2025 AFLW Trade & Draft

[bandwagon]

AFLW Draft Combine list has been released, with 3 Swans Academy girls invited:
Alex Neyland - 178cm half forward/back
Madeleine Quinn - 185cm ruck
Kiera Yerbury - 173cm h/fwd -mid

I notice that there are 7 Gold Coast Academy invitees out of 46 total!

[ootf]

And Grace Parsons for the State Combine.

[liz]

I notice that there are 7 Gold Coast Academy invitees out of 46 total!

Including three of the top four in RMC's most recent power rankings.

AFLW Draft Power Rankings: July 2025 - Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central

I really hope we get Neyland. I saw her dominate in an academy game earlier this year. I'm a little surprised to see her so high in these power rankings, but clearly I wasn't imagining what I saw in her in that game.

She also has a couple of younger sisters who are following her through the academy path.

Sydney Swans Foundation Spotlight: The Neyland Family?

[bandwagon]

Caught the replay of the AFLW Futures game from last week - these are girls eligible for the 2026 draft, and there were a few good Swans Academy prospects on display.

- Charlotte Tidemann. Very attacking half-back/wing, always looking to take meters and drive the ball forward. Speedy with good all-round skills and good vision when kicking to advantage. Seemed to cover a lot of ground, but there were lots of blonde girls with ponytails running around so maybe I attributed extra possessions to her. I presume the sister of our VFL player.
- Grace Tracey. Played fullback and was a rock. Read the play to intercept, took strong contested marks and tackled hard. Stayed involved in contests and generated plenty of rebounds. Took the kickouts and generally went long. 182cm tall already.
- Frankie Walsh. Quieter than her teammates, played wing and HFF. Her vivid red hair made her easy to spot, but didn't gain a lot of possessions.

[bandwagon]

AFLW Trade period will start tomorrow and is running until next Wednesday.

Apparently Taylor Smith of Brisbane has nominated us as her preferred destination. Which is good as a proven goal-kicking tall forward is just what we need, but is bad as it might impact our ability to draft all our Academy girls.
We shall see I guess.

[lwjoyner]

surely we need a coach before all trades and draft is done

[bandwagon]

We have completed a trade for Taylor Smith from Brisbane. She is a key forward, which is just what we need IMO. However she was in contract, so we had to pay up. Effectively we have slightly downgraded our R1 R2 & R3 picks and given up our 2026 R1 & R3 picks. Feels about fair to me, I'm just relieved we can (should) still match bids for Academy girls.

[Thunder Shaker]

Sydney Swans AFLW draft picks after the trade period: 18, 28, 46 in the first three rounds.

[Thunder Shaker]

Sarah Black previewed the first round of the draft. She has suggested that GWS could pull more shenanigans by bidding early on a Sydney Academy player Alex Neyland, thus making it harder for Sydney to match bids on other prospects. GWS making the bid with a priority pick would be filthy.

If Alex Neyland is bid on before pick 10, Sydney would be unable to match a bid on other players if bid on before pick 10.

Sydney Academy players named as possible first-round prospects:
* Alex Neyland - utility
* Kiera Yerbury - midfielder
* Maddie Quinn - ruck

Gold Coast have a lot more players from their Academy that are likely to be drafted early. They have stockpiled a lot of draft picks in the first two rounds of the draft: picks 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27 and 32. Seven players from Gold Coast's Academy were named by Black as likely early picks.

[bandwagon]

I would be delighted if we snare Yerbury, but if GWS take her with pick 3 rather than say a Chloe Bown they must see something I can't. Maybe she will be a star and GWS aren't doing this just to stuff us up.
Guess we will see very shortly.

[bandwagon]

GWS get Yerbury with pick 3!
We draft Neyland with pick 6 after Collingwood bid.

[bandwagon]

And we get Quinn at pick 18 after Brisbane bid.
Congratulations to the Academy - 3 players in the first round. Relieved we could get a couple of them with picks 18 & 28, so I think the system is working for us.

[bandwagon]

With pick 47 we get another Academy girl - Molly Thomas
And we pass on our last pick.