WA Football Commission

This first female All Stars game will be a curtain raiser at the first Western Derby on Sunday 4/5/14. This game represents the cream of WA female football, with all players vying for selection in the Female AFL Draft, which will be conducted on the 29/5/14. The two team involved on Sunday are the WAFC Female Football Talent Academy for women aged 19-24 years and other WAWFL players.  The AFL Women’s Draft game will be played on the 29/6/14 on Ethiad Stadium. Girls will be selected for either the Western Bulldogs FC or the Melbourne FC.

There were 57 WA nominations in total including players from State U18 Youth Girls (13), WAWFL (20) and Talent Academies (24). In total there were 284 nominations from all round Australia and even a few international nominations, who will all be contesting the 24 vacant spots.

Six lucky WA women will remain with their AFL Club, and they include; Kira Phillips (Western Bulldogs FC), along with Chelsea Randall, Kirby Bentley, Kiara Bowers, Kara Donnellan, Emma Swanson (Melbourne FC). Melbourne FC coached by WA’s Michelle Cowan were the victors in 2013 and are looking for back to back wins in 2014.

A WA panel has ranked our top thirty female players which have been submitted to Jan Cooper – AFL Female Football Manager. These will then be ranked against the other states nominations to determine an overall AFL Draft list. Depending on what the 2 Head Coaches Michelle Cowan (WA) and Peta Searle (VIC) are looking for and how the women play will depend on who is chosen and in which order at the AFL Female Draft on Monday 19/5/14. 

Seven WA coaches applied for an Assistant Coaching role. There were 21 applications in total (13 were male and 8 were female). All have been ranked Australia wide, and successful applicants will be announced soon.

The Talent Academy team wearing the black and gold will be led by Nikki Harwood along with Jenna Allomes, Dene White and Team Manager Ashleigh Brinkhuizen. The WAWFL team wearing blue and white will be led by Nicole Graves and supported by Bronte Ryan, Charmaine Rogers, Sally Allomes and Team Manager Allana Dickie.

Moore, the WAFC Female High Performance Manager stated, “This is a really exciting time for women’s football. This high talent pathway allows our players to experience the game at the highest level. Last year with twelve WA players being selected for the AFL Draft game we are confident their may be even more selected this year. I wish all players the best of luck in achieving their goal of becoming the best female footballer in Australia.”