{"id":715584,"date":"2026-06-04T22:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/715584\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T22:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:04:17","slug":"it-was-chaos-10-years-on-from-the-afls-craziest-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/715584\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It was chaos\u2019: 10 years on from the AFL\u2019s craziest draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of October, it will have been 10 years since the inaugural AFL Women\u2019s<\/a> draft. The landmark moment that launched the competition and saw 145 players sorted into eight brand new teams in one chaotic afternoon. <\/p>\n

At the time, it was hailed as a truly historic moment in the code\u2019s history, and it remains so, but the sheer scale of the task is worthy of a proper reflection.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The inaugural 2017 AFL women’s premiership cup.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Following the enormous success of a representative women\u2019s footy match in 2015, which out-rated the men\u2019s AFL<\/a> match from the previous night, the league made the call to push the big, green \u201cGO\u201d button and launch AFLW.<\/p>\n

Instead of the competition starting in 2020, as was tentatively planned, suddenly we were all systems go for February 2017. Of course, this meant building an entire competition from scratch in effectively a calendar year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the span of five months between June and October of 2016, the AFL decided upon the eight teams that would kick-start women\u2019s footy at the top level. Those clubs then set about building football departments, coaching staffs and everything else required to build a top-level football club from scratch.<\/p>\n

Those brand new departments and coaching groups then had to scour every corner of the country to work out how they would build their inaugural list of 30 players.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not like a standard draft pathway existed. The majority of players were playing in the sporadic local women\u2019s competitions around the country. A fair chunk even crossed codes from other sports to get involved.<\/p>\n

The AFL settled on eight clubs: four Victorian; Carlton<\/a>, Collingwood<\/a>, Melbourne<\/a> and the Western Bulldogs<\/a>; and added Fremantle<\/a>, Adelaide<\/a>, GWS<\/a> and Brisbane<\/a> as the other four.<\/p>\n

Given the part-time nature of the competition, players had full control over which state(s) they wished to be drafted to. Most simply nominated where they lived, meaning the four Victorian teams battled over the same local talent pool.<\/p>\n

\"Western<\/p>\n

Western Bulldogs AFLW coach Paul Groves.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s within those four teams and the 120 players who made those lists up where the true chaos of the next few months would stem. <\/p>\n

Paul Groves, the inaugural coach of the Western Bulldogs<\/a>, remembers those months across 2016 as a bit of a blur as he scoured vision from the VWFL and used the final exhibition game, which he coached, as a trial run to sort through raw talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly was a bizarre time,\u201d Groves told Nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I went and got magnets made up of about 150 to 200 players with their details on it, and we were using them in my office on the back of a filing cabinet, the back of this big cabinet thing that we pulled out, with all the magnets sorted into ranks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to rank players firstly in positions, their main position that we think they\u2019ll play, but then also giving them a sort of overall talent pool. It wasn\u2019t an easy task.\u201d<\/p>\n

While teams scrambled to get a feel for who should be drafted where in October, players had to do the opposite, making themselves visible to recruiters, available for interviews and performing at local level – all while working everyday jobs.<\/p>\n

\"Moana<\/p>\n

Moana Hope of the Magpies (left) pours Gatorade on Stephanie Chiocci after a win in 2017.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

For Steph Chiocci, who would go on to become Collingwood\u2019s inaugural captain, the sudden timeline jump from a 2020 launch to 2017 changed everything. <\/p>\n

Chiocci was one of the stars of the local Victorian Women\u2019s Football League for Diamond Creek, but had been overlooked by the four Victorian AFL clubs as a marquee player, meaning she was heading into the draft like everyone else. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit of a whirlwind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden it\u2019s (AFL boss) Gil McLachlan going, \u2018yep, 2017, not 2020,\u2019 and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018you beauty, I\u2019m not too old. I\u2019m still probably a chance, along with a lot of my Diamond Creek teammates\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a whirlwind because it happened so quickly. Like, there wasn\u2019t time to sort of sit back and think, OK, \u2018what does this look like for our future\u2019, because at that point it was like, still playing local footy, you represent Victoria biannually in those competitions that we did, and then all of a sudden, there\u2019s talk of this AFLW draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden it becomes like a business and all of these people you know are now employed by clubs and you\u2019re getting told one thing and then you\u2019re interviewing with Carlton and then the Bulldogs are saying \u2018if you\u2019re here at this pick we\u2019ll take you here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each of the teams got to sign two marquee players to their list outside the draft system, as well as priority players as the next step below that.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Victorian AFLW Captains (L-R) Stephanie Chiocci, Daisy Pearce, Brianna Davey and Katie Brennan.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

This saw the likes of Daisy Pearce join Melbourne, Ellie Blackburn at the Bulldogs and former Matildas goalkeeper Brianna Davey sign with Carlton.<\/p>\n

But the remainder of each team\u2019s list would be assembled on draft day on October 12, 2016, just five months before the season would launch.<\/p>\n

Dozens of players were in attendance at the event in Melbourne as all eight teams assembled for what was effectively the equivalent of drafting an entire playing base from scratch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe draft itself went for quite a while, we were drafting 150 players after all. Once it started we were all in the same room and very close to each other, not like how it is now at Marvel Stadium,\u201d Groves said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen when you do make a pick, you get an, \u201cah, that\u2019s a great pick, well done. We were going for her next\u201d. To be honest, it was like doing a Supercoach draft where you\u2019re drafting all the players and you get all your mates around and you\u2019re all like, \u201cI was going to pick her next, I was going to pick her next\u201d. That was a bit like what it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (non-Victorian) teams were sort of in their own bubble. They had their own lists and we\u2019re sitting around the tables. Fremantle and those teams are basically just reading off their playing list in order (because of the state-based draft), they\u2019re not so much drafting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas we\u2019re sitting there waiting, \u2018what are Melbourne going to do here, what are Carlton picking\u2019. There was a fair bit of a juggle with that for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chiocci knew she was going to get drafted, she simply didn\u2019t know which of the four Victorian clubs would snap her up and when.<\/p>\n

For others however, the wait was excruciating. <\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/p>\n

Katie Loynes of the Blues in 2017.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Veteran Victorian midfielder Katie Loynes was one who was forced to wait. Already in her early 30s, she was rehabbing a second torn ACL across 2016 and in the lead-up to the draft.<\/p>\n

Because of the injury, she found herself on the fringes of some draft boards and crossed off others.<\/p>\n

Loynes opted to watch draft day from home, hoping her name would be read out, describing it as a \u201csurreal\u201d experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t go to the draft and I was meant to be teaching that day, and I purposely stayed home with mum and I remember just watching the names come up on the TV, and it was very surreal to think at some stage hopefully I was going to get called out,\u201d Loynes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always feeling for the people who were disappointed, and there were so many that were actually in the rooms that day that missed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loynes had to wait until Carlton read her name out at pick 110, with the club she grew up supporting ending the agony.<\/p>\n

But she admits being overlooked a grand total of 109 times did put a chip on her shoulder going into the first season. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was only five months post surgery and clubs were really trying to test the strength of my knee and apparently a lot of those fitness tests I didn\u2019t pass, so I think I got crossed off a few lists. It was like I had a mark against my name,\u201d Loynes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t shy away from it, there was a part of your ego that does get slighted about what could have been (without the torn ACL). I felt like I was continually proving people wrong, and it was a real motivator for me with training and just mindset going into games.\u201d <\/p>\n

Chiocci joined Collingwood at pick 11, or effectively pick six of the Victorian crop.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there with my mum and dad. It was a lovely atmosphere in the room, a lot of nervous energy. Nobody knew what to expect. Ignorance is bliss,\u201d she laughed. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe got through the first round, the first 10 picks, and I was getting pretty nervous. A tiny part of me was pretty pumped because Carlton had said if I was there (at pick 14) they would take me and I grew up a big Blues fan. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously when Collingwood read out my name at pick 11 I was over the moon and overcome with emotion, if you can find the vision you can see I was a bit of a sook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Steph<\/p>\n

Steph Chiocci tears up upon being drafted by Collingwood.\u00a0League of Her Own Documentary<\/p>\n

One she had been drafted, Chiocci\u2019s attention turned to her Diamond Creek teammates, like Loynes, who had to wait as the hours went on and the draft unfolded.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty nerve-wracking for a lot of people and a very, very long night,\u201d Chiocci confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we ended up going back up to the Glasshouse as it was then and had some drinks and some food and (Collingwood president) Eddie McGuire was overseas and he called in and was on loudspeaker to all of us, and he said two things: \u201cYou\u2019re part of the Collingwood family now, you\u2019ll always be part of the Collingwood family\u201d; and, \u201cwe bloody hate Carlton,\u201d and that was his two things. So, that was a funny experience for me and my Carlton-supporting parents!\u201d<\/p>\n

With hindsight, it\u2019s a difficult draft to assess. Many of the top names delivered, but the sheer responsibility of building each list from scratch made it an unenviable task.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quite a few of the competition\u2019s guns fell into the fifties or even the hundreds. There aren\u2019t many sporting drafts around the world where you find a sleeper gem at pick 137, where current Collingwood captain Ruby Schleicher landed.<\/p>\n

Loynes would quickly establish herself as one of Carlton\u2019s best players, winning their best and fairest in 2018 and being named captain of the club in 2020.<\/p>\n

Groves feels the league handled a difficult initiation process well, despite how quickly everything was thrown together.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, there\u2019s not a whole heap there that… you want to say, \u201coh, it could have been a little bit more professional, could have been this,\u201d but it was like this was completely new,\u201d the 2018 premiership coach said.<\/p>\n

\"Ellie<\/p>\n

Ellie Blackburn, Katie Brennan and Paul Groves lift the 2018 AFLW premiership cup.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest challenge was getting girls who have just played basically local women\u2019s footy, or playing VWFL and all of a sudden, we\u2019re chucking you on TV, here\u2019s the standard, here\u2019s where you need to get to in one six-week pre-season before Christmas and then here you go, you\u2019re going to start at the end of January.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that was challenging, but the girls loved it because it was all so new and acknowledging them a little bit, which is great.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was chaos for me too. It was like, I\u2019ve gone from teaching year 10 PE to three weeks later drafting a squad of 30 girls to play on television, and I was still coaching Monash Blues at the time as well into a finals series. So it was a pretty interesting period, and one I\u2019m better for as well, definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As of October, it will have been 10 years since the inaugural AFL Women\u2019s draft. The landmark moment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-715584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}