AFLW 2023: Traded stars reveal why they switched clubs for season eight

In the most active off-season in AFLW history 10 per cent of players changed clubs. And some of the biggest recruits say there was more to their moves that meets the eye.

Emily Bates, an AFLW best and fairest medal winner who sensationally moved to Hawthorn during the trade period. Picture: Tony Gough

In true Melbourne style, it wasn’t just Emily Bates’ playing guernsey that changed when she moved from Brisbane to Hawthorn in March.

Her coffee order did, too.

The former cappuccino connoisseur is now a full-blown latte-sipping, puffer-jacket wearing Melburnian, tram-hopping to the MCG for AFL games.

“I think I always knew (I would live here),” Bates said over her new caffeine request.

“I did a lot of soul-searching to work out what I wanted to do.

“It really was always a matter of time – the opportunity was there and I just had to take it.”

The opportunity Bates speaks of was the chance to move from the Lions – where she had played every season of AFL Women’s, winning a premiership, a league best-and-fairest medal, four club best-and-fairest awards and three All-Australian nods, too – to one of the game’s newcomers in Hawthorn, which has featured in just one season of AFLW after joining the competition in 2022.

Bates, 27, had been taken with Brisbane’s first pick – No.2 – in the inaugural AFLW draft in 2016, and played 66 games – including last year’s losing grand final to Melbourne – before making the call.

Despite her wishes to live in “football’s heartland” of Melbourne, it was anything but easy.

Coach Craig Starcevich had been at the helm of the Lions for every one of those games and has been vocal about the concessions afforded to expansion sides, which in the last off-season included a Priority Signing Period for Hawthorn, Essendon, Port Adelaide and Sydney to jag some of the game’s top names.

It proved to be the biggest off-season of movement, with some 10 per cent of the playing cohort shifting sides.

Former Lions star Emily Bates will play with Hawthorn this season. Picture: Tony Gough

Third-year and above players – like Bates, and then-Lions teammate Greta Bodey – could essentially walk to the quartet of newcomers, but it was a flight north by Hawks coach Bec Goddard that sealed their path.

“It was incredible, the speech she gave to us,” Bates recalls.

“I think it was the best speech I’ve ever heard. I remember looking at Greta with eyes wide open, like, ‘Wow’.

“It was all about how in life there’s people that will make bold decisions to change the face of the game forever. And at the end of the day, no one wants to see blowout games, no one wants to go to a game knowing who is going to win, and she talked about the pioneers of the sport and a willingness to change the competition. With expansion, movement is required.

“People want to see games that are decided in the last minute, not from the first quarter. It was a matter of time before someone was willing to put their hand up and say, ‘Yeah, I’m willing to help the competition by spreading the talent’.

“It was a big War and Peace. I can’t even give it enough credit.

“Then there was a nice steak, a few wines, and the rest is history.”

Despite the “grim” weather in Victoria over recent months, the Queenslander recognised what she described as a responsibility to the game.

And herself.

“I knew it was probably the way I was going to go, but it was a big factor in me and Greta making the decision,” Bates said.

“With AFLW, you can’t just make the decision based on football when we only play 10 games a year. These are life decisions, not just football. Being able to work at the club and try different departments to do with men’s football to then work out what I want to do post-football, that sets me up for my life and career. You’d be mad to say no to those things.

“You’ve got 10 games. At this stage of the competition, girls really need to consider their lives post-football and their lives currently and take these opportunities, because they’re not always going to be there.

“You have to think about your life.”

Ashleigh Saint has moved from the Crows to Port Adelaide. Picture: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The move wasn’t quite as drastic for Ash Saint (nee Woodland) and Caitlin Greiser, who pulled up stumps for within-city relocations.

Saint – who was married in April – moved from Adelaide to cross-town rival Port Adelaide as a priority signing, while power forward Greiser was traded as part of a three-way deal from St Kilda to Richmond.

Saint, 24, has reunited with her former Crows skipper Erin Phillips, after years of donning a Port Adelaide guernsey under her school uniform, such was her passion for the teal.

“I feel like the last six months has gone really quick for me, with a wedding, planning a wedding – it was all so stressful for one day and it goes so quickly and you’re like, ‘What just happened in the last year or two?’,” Saint said.

“Moving across to Port Adelaide has been really easy for me so far. It’s been great and the girls have been so welcoming and it just feels like I’ve been here the whole time.”

Moving clubs is never easy.

But Saint, like Bates, believes more movement between clubs will only be inevitable as the competition continues to develop.

“Last year ... the new expansion clubs didn’t get the pre-season that they wanted. We had two seasons in one year and most people were staying with the same club, especially if they were going well,” Saint said.

“Just now spreading the talent around … obviously some clubs have really dominated and they’ve gotten to keep their talented girls, but now, if we spread the talent around we’ll get more fans and more people interested in the games if they’re a higher level.

“I was happy to come to Port and bring what I could bring – I’ve got a bit of experience behind me now, to help these younger girls out, and hopefully make it a better season for Port Adelaide.”

Caitlin Greiser in her new Tiger colours. Picture: Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Team building at the Tigers has included watching the Matildas’ stellar FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign, and even pottery classes, Greiser revealed, with a key focus on bonding with her new teammates as the eighth season of AFL Women’s prepares to begin this weekend.

“I’m definitely so much happier with where I’m at at the moment, and that’s just because as a person outside of football, I’ve grown,” the spearhead said.

“I think I needed that separation from my comfort zone. I definitely needed that and since doing that I’ve grown as a person and as a player. Since coming to the Tigers, I just feel at home, already. Coming to an uncomfortable environment has helped that transition.”

Uncomfortable is a word long-associated with trades, with Bates conceding there had been “a stigma” associated with moving clubs.

But life sometimes has to outweigh loyalty.

Former Collingwood counterpart-turned-Swans marquee Chloe Molloy was the first signing of the priority period after agreeing to a long-term deal to move to the harbour city, with the news revealed minutes after the PSP opened.

She wanted it that way.

“I would be the first to say that when North Melbourne and Geelong came in, I was like, ‘Loyalty! Where’s the loyalty?’. And then I’ve matured and gotten to know the ins and outs of this and there is a bigger picture here,” Molloy said.

“I knew that I was going to go and wanted to be the first of the PSP to move from an established club like Collingwood to go to Sydney and show the girls that it’s OK to move.”

Star recruit Chloe Molloy at Swans training. Picture: Phil Hillyard

For Molloy, it’s all about the “bigger picture”, acknowledging that time spent building her face from one of the game’s rising stars to most prominent personalities was a factor in her ambition to grow the game long-term.

“If I can bring that to New South Wales and show that we can have it as an Aussie rules state as well a as a rugby state … I definitely saw bigger picture and if I can help the game for AFLW, I will,” Molloy said.

“I love this league.

“In a decade’s time, I want to leave the game in a better place than when I found it and moving to Sydney, it was definitely something that played on my mind – how can you benefit the AFLW and leave a legacy and play a really small part in something bigger for the game?.”