Expansion club status including draft picks (the numbers are “state-based”):
Essendon: 20 signed - 2, 4, 17, 19, 24, 34, 42 - that leaves 3 otherwise
Hawthorn: 18 signed - 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 23, 33, 41 - that leaves 3 otherwise
Port: 17 signed - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 - that leaves 5 otherwise
Bin Chickens: 23 signed - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 13 - unless they have special rules, they will be seeking to do some trades. Note that NSW pick 13 isn’t actually a high pick for a non-NSW club.
Of course you can have extra draft picks after what is listed above, but I would expect Ess and Haw to pre-select at least 3 NAB Leaguers from their affiliated clubs.
I assume Port don’t want to draft/pre-select 13 more teenagers, so they have substantial work to do.
Sydney obviously have a smaller pool of local players, so have been very busy plucking VFLW etc players. We don’t know who/what quality has nominated for the NSW draft, but it looks like they’re almost done.
Essendon age distribution so far (obviously the left column is going to grow):
As comparison, games played by the same age groups in our VFLW this year (the extra three columns off to the right are one player each: Heil, Clifford, and CBomb).
It’s a tough question.
It will come down to winning 9-10 games in the regular season. In the finals if the group comes up against ALFW side like Lions or a side we haven’t played during regular season, who knows what may happen.
Next season of AFLW is going to have the most lopsided games ever.
The Hawks completed a trade for Ashmore on Tuesday, welcoming the 30-year-old as well as Picks 26 and 27 of the Victorian draft whilst giving Picks 23 and 41 to Melbourne and Pick 32 to Richmond as part of a three-way trade.
The picks don’t match what was posted last night, but essentially they’ve eventually got her for free.
Essendon: 20 signed - 2, 4, 17, 19, 25, 35, 43, 53 - that leaves 1 otherwise (#53 is nominally the last pick in the draft - 8 teams have only 3 or 4 sports to fill)
Hawthorn: 19 signed - 1, 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 39, 52 - that leaves 2 otherwise
Port: 22 signed - 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11 - that leaves 1 otherwise
Bin Chickens: 23 signed - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13 - that leaves -2 otherwise, GWS will be pleased.
After announcing that teams that got poached too much would, per a mystery formula, get unspecified compensation… after the last minute they went “■■■■, the Bin Chickens failed to get any big names*, so forget what we announced, we mostly need to give bad poachers extra picks”. As the Hawks similarly failed to attract stars (even without the handicap of being based in Sydney) they had to do the same for them as well**.
*Sorry, Collier.
**The AFL is yet to refute what I wrote above, so consider it 100% true. Especially since they also “randomly” got the draft order to inversely match the level of big name poaching, and didn’t have the decency to make at least the initial picks a fairer 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, and 4-5. You’ll take 5-8, and the Chicken Hawks will get the bonus of picks 9-13, and you’ll like it, Essendon!