After an AFLW season that saw incredible growth on the field, the 2022 Draft brought into focus the four new teams that completes the league’s expansion to 18 teams.
It’s a night that generates endless hope for fans, as it fulfils and validates athletes’ dreams.
Draft-style events offer uniqueness in the sporting landscape and have a way of producing beautiful, conversation-starting moments. Last night didn’t disappoint.
Zoe Wafker was at Marvel Stadium to support her twin Lauren… and then the Eagles picked her in a massive surprise!
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) June 29, 2022
This is honestly amazing ❤️#AFLWDraft | #AFLW pic.twitter.com/lnuhML0IXo
The early talking point was the Sydney Swans, one of the four teams coming into the league for next season, crowning Victorian and Western Jets product Montana Ham as the prestigious pick one. But we’ll come back to that.
Showing true sense of occasion, the West Coast Eagles ended the Draft’s first round with a bang, completely blindsiding one young talent… and their entire family. Zoe Wakfer was in attendance at the Marvel Stadium event, an in-person affair for the first time in three years, to support identical twin sister Lauren.
We are all in on the Wakfer twins ❤️#AFLWDraft | #AFLW pic.twitter.com/6H9V2IhLFB
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) June 29, 2022
The West Australian club made the decision to grab the key defender with pick 36, the final first-rounder selection. Zoe was not even in a South Fremantle club polo, such was the shock. It proved an incredible boost for sister Lauren, who’s in the early stages of rehabilitating a knee reconstruction, after suffering a torn ACL earlier this month.
83 lives were altered on the night, which began by new outfits the Swans, Hawthorn, Essendon and Port Adelaide dominating the prized picks – sharing the first 13 selections between them.
The other clear talking point was Sydney’s huge pre-Draft win of having top prospects Montana Ham and Sofia Hurley (Sandringham Dragons) nominating New South Wales as their destination state, despite both being Victorian products.
A bitta talent here ????#AFLWDraft pic.twitter.com/0ILOr3sZ8p
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) June 29, 2022
It gives the new Sydney-based club two highly credentialed young guns to build around, as it finds its feet in the rapidly-improving league.
ALSO READ: TEN OF THE TOP AFLW DRAFT PROSPECTS
The new AFLW season has been brought forward to the last weekend in August, maximising interest and ‘air time’. It will be worked into the end of the AFL Men’s season, with a declining amount of fixtures once Finals time arrives.
While that negotiating and decision-making progress wasn’t all smooth sailing, a one-year AFLW Collective Bargaining Agreement was reached. It means there’s now less than two months for teams to install their exciting new rookie players and finalise campaign preparations. Bring it on.
