Who will the Adelaide Crows pick for their third AFLW season at Tuesday’s draft?
SIX new players will be added to the Adelaide Crows AFLW playing list on Tuesday at the women’s draft at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium. See who is in their sights.
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THE hopes of 500 football players are on the line on Tuesday as they vie for the 70 club picks on offer at the state-based AFLW draft.
Locally, 30 women have nominated South Australia as their draft pool and the Adelaide Crows will pick six of those to add to their playing list for the third season of the AFLW.
At only 17, South Adelaide midfielder Nikki Gore is widely tipped to be drafted by the Crows with their only first-round pick at No. 8.
SANFL’s female programs talent manager, Robbie Neill, said that the Crows — who already had a strong list with the likes of Chelsea Randall and Erin Phillips — would likely use their six picks to fill the voids left by ruck Jess Allan (who is taking a year away to concentrate on a career in the Army), and Ruth Wallace (who is taking a year off football for personal reasons).
“They are two really good players that need to be covered,” Neill said.
“Obviously there was Ruth’s goalkicking ability to play forward and in the midfield and Jess is a very athletic ruckman.
“(The Crows) will obviously look at the SA draft nominations and speed and outside carry will be really important.”
Neill singled out the reigning SANFLW’s best and fairest, West Adelaide’s Hannah Martin, as a player who could offer the Crows that speed.
“She can play inside as well and can certainly handle being around traffic, but she’s such an elite runner with her speed and agility she’ll be very hard to combat outside the contest,” he said.
But Neill agreed that Gore was a standout in the SA draft pool.
“Gore is super competitive and really good inside and can play forward or back,” he said.
AFLW talent manager Aasta O’Connor said Gore stood out as the strongest underage performer from SA for the past couple of years.
“She’s a hardworking footballer on and off the field … she ticks every single box,” O’Connor said.
The Crows have picks 8, 30, 37, 41, 48 and 53.
Neill said the talent pool the Crows had to choose from was getting better every year as more players were exposed to the SANFLW level.
“This is a strong pool this year, and the cream of the crop get taken, and that’s good for the national competition,” he said.
“And those who don’t (get picked today) they’re able to play in a good, strong competition in the SANFLW, and will continue to get better.”
From next year, every SANFL club will have a women’s team with the Eagles and Central District joining the women’s revolution.
“That gives us really good opportunity for all metro and country zones to play at our SANFL clubs now,” he said.
Neill said the new-look Crows AFLW side — with coach Matthew Clarke and assistants Narelle Smith and Tim Weatherald coming on board — would be pushing for a top four finish from the 10-team competition (Geelong and North Melbourne have joined for 2019).
He said whichever players the Crows drafted today would complement the good list they had already assembled.
Follow live coverage of the AFLW draft at advertiser.com.au on Tuesday