Richmond AFLW List and Recruiting Manager, Trent Mosbey, has provided an update on the Tigers’ plans for Monday’s draft.
Holding picks one, 38, 56 and 63, Richmond will bolster its list with a strong influx of young talent on Monday night, with Mosbey excited by the players that the Club are set to acquire.
“We're really excited by this unique opportunity, and it's going to be a great thing for the footy club going forward,” Mosbey told Richmond Media.
“We rated the top three in this draft, that sort of set it apart. Two of them have been really outstanding players from under-16's onwards, so we've got three years of great data there.
“The other one's sort of really bobbed up this year and really improved their game, but also had a great bottom-aged year as well.
“We feel really adequate and very prepared that we've seen these players play for a long time, we've built connections with the players themselves and their families, so we're very confident that we know them as people and players, and look forward to calling one of their names out on Monday.”
Such is the depth of talent in the draft pool, the Tigers’ second selection is a valued one.
“We’ll probably utilise pick 38, we've got a batch of players we feel that'll get through to that point of the draft, and we're excited to add a player there that can really help us in the present and in the future,” Mosbey said.
However, Mosbey explained how the options for using pick 56 remain open.
“Pick 56 gives us some flexibility,” he said.
“The AFL have introduced a pre-season draft, which will come into (effect) before the season starts next year, so we might have some flexibility around passing that pick to go into there with pick three in that draft or sign a rookie or look at some other options post that.
“A lot of flexibility…we'll see what comes through at that point of the draft and make a decision a bit sooner to that pick.”
------------------
The draftees won’t be the only new faces at the Swinburne Centre, with the Tigers adding Dana East (Fremantle) and Georgia Stubs (North Melbourne) in the trade period.
“We've liked Dana for a long time now, and the opportunity came up to acquire her and add to our midfield mix,” Mosbey said.
“We were looking for a really competitive inside mid that has really clean hands and was really good with distributing out to outside runners, and also a really strong tackler, really competitive around the football, can work hard both ways and provide defensive running transition.
“We feel that Dana will complement our other midfielders in there with Ellie McKenzie and Mon Conti, and then also our younger brigade, Sierra Grieves, Emelia Yassir, Isabel Bacon, Charli Wicksteed, so we really wanted to get a player that could complement them.”
While she is yet to make her AFLW debut, Mosbey says Stubs is primed to make an impact when her opportunity arises.
“We liked Georgia in her draft year,” he said.
“Georgia is a running rebound defender and also has recently trained as an inside mid at North Melbourne, so going up against Jasmine Garner, Ash Riddell and those sort of players in there, we feel she's had a great development path already with North Melbourne over two years, and we feel that she's ready to go and impact at AFLW level.”
---------------------------
Another deal Richmond made was sending Grace Egan to Adelaide in exchange for the aforementioned 38th pick.
“The opportunity came up for Grace to go to Adelaide, a great program, a new coach over there as well, and new opportunities to play in their midfield mix,” Mosbey said.
“It worked out for Grace, and we're really excited for her and what she can do over there, on and off the field in Adelaide as a town and as a club.
“We felt that Grace provided a skill set that we needed to enhance and improve on to make our midfield mix a bit more well-rounded, and with a number of younger players coming through, we're really excited to give them more opportunity through the midfield, and we felt that was a part of that as well.
“We do wish Grace the best of luck and thank her for what she did for our footy club, and we'll look on and applaud her from afar.”
https://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/1941253/ultimate-tigers-aflw-draft-preview
