Rookie Me Central (formerly Draft Central)

Big fan of Draft Central, great information and they are not only passionate but extremely knowledgeable about Women's Footy.... Do yourself a favour!!

 

Thanks guys, appreciate the support. We're really excited about 2021, and have quite a bit in the works that we hope can come through and transform the female footy landscape - particularly at the youth level because we're really keen to see the interest in the AFLW Draft rise to have the same build up as the AFLM Draft. Before I started a lot of the draft work, there was not much on the boys, so the more interest we get in the girls coming through, the more interest it swells and people follow it profusely. I really enjoyed spending even more time following the U18 girls this season, watching all the SANFLW games and those WAFLW games available to get a good handle on the young guns coming through.

 

While I'm thinking of it too, if there's a certain type of content, or something that maybe you've seen from reporting in another sport, or men's game that you think would be cool, let me know. We're always keen to vary our content, particularly league to league.

I'm travelling down to Tasmania on Saturday for the first of many testing events, so I'll be looking to interview a number of the Tasmanian female prospects. The Victorian one is the following weekend (though admittedly it is a lot easier access to chat to the Vic prospects being located in the state), and then South Australia, NSW, Queensland and ACT to come.

 

Yeah we are certainly going to have more of a draft focus this year on the girls. I know a lot of talent managers at first were hesitant because going from no promotion to suddenly having all this content about them, they were concerned some might take it to heart too much. We originally did scouting notes but after talking with talent managers didn’t last year. This year we are certainly looking at bringing them back or a form of them back. I’m keen to do AFLW Draft content in the lead up to the draft, as we chat to all the girls anyway.

 

For those interested, we're starting a new series called At the Combine, where we interview a bunch of players and ask them about their journey in short videos. We're starting with AFLW Academy member Perri King, so check them out if you're interested

I was a one-person cameraman, interviewer and organiser on the day so had to handle a few things at once during the interview. Will be a lot cleaner when it comes to the Vic girls this weekend when there are multiple hands on deck

 

It is fantastic that Draft Central provides similar coverage of women’s and men’s sports including my two favourite sports, Australian Rules Football and Basketball.

With limited football played in Victoria during 2020 Australian Rules Draft Central has been a great resource to learn more about the players selected at the 2020 AFL and AFLW drafts.

Having many quotes throughout the feature articles from the player allows readers to learn about their journey and playing style. With the AFL and AFLW Prospectus no longer being published by Champion Data it is going to be more difficult for the general public to find stats on draftees. Some of the Draft Central feature articles on players that ended up being selected in the top 10 of the 2020 AFL Women’s Draft didn’t include game stats, however these stats are available elsewhere on the Draft Central website. One suggestion @Peter W is to include some stats from the AFL U18’s: Ones to watch articles such as game stats from NAB League and Under 18 National Championships in the feature articles on players which are mainly comprised of quotes from interviews.

 

Yeah that's a good plan. I'm setting up a stats page this week for the NAB League Girls, but the raw stats I've included from games will go here: https://afl.draftcentral.com.au/list/2021-nab-league-girls-stats/ for a reference, and then come the championships I'll try and find a way to chase up the stats because the last one (2019) we got them from a person who is unfortunately no longer in their role, so will have to annoy the next person haha.

 

Bit of an update for you guys, have done a bit of commentary through the NAB League app for the Girls after quite a long time pushing for it.

So after having a "test" for the Dandenong / Oakleigh game last Friday and Bendigo / GWV on Wednesday, we've been given approval for three games this weekend, so will be covering the Academy matches at Deakin and LaTrobe.

So the Falcons vs. Swans Academy on Saturday, then the Knights vs. Lions and Ranges vs. Suns will all have live commentary.

 

In terms of the U19s AFLW comp we've inputted the main ones into the site, as well as U17s (for the main states SA/WA/QLD/Vic). SANFLW are all public, WAFLW on the other hand have nothing, same with QAFLW. If there's a way we can it, we will, and we're looking into that