3 (Patrikios, McEvoy and Newton) are top shelf, but Georgostathis is next in line with Molan and Gutknecht

 

[NimFromSudan]

Yeah, no phantom drafts, no power rankings
Only profiles on a select few girls, it's a joke

Understandable why we don't have them though. The scale of coverage makes it much easier to make reliable projections for the boys. A lot of risk involved in publishing a mock in the Women's where the risk of getting it wrong is much higher.

 

[Stan Judkins]

Do you also think at 162cm we need a bigger bodied mid? She is smaller than Conti?

We have Conti 165cm, Dempsey is 160cm and Campbell is 164cm.

Think we may need more than Brennan and Woodward.

She's well built, quick and agile, can play mid or fwd, not out of place against the VFLW girls
Most of the really good mids in the draft are around the 160-170cm height
Other than mids Patrikios 170cm, McEvoy 172cm, Newton 175cm and Molan 175cm all other girls over 170cm are key position players
Midfielder Britney Gutknecht at 167cm is about the tallest outside the above top 4
Gemma Lagioia 160cm was in the best 5 in Collingwood's VFLW winning side this year
Lily Postlethwaite 162cm played for Queensland in the U18 champs will go Lions pick 3 (QLD pick 1)
Mikayla Bowen 164cm pre-listed by the Eagles would have been Fremantle's first pick (pick 12), W.A pick 1
As you can see the majority of gun mids average around that mark

 

[Yappie dribbles]

Excited for this our club has put alot of work into this draft and were excited with who we may land

 

[toenail63]

Gemma Lagioia won the Oakleigh Chargers B&F, played for Vic Metro, played in the winning Collingwood 2019 VFLW premiership (in the best) and got invited to the combine, she can play all around the ground, a utility type player
Gemma recorded a top 5 in the yo-yo test 16.1, top 5 in the 2km time trial 8m 1s, Named in the best in wins over QLD, Vic Country and Eastern Allies
I think Gemma will go in the top 20-25 Vic picks for sure
Renee Saulitis a small forward played for Vic Country, did some nice things through out the champs, 2 goals in the loss to Vic Metro, named in the best
Kicked a nice goal in Vic Country's win against QLD, one to watch in next years draft for sure

Thanks Stan, I think the depth this year is strong, and there is plenty there for our early range of picks. The players skill levels are getting better each year, and aside from this years elite top players, the group just underneath has some real strengths in parts of their game, really looking forward to see who we go after and who we have on our list after tommorow morning

 

[Bojangles17]

Did quite a few of the draftees straight from u18 play right away last year ?

 

[Stan Judkins]

Thanks Stan, I think the depth this year is strong, and there is plenty there for our early range of picks. The players skill levels are getting better each year, and aside from this years elite top players, the group just underneath has some real strengths in parts of their game, really looking forward to see who we go after and who we have on our list after tommorow morning

Too right, toenail63, after the top 3 -4 Vic girls the remaining are all very good and all would be ready to step up to play AFLW games straight away
The skills shown this year have blown away recruiters as it seems to be getting up there with the boys in styles of play, fitness, teamwork, structures
The whole girls U18 system has improved remarkably, lots of good times ahead for the womens game

 

[Stan Judkins]

Did quite a few of the draftees straight from u18 play right away last year ?

Yes, they did

 

[TigermanM2]

Did quite a few of the draftees straight from u18 play right away last year ?

Yes, they did

I think a massive reason for this is that the 2018 draftees are so much better than year 1 AFLW draftees that clubs rush the school of 2018 into their teams . One of the big reasons that the standard in 2019 was a vast improvement on past seasons.

In hindsight we are fortunate that we were held back and had to wait for season 2020 to play. Foundation clubs have the issue of players on their list that aren’t quite up to the current standard and it will take them a bit of time to replace them.

 

[TigermanM2]

Unfortunately I have a medical procedure booked at the same time as the draft so hopefully someone can post some updates.

s**t timing

 

[NimFromSudan]

I think a massive reason for this is that the 2018 draftees are so much better than year 1 AFLW draftees that clubs rush the school of 2018 into their teams . One of the big reasons that the standard in 2019 was a vast improvement on past seasons.

In hindsight we are fortunate that we were held back and had to wait for season 2020 to play. Foundation clubs have the issue of players on their list that aren’t quite up to the current standard and it will take them a bit of time to replace them.

It makes me a little worried about our list strategy though. Happy to pay for Conti, but using a top 12 pick on Frederick probably won't pay off, and we generally loaded up on established players rather than waiting for the league to hand us expansion picks.

As opposed to the Men's where it takes three good drafts and five years of development before a club can turn it around, I worry about about the Dogs can do to replenish with so many top picks in one year. They could well become a powerhouse very quickly

 

[TigermanM2]

It makes me a little worried about our list strategy though. Happy to pay for Conti, but using a top 12 pick on Frederick probably won't pay off, and we generally loaded up on established players rather than waiting for the league to hand us expansion picks.

As opposed to the Men's where it takes three good drafts and five years of development before a club can turn it around, I worry about about the Dogs can do to replenish with so many top picks in one year. They could well become a powerhouse very quickly

Firstly very very bullish about Frederick. It was a big signing and made everyone stand up and take notice. She will do well I think.

4 out of the first 9 picks should certainly help Dogs cover Brennan, Kearney and Conti but as we’ve seen it’s as much about hanging on to them than just pulling their name out on draft day.

 

[Stan Judkins]

Unfortunately I have a medical procedure booked at the same time as the draft so hopefully someone can post some updates.

s**t timing

I'll do my best with updates

 

[Stan Judkins]

Gabrielle Newton dogs pick 1

 

[Stan Judkins]

Pick 2, CarltonFC_W: Lucy McEvoy

 

[Stan Judkins]

Lily Postlethwaite pick 3 lions

 

[Stan Judkins]

Maggie Gorham GWS pick 4

 

[Stan Judkins]

Georgia Patrikios saints pick 5

 

[Grockadoc]

Pick 7: Sophie Molan

 

[Stan Judkins]

Pick 6, BulldogsW: Nell Morris-Dalton

 

[Stan Judkins]

Pick 7, RichmondWomens: Sophie Molan

 

[Stan Judkins]

Gemma Lagioia dogs pick 8

 

[Stan Judkins]

Elisabeth Georgostathis dogs pick 9