Gold Coast Suns take eight AFLW Academy picks, including six in the top 15, to confirm their place as kings of the draft
Just months after a record-breaking men’s draft haul, Gold Coast has taken a phenomenal eight Academy guns — six in the first 15 picks — to confirm their place as AFL draft kings.
Gold Coast stole the show at Monday night’s AFLW draft matching bids on six Suns Academy players inside the first 15 selections while Brisbane added four Victorians including the daughter of a triple-premiership club legend.
Sunny Lappin (pick 4), Ava Usher (7), Georgia Davies (9), Alannah Welsh (12), Mikayla Nurse (13) and Dekota Baron (15) all flew off the board inside the first hour with Gold Coast circling back later in the night to add Bronte Parker (32) and Rhianna Ingram (44).
Brisbane meanwhile used its first pick to draft hard-running winger Asher Fearn-Wannan (19) and doubled down on midfield talent with Northern Knights product Marlo Graham at 33.
Defender Olivia Lacy was next at pick 52 before one of the feel-good stories of the night at pick 59, when the Lions drafted three-time premiership player Nigel Lappin’s daughter, Meg Lappin.
Gold Coast entered the night armed with a slew of selections in the 20s knowing that would be enough to secure its future stars at the pointy end of the draft thanks to the AFLW academy bidding rules that required giving up a selection within 18 picks to match a bid.
The first player off the board was Sunny Lappin, whose name was somewhat cheekily called by Adelaide using the pick 4 it got from Gold Coast in the Anne Hatchard trade little more than a week ago.
The daughter of Carlton and St Kilda great Matthew Lappin, Sunny could have chosen to go to the Blues or Saints but instead nominated Gold Coast as her preferred destination through her Suns Academy ties.
Next it was Collingwood who came calling, this time for Usher.
Long mooted as a future No. 1 selection, the Burleigh Bombers and Bond University product missed almost two full years of footy due to an ACL injury and thus came at a bargain price of pick 7 – or in the Suns’ case, pick 20.
Two picks later Davies – the fourth sister from her family to be drafted to the AFLW – was called by Essendon, before the Western Bulldogs submitted back-to-back bids on Welsh and Nurse.
Melbourne then tried its luck for Baron at pick 15 but the Suns still had the draft capital to match.
Brisbane could consider itself unlucky not to be the club calling Baron’s name, given the key forward lived only a stone’s throw from the Lions Academy catchment zone.
Baron grew up a diehard Brisbane supporter and admitted it would be hard – even after joining the Suns – to completely cut her Lions allegiances.
“I guess because I’m a Sun now once I cross the white line it’s do-or-die against them but off the field, deep down, little me will probably still go for them … but I have the red on now,” she told Fox Footy.
In all Gold Coast added eight Suns Academy products – a feat head coach Rhyce Shaw labelled “a once in a lifetime situation”.
“It’s a really exciting night for our footy club,” Shaw told Fox Footy.
“We have put in a lot of work behind the scenes in the academy and the AFLW program to make this night a successful one and we have done that.
“(Drafting eight academy players) won’t happen again and we are very fortunate. Now for us the work begins and we have to make sure we build this program properly and tonight is a great start.”
The Lions initially cast a bid on Sydney Academy ruck-forward Madeleine Quinn at pick 18 – eager to fill the void left by the outgoing Taylor Smith who requested a trade to the Swans only last week.
But when Sydney matched the Lions turned their attention to hard-running outside midfielder Fearn-Wannan.
Known for the overwhelming number of Queenslanders on their list, the Lions broke from tradition to draft another two midfielders from Victoria in Graham and Lacy before using their final selection of the night to take key defender Meg Lappin, who will don the maroon, blue and gold 17 years after her father’s AFL retirement.
Originally published as Gold Coast Suns take eight AFLW Academy picks, including six in the top 15, to confirm their place as kings of the draft
Crows pounce in what could be draft’s biggest win
