AFLW 2023: Port Adelaide chasing Adelaide goalkicking star Ash Woodland, Pies set to keep young gun

With the player movement window about to open, expansion clubs are upping the ante to expedite their growth. DANIEL CHERNY and LAUREN WOOD report.

Port Adelaide look likely to snare Crows goalkicker Ash Woodland. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

All-Australian forward Ash Woodland is weighing up whether to accept an offer to defect from Adelaide to cashed-up cross-town rivals Port Adelaide.

Woodland, 24, the league’s top goalkicker in the first season of 2022 (season six) is being strongly courted by the Power, who was last week granted list concessions along with fellow season seven expansion clubs Essendon, Hawthorn and Sydney.

The 173cm Crows premiership player, who began her AFLW career with Melbourne, could walk to Alberton as early as Wednesday as part of the priority signing period, in which Port is able to sign up to three players.

The Power is also able to snaffle South Australian teenage young gun Matilda Scholz as an underage recruit, part of the range of benefits driven by the AFL to help the league’s newcomers expedite their respective list builds.

Adelaide largely withstood Port’s initial raid last year. While superstar Erin Phillips moved to Port alongside Angela Foley and Justine Mules, the Crows held onto much of their core, making the preliminary final where they lost to eventual runners-up Brisbane.

Lion Jesse Wardlaw looks set to become a Saint. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The Lions are meanwhile poised to lose Jesse Wardlaw, who wants to get to St Kilda, while star pair Emily Bates and Greta Bodey are the subject of industry speculation about their respective futures.

Bates was targeted last year by Hawthorn and the Swans as they prepared to enter the league, with the Hawks again armed with a war chest of tier one list spots.

The Hawks are however set to miss out on Collingwood youngster Mikala Cann, who is understood to have agreed to remain a Magpie. The Pies will lose the dynamic Chloe Molloy to the Swans, while the Saints are pursuing Pies ball magnet Jaimee Lambert and veteran skipper Steph Chiocci.

While the PSP opens this week, the remainder of AFLW clubs cannot make moves until March 10.

Originally published as AFLW 2023: Port Adelaide chasing Adelaide goalkicking star Ash Woodland, Pies set to keep young gun