AFLW Welcome to TIGERLAND - Georgia Stubs

[TigermanM2]

Tigers welcome pacy mid via trade​

Richmond welcomes a fresh face into the AFLW program following a trade with North Melbourne.
By Anna Pavlou, Richmond Media
Dec 5, 2025, 10:30 am

Richmond has completed a trade with North Melbourne, on the first day of the AFLW Trade Period on Thursday.

The Tigers will receive midfielder Georgia Stubs and a 2026 fourth round pick from the Kangaroos, with Richmond giving up their 2026 fourth round selection.

Stubs joins the Tigers after being drafted to North Melbourne in 2023, with the 30th overall pick.

Hailing from the Eastern Ranges, she is praised for her pace around the football and ability to explode from stoppages.

The 20-year-old is also handy across half-back, but unable to make her AFLW debut, due to a dislocated ankle, suffered in 2024.

Standing at 167cm, Stubs is also known for her athletic ability, high-level contest work and willingness to move across the ground in support of her teammates.

Her tackling was a highlight of her junior campaign, and her blistering speed was on display during her Draft Combine, recording an impressive 3.12-second 20 metre sprint.

AFLW List and Recruiting Manager, Trent Mosbey, lauded Stubs' "competitiveness and intensity", and expressed the excitement to welcome the youngster into the Swinburne Centre.

"Georgia has developed significantly over the past two years, within the highly-respected North Melbourne AFLW program. We feel Georgia is ready to take the step in her development since being drafted.

"Georgia has displayed impressive character traits and very driven and motivated to takung her career to the next level.
"We are excited to welcome Georgia to Tigerland."

The AFLW Trade Period runs from Thursday 4 December to next Wednesday 10 December.

It will be followed by the Telstra AFLW Draft, to be held on Monday 15 December at Marvel Stadium, with Richmond holding picks 4, 22, 40 and 58.

 

[TigermanM2]

Draft year Analysis


Georgia Stubs is a talent who has flown up draft boards this season off the back of some strong form through the Coates Talent League. The Eastern Ranges draft prospect has some outstanding athletic traits, high-level contest work and the ability to fill out a multitude of roles. While there are areas for her to work on, Stubs is one who has development left in her and might have done enough to secure a spot on an AFLW list.

STRENGTHS:

• Explosive speed
• Defensive pressure
• Contested work
• Stoppage craft
• Work rate
• Strength

IMPROVEMENTS:

• Ground balls
• Polish

PROFILE:

Stubs is a player that throughout the 2023 Talent League season, just kept popping up. She had some ups and downs both within the season and games themselves, but the evident development and thus upside for the future, certainly put her hat in the ring for an AFLW Draft chance. The 18-year-old went from being a role player to a prominent midfielder at Eastern, where she showed Vic Metro selectors enough to pick her for the national championships.

After a quiet Round 3 - Eastern's first game of the season - Stubs had a fairly consistent year, picking up 10 or more disposals in all bar one of her 13 other matches. Not a massive accumulator, Stubs does enough to get her hands on the ball, and most importantly has an influence. She is a player that loves to drive the ball forward, be it off half-back - where she started - or through the middle.

Though Stubs did start off the half-back flank, she gradually forced her way into the midfield and became a key component in there, allowing others to test out their own versatility at the same time in other roles. From an athletic standpoint, Stubs is explosive and has a knack of escaping would-be tacklers either in a straight line, or with a slick sidestep.

Even if she does get tackled, Stubs' consistency with standing up in a tackle and getting the ball away via hand is impressive. She is quite often a first possession winner off ruck taps, and her stoppage craft itself really came on as the season went along. Though learning on the fly, by the end of the season, Stubs was able to run into the right spots and find those gaps to utilise her explosive speed.

With ball-in-hand, Stubs is okay without being outstanding. She can deliver the ball well by hand, and when going forward in transition, puts the ball to the right spots. Though still having the tendency to blaze away and get boot to ball at times, it is more about tidying up with some polish more than anything.

The main knock on Stubs' game is her ground balls. It is an area that she herself identified as an area to improve on. Over time, by improving her clean hands at ground level, it will enable her to win a lot more of the ball and thus increase her impact on games.

When she can win the ball off hands or via a teammate's disposal, she is off to the races with her speed and able to set up scoring plays. When picking it up off the deck, her slight delay can be enough to be tackled by the opposition and they restrict her from getting away. A clean pickup gives the best chance of getting clear earlier.

Aside from that, Stubs has a really balanced all-round game of offensive and defensive traits. Though her offensive traits are evident from the above strengths, she also has plenty of defensive prowess as well, laying some fierce tackles. Her contest-to-contest work is also impressive, and reveals a high work rate, which is important for her role.

As a whole, Stubs has come on in leaps and bounds this year, and while she has those areas to tidy up, continued to keep her name in the draft conversation. Her blistering 3.12-second 20m sprint speaks to her explosive speed, and that element is not the only weapon in her arsenal.

SUMMARY:

From an AFLW Draft perspective, Stubs is a player who will likely fare from the middle of the draft onwards. She has the traits to be a really damaging player, and once she can tidy up some of her improvements, could prove a fantastic pickup for an AFLW club.

 

[TigermanM2]

Welcome Georgia.

Please bring some Nth intel with you.

 

[PeteTiger69minus4]

hope she does well but hardly seems a dial shifter

could have got her for free last year as steak knives for sheerin?

anyway, at last "thing are happening"

 

[toenail63]

hope she does well but hardly seems a dial shifter

could have got her for free last year as steak knives for sheerin?

anyway, at last "thing are happening"

Don't think this year's draft will go too far into the 50's so worth noting this, whether or not Georgia becomes a regular contributor in the team we'll see but very little value in a pick 58.

She did go to North for their pick 30, and considering we took Mackenzie Ford at pick 43, we are looking at a similar player in Georgia, one of those more speculative ones who have deficiencies in their game they have to work on.

She has speed to burn, she is athletic, she is just starting her career and by all accounts she was progressing very well at North. A bit of an unknown because of her long term injury. North did not delist her, but at same time they do have some players they are lining up to come in, so effectively this pick swap for Georgia that we did we are really getting her as the steak knives, just a year later.

 

[Phar Ace]

Welcome Georgia.

Please bring some Nth intel with you.

She knows the word "WIN".

 

[toenail63]

 

[Phar Ace]

Don't think this year's draft will go too far into the 50's so worth noting this, whether or not Georgia becomes a regular contributor in the team we'll see but very little value in a pick 58.

Not even costing a pick, rather, isn't it a pick swap of next year?

 

[toenail63]

Not even costing a pick, rather, isn't it a pick swap of next year?

so effectively this pick swap for Georgia that we did we are really getting her as the steak knives, just a year later.

exactly it's a nothing swap, just have to use a pick to do a trade. Basically this pick is a can of coke

 

[Phar Ace]

exactly it's a nothing swap, just have to use a pick to do a trade. Basically this pick is a can of coke

Not even a cheese sandwich, for a Pick 30 player two years ago, who had one year out with a fractured ankle, and surprise, surprise, she could not break into the two-season undefeated dual premiers. You'd probably take that one blind-folded after a cursory medical.

 

[TigermanM2]

Don't think this year's draft will go too far into the 50's so worth noting this, whether or not Georgia becomes a regular contributor in the team we'll see but very little value in a pick 58.

Think this will also impact with clubs saving list spots.


THE AFL will introduce a pre-season draft for the AFLW competition in 2026.

Slated to run in late April or May, the pre-season draft will aim to replace the flurry of inactive player replacement signings that occurs in the lead-up to the season.

Previously, undrafted players have been added to lists on an ad-hoc basis in order to replace players ruled out for the year through injury or other circumstances.

The draft order will be in reverse ladder order, like the traditional Telstra AFLW Draft that is set ahead of the trade period, allowing the weakest sides to have access to the best undrafted talent.

Players must have nominated for the main draft (at the end of 2025) in order to be eligible for the pre-season draft in 2026.

Clubs will still be able to sign injury replacement players after the pre-season draft, should primary-listed players become unavailable due to serious injury, pregnancy or mental health.

A minimum of two players must be taken in December 15's main draft. After drafting those two, clubs can then choose to pass on further selections and hold list spots open for the pre-season draft.

 

[toenail63]

Think this will also impact with clubs saving list spots.

THE AFL will introduce a pre-season draft for the AFLW competition in 2026.

A minimum of two players must be taken in December 15's main draft. After drafting those two, clubs can then choose to pass on further selections and hold list spots open for the pre-season draft.

Good point. It's less riskier to wait and use the time to evaluate players closer to the new season. Same goes with picking rookies. Although with Irish rookies it's more about the if and when, and whether you have to make a delisting to clear a space and this would have to be done earlier than February 2026.

Last season's super draft there were 60 players who went in the national draft, but the year before being a normal one, teams had passed and out by pick 55. If you are selecting after pick 50, with most teams having passed, it's almost 100% that you're the only one targeting that player.

 

[Phar Ace]

Good point. It's less riskier to wait and use the time to evaluate players closer to the new season. Same goes with picking rookies. Although with Irish rookies it's more about the if and when, and whether you have to make a delisting to clear a space and this would have to be done earlier than February 2026.

Last season's super draft there were 60 players who went in the national draft, but the year before being a normal one, teams had passed and out by pick 55. If you are selecting after pick 50, with most teams having passed, it's almost 100% that you're the only one targeting that player.

The key will be how many the AFL will let train with a Club whilst playing VFLW. Players must have nominated for this draft to be eligible for the Pre-season Draft, so I can see clubs holding one or even two spots open if this draft has a weakness past say 40.