What a draft bolter story this would be. Belloni was always in the draft frame after a strong bottom-age season, but more in the second half. She kept rising up draft boards to be a clear first round prospect and incredibly could go at third with her contested marking and versatility to play between attack and midfield key traits of the 175cm talent.
And the title changed after the number shifts? Is there not live trading as well?
There is bidding, so could change.
I’ll post RookieMeCentral’s phantom draft (and how our picks will change) in the AFLW General Discussion thread.
Trade up for Zippy Fish. Sounds fast.
Was originally meant to go at Pick 4 according to the RookieMeCentral phantom draft, and slid to us at Pick 9. Welcome Grace.
Plenty of good footage there. She looks tall and strong, hard to know if that is because she’s playing juniors and stands out physically.
Love her contested ball work - loose ball winning, contested marking, evasive skills all look awesome.
Her disposal looks a bit sketchy to me - not a lot of depth to her kicks and a lot of the time it is just kicking it 20m downfield to a pack. Didn’t really see any cases of picking out a player and nailing a pass.
If she can develop her kicking to match Maddy Gay then she will be a real weapon.
Welcome to Essendon Ms. Belloni may you always play with Grace on the field.
We got a good one here! Dominated the first half of her EFC VFLW debut today. Best moment was perhaps her getting the centre clearance then running to the goal square to take a pack mark just two kicks later.
Big-bodied candy-selling contested-marking multiple-goal-kicking mid 
She looks a serious player.
Looked awesome. Great pick up.
More to the article than the headline…
WHEN Zac Efron needed a private gym to use when he was in Melbourne, Essendon player Grace Belloni was happy to help.
Taken with pick No.9 in last year’s Telstra AFLW Draft, Belloni stepped onto footy’s big stage for the first time last weekend, making a composed NAB AFLW debut at Manuka Oval in a thumping Bombers win.
But before fulfilling her childhood dream, she had an unusual brush with Hollywood royalty.
The 18-year-old grew up in Olinda, a town 40km east of Melbourne’s CBD in the Dandenong Ranges. Her best friend’s dad is Joost Bakker, the renowned zero-waste guru, who has built restaurants and houses around the world using a sustainability blueprint that has attracted global acclaim.
Bakker is currently building Efron’s house in Byron Bay, alongside Belloni’s father, Tom. And when Efron, the famous actor from High School Musical, Baywatch and 17 Again was in Melbourne last year, he asked Bakker if he knew of anywhere he could train, in private.
Bakker, knowing Belloni was in full training mode ahead of the AFLW draft, put them in touch.
“It’s a long story,” Belloni tells AFL.com.au.
"Joost is building Zac Efron’s house in Byron Bay right now. Zac Efron came down to the Dandenongs and was here for work. Joost called me and said, ‘Zac is here for a few weeks and needs somewhere to go to the gym’. He knew I was into fitness. He asked if I had anywhere to work out that was private.
"I said he can come to my family house, which is my uncle’s house now, because he has a big home gym and sauna.
"I brought Zac in, did a workout, then he ended up going there for the week.
"(It) is so weird to think he was at my family house, now my uncle’s house. He was so great.”
Belloni is half American, half Australian. Her father, Tom, is from San Clemente in California but spent his 20s in Colorado. He met her mum, Kirsten, while they were both travelling and got married in the United States, before deciding to raise a family in Australia. Despite having no exposure to Australian Football before then, Tom coached Grace in junior footy, standing out Ted Lasso style due to his accent.
And on Saturday, he completed the circle by presenting Grace with her guernsey ahead of her debut.
“He played footy when he came over and still plays footy now, it’s the funniest thing ever. It’s a great watch. He is a big surfer, skater, snowboarder, so always an athlete,” she says.
"When he came over, he played local footy with my uncle, then coached me, coached the girls side. He really got into it for me.
"He has a heavy American accent, everyone always comments on his accent, but I can’t hear it. Everyone says it’s very strong, but when we go back to America, everyone thinks he has an Australian accent.”
Belloni grew up with an older brother, Tyler, and five older male cousins, who all played footy in winter and cricket in summer. She tried other sports, but only one truly interested her.
“I tried dancing and I tried all that other stuff, but it wasn’t really for me,” she says. "I joined the under-10s team when I was eight and then played there for two years before they introduced the girls side. I played with the girls, but I also continued playing with the boys at the same time. Most of the time I was the only girl.
"I grew with an older brother, Tyler, who is 23. I have five boy cousins who are all older than me and we are all very, very close. They were very into footy and I just grew up around it. My uncle was the same - such a big footy head.”
While her family helped introduce her to the game, it was a famous summer night back in 2017 that set Belloni’s footy dream in motion.
“I went to the first ever AFLW game at Ikon Park. I was always into sport, but that was the first time I realised that I could do this,” she says.
"I literally have a book from when I was 10 years old and it is me writing, ‘my biggest dream is to play AFLW’. That was when I was nine, so definitely from a young age I wanted to do this.”
Bri Davey made her debut in that game and has since become a two-time All-Australian, AFLPA MVP winner and the 2021 AFLW best and fairest. Belloni has always tried to emulate the Collingwood star, especially since transitioning from a key forward to a midfielder.
“Bri Davey was my idol when I was younger,” she says. "I loved her physicality and the way she goes about it.”
From the age of eight, Belloni played her entire junior career for Olinda Ferny Creek in the Outer East Football League. By 15, she was playing senior football for the same club, before playing for the Eastern Ranges in the Coates Talent League. The exposure to bigger bodies has helped her transition to the AFLW.
“I always played up a level, so in under-14s I played under-16s, and (in) under-10s I played under-12s. So it was pretty natural for me [playing senior football so young], physically I felt fine,” she says.
"You come across some bigger girls, but there was never really any doubt in my mind. I loved being around the older girls and even in my last year at Eastern we had a week break and I got to go and play in the Grand Final and win with them.”
With the first step of her AFLW goal realised last December, Belloni has moved across Melbourne to a share house in Ascot Vale, not far from The Hanger, with teammates Mia Busch, Steph Wales and Matilda Dyke.
Last weekend was a dream a decade in the making, with Belloni part of the generation that grew up knowing what was possible.
If you can see it, you can be it. Now Belloni is being it.
So does this mean @StealthBomber has a new favourite? (Or half favourite)
Well I guess so…. I have yet to frame my #6 jumper but maybe I’ll need to frame a #7 as well.
I need to meet her dad; if this dude is in fact a real Australian Ted Lasso. I suspect if he attends games then I am bound to run into him at some point as I seem to have a knack for running into other Americans at the footy. I actually ran into two of them last night at the MCG; they were in fact Sydney Swans members (!) who simply wanted to watch a game in Melbourne.
The accent thing is so funny with me, because the same thing happened when I took my kids back to Colorado a few weeks ago. My parents were convinced that my younger son has an Aussie accent now but he absolutely does not.
I mean mine hasn’t changed, and my wife’s hasn’t changed, but we are so used to each other that we pretty much forget either one of us has an accent to the other person. I just sound like “me” to her.
Weak. You didn’t even publicly acclaim Dani’s 34th birthday last Friday.
Yeah since she retired I haven’t kept up….
At some point I needed to stop being that creepy middle aged guy who left his wife and kids at home so he could go stalk wait for her outside the ground and have a chat.
Challenge him at darts
I’m curious, not judgemental….