Swans’ swoop for Collingwood’s Chloe Molloy as AFLW off-season frenzy starts to heat up

Chloe Molloy is among the AFLW stars who could shift teams in 2023. DANIEL CHERNY reports on the latest player moves being floated and how clubs are waiting for key dates and details from the league.

The Sydney Swans are zeroing in on scoring weapon Chloe Molloy ahead of the 2023 AFLW season. Picture: Martin Keep/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

Sydney has zeroed in on Collingwood AFLW star Chloe Molloy in a bid to bolster the Swans’ stocks after a winless first season.

Having missed out on prime targets Ellie Blackburn, Emily Bates and Nat Grider ahead of their entrance into the league last year, Sydney has upped the ante and is strongly courting Molloy.

The versatile midfield-forward has twice been named All-Australian, won the Pies’ best and fairest in 2018 and finished third in the award in the most recently completed AFLW season, a campaign in which Collingwood again made the finals.

Molloy, 24, has been the subject of rival interest in previous seasons and has thus far stuck with the Pies. However the Swans are likely to be cashed up after being knocked back by some of the league’s stars last year, leaving them well-positioned for a raid. Molloy also previously worked with Swans coach Scott Gowans during his time as a Collingwood assistant.

Collingwood and Molloy gave the Swans plenty of grief when the teams met in 2022. Picture: Collingwood at Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Muddying the waters is the fact that the AFL still has not announced dates for this year’s sign and trade period, nor confirmed details of what is expected to be a mature-age player draft. The draft would effectively form a stopgap solution to bring the league’s calendar back in sync after last year’s expedited season seven.

Clubs had been anticipating the sign and trade period could begin this month but remain in the dark.

However it is likely to proceed despite the absence of a collective bargaining agreement, with a separate heads of agreement between the AFL and the AFL Players Association poised to serve as an interim measure.

As reported late last year, the AFL has told clubs that any two-year deals signed last year remain optional, meaning players cannot strictly be held to the final years of their respective contracts.

Sydney coach Gowans is already familiar with Molloy through his assistant coaching days at the Pies. Picture: Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

There is also some prospect that lowly clubs, including the Swans, receive player acquisition concessions in a bid to help level the playing field given the likes of Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane have thus far been able to retain the bulk of their core players.

The Lions meanwhile remain no guarantee to hang onto season seven’s AFLW leading goalkicker Jesse Wardlaw, who has interest from Victorian clubs including St Kilda.

Sources suggest the Saints are frontrunners for Wardlaw. However the Saints may need to part with Tarni White, who is in the sights of Gold Coast, in order to land Wardlaw.

St Kilda is also likely to lose best and fairest Kate Shierlaw to North Melbourne, who has also been linked to Lion Lulu Pullar, while Saint Clara Fitzpatrick is another player linked to the Suns, who have tended to pick off talent from St Kilda in recent years.

Gold Coast’s Serene Watson could also move to a Victorian club.

Originally published as Swans’ swoop for Collingwood’s Chloe Molloy as AFLW off-season frenzy starts to heat up