Adelaide looking at play for No. 1 AFLW draft pick in rejuvenation plan after semi-final exit
Adelaide’s head of women’s footy reveals the club’s stance on the No. 1 draft pick and delves into their list needs and trade bait — adamant that the Crows are rejuvenating, not rebuilding.
Adelaide will make a play for the No. 1 pick in the AFLW draft as part of a “rejuvenation” plan for the Crows.
There has been a lot of discussion around if the departure of premiership coach Matthew Clarke is marking the end of an era for the three-time premiers.
But Crows head of women’s football Phil Harper said they would not look at rebuilding.
“We don’t want to be a team that bottoms out,” he said.
“So the way you do that is bring in high end talent and we’ll probably try and be as aggressive as possible in trying to tap into that high end talent to maintain our list going forward for not only one or two years into the future but five, six, seven years into the future.”
This could involve the Crows making a play for the No. 1 pick of the draft.
The top pick is set to be up for grabs as Gold Coast looks at finding ways to match bids on academy players – with as many as 10 in line to get drafted.
“We would be interested in something like that,” Harper said.
“They are probably going to need five picks within 30 and whether we can go and get enough ammunition to go and get pick one that is another story.
“We’d be in a long queue as well but we would be interested if we could do that.
“I’m not sure how at the moment but you never know.”
The Crows again made finals in Clarke’s last season, bowing out at the semi-final stage at the hands of Melbourne.
Harper is confident the Crows can still maintain their standing as one of the heavyweights of the competition.
But it has gotten harder.
“I think if you look at how we performed towards the end of the year, Melbourne nearly beat North Melbourne and we were level with Melbourne at three quarter time and probably should have won that game given we had 17 inside 50s to four in the last quarter,” he said.
“So I would say that we aren’t a million miles off but I would also say that we need some rejuvenation which we tried to start doing last year when we traded up in the draft to get some high end talent in India Rasheed.
“And we will probably continue to do that because what happened when Port were coming, as they should, they got the access to the talent for those three drafts and we were I guess frozen out of getting access to that.
“So our plan is to try and get back in get access to some of that high end talent.”
LIST NEEDS
While they were able to make a semi-final, the Crows are well and truly aware of what they need to add to their list in addition to young high-end talent.
“We put Sarah Goodwin into the midfield and we probably need more help because when we did take Anne Hatchard out of there early on in the season it was sort of Ebony Marinoff against the world,” Harper said.
“So we do need some support in that area and we also probably need some running half-back users.
“They would probably be our two highest priorities if we had any.
“But in this competition the bottom line is if you get talented people the really talented ones can play anywhere.”
Richmond midfielder Grace Egan is one player who has already nominated Adelaide as her club of choice in the upcoming trade period.
TRADE BAIT
The Crows first pick in the 2023 draft Brooke Boileau has requested a trade to Carlton, while key defender Zoe Prowse is weighing up her future as she gathers interest from multiple clubs.
Keira Mueller is also being chased by rivals.
Adelaide is yet to finalise a replacement for Clarke, and Harper said the future of Prowse and Mueller would become clearer.
Boileau was the 22nd pick of the 2023 draft and played every game for the Crows this year in the midfield.
“She got in the 22under22 side and she was a Rising Star nominee so I would think that wouldn’t mean she has gone backwards from pick 22.
“So that would be our request, pick 22 or under or a player.”
WHO NEEDS TO IMPROVE
The Crows will be hoping that Goodwin and Rasheed continue their rapid improvement in 2026.
Harper said he was confident of improvement across the list as a whole.
“I also feel that people like Caitlin Gould who missed two-thirds of the season with a broken wrist will be better,” he said.
“I think there can be improvement across our whole list if you look at it. We saw Zoe Prowse as a forward at the end of the year and I think that can help us.
“It allows Chelsea (Randall) to play down back.
“Keely Kustermann played every game this year and has come from a long way back and with our Irish contingent Kayleigh Cronin is 28 and was a bit lost in the AFL world early on in the season but she really found her feet towards the end of the year.
“So I think there’s huge improvement in her, Amy Boyle-Carr also from Ireland I think there’s huge improvement in her.
“And we still have the Kelly sisters (Grace and Niamh) who I thought had really good years this year and will be around next year.”
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