By Jonty Ralphsmith
The Dandenong Stingrays look set to have a host of players have their names called out at the AFLW Draft on Monday 18 December.
The draft, held late in the year due to the timing of the AFLW season and trade period, allows players to either nominate for the national draft or the state draft.
State draft nominees are only eligible to be drafted to AFLW clubs in their home state.
Of the 569 players who nominated, 389 have thrown their names into the national pool, including Stingrays Jemma Ramsdale, Meg Robertson, Ruby Murdoch and Felicity Crank.
Meanwhile, Mikayla Williamson, Sophie Butterworth, Bianca Lyne and Abbey Tregellis, have all nominated for the Victorian State Draft.
There are expected to be 40-43 players taken.
Below is a brief insight into each local in the mix.
Head to Star News online or grab a copy of this week’s Pakenham Gazette for more comprehensive stories on each prospect.
Mikayla Williamson
The AFLW Academy utility looks certain to be the first Stingray to have her name read out next Monday.
Williamson was the only Dandenong player invited to the draft, indicating that she will likely be nabbed in the first round.
It follows a season of consistency for the Dandenong Stingrays, Vic Country and the AFLW Academy, where she won the Rays best and fairest, captained Vic Country and was named in the under-18 AFLW All Australian team.
Projected to start her AFLW career as a winger or halfback, where she has played most of her footy, coach Josh Moore showed a different side to her game this year by starting Williamson in the middle.
She formed a potent pairing in the midfield with fellow draft hopeful Meg Robertson, Williamson often released to use her eye-catching athleticism to her advantage.
The teenager’s athletic traits were on show at the AFLW Draft Combine where she ran a record breaking 7:21 minute two-kilometre time trial, to go with top five finishes in agility and the standing vertical jump.
She has formed a close relationship at the Rays with Pines teammate Jemma Ramsdale, whom she credits for the rise in her confidence and leadership skills.
Williamson has nominated for the Victorian state-based draft.
Meg Robertson
The Carlton father-daughter prospect appears destined for Ikon Park, where her Dad, Ben, played three games.
A fierce contested ball winning midfielder, Robertson’s season was put on hold in round two when she suffered a nasty concussion.
It would be 64 days before she would take to the field again and she told Star News it wasn’t until the Stingrays’ clash with the Knights, 99 days later, that she had full faith in herself on-field.
As well as being absent from footy for that period, the Berwick junior missed a chunk of her year-12 schooling as she recovered from the head knock.
Sessions with a sports psychologist helped her return to her best, with Vic Country’s clash with WA in Perth evidence that she could match it at the higher level.
Robertson is the only father-daughter prospect in the pool to nominate nationally.
Jemma Ramsdale
The Dandenong captain started the season as a tough shutdown defender with excellent leadership.
She ends it with those traits embedded in her conscience, alongside newfound flair and rebound.
At the midway point of the season, Ramsdale’s draft hopes were teetering.
While solid in defence, she hadn’t set the world on fire, causing scouts to focus on her shortcomings rather than appreciating the potential.
It put a high currency on her national championships games, and after being dropped following a sub-par first game against Queensland, she got one more chance – against WA.
“She was in my eyes best-on-ground,” Stingrays coach Moore explained.
That was the clear turning point in Ramsdale’s season as she showed off her willingness to intercept mark, win her own footy and drive the ball out of the back half.
From that point on, she played with much more confidence and dare, arguably Dandenong’s best player across the last six weeks of the season.
Her leadership is also one of the best in the draft class, with her vocal instructions on-field to a young Dandenong backline a feature of her game.
Ramsdale has nominated for the national draft and has been linked to West Coast Eagles and Fremantle, with Sydney and Collingwood also showing interest.
Bianca Lyne
A polarising player, Lyne’s athleticism is undoubted but her best position is not yet known.
The key-position utility ran the two kilometre time trial at the AFLW Draft combine in a time of 7:21 minutes, behind only Williamson.
She is a powerful player with a high ceiling, but didn’t get an extended look at any position in 2023, playing in the ruck, midfield, forward line, and defence.
Just as she appeared to be settling into the backline, Lyne fractured her hand, which ruled her out of the last month of the season.
An AFLW Academy player, she has received plenty of enquiries but appears most suited to a developing side given she is highly unlikely to play AFLW in her first season as her understanding of the game continues to develop.
She nominated state and has had eight interviews, linked most heavily to Carlton and Richmond
Sophie Butterworth
The key forward’s production was almost unmatched in 2023, one of only four forwards to average at least two goals per game given a minimum of four matches.
And she did it all while battling popliteal artery entrapment syndrome which Butterworth described as feeling like ‘a hot knife slicing through your calf.’
The Stingray first felt the pain in a local match last year, but attributed it to soreness given she was playing as a midfielder, demanding extra running.
When it returned in preseason, she again attributed it to her high intensity training.
It wasn’t until the matches started that the cause for concern became more genuine, and it would be four months after that before Butterworth was correctly diagnosed.
Prior to that, she had been told to treat it as compartment syndrome, her six-days-per week rehabilitation doing nothing to progress her injury, cuing a repeat appointment.
Following the diagnosis, she had a round-table discussion which involved her parents, coach, Talent Lead and the Stingrays well-being co-ordinator to keep all stakeholders on the same page.
At times throughout the season, Butterworth trained only once per week which meant her playing status was often a week-to-week proposition.
Yet, she missed just one game due to injury – the last national championships game in Perth, largely due to the impact of the flight.
A competitive, strong marking barometer of her team’s forward-line, Butterworth was the leader of Dandenong’s front seven, frequently bringing teammates into the game.
The injury impacted her ability to work up the ground and limited opportunities to showcase her versatility.
Linked to Carlton and Hawthorn, she is back training to 100 per cent, her physicality having insiders confident she can make an immediate impact.
Others
Ruby Murdoch, Abbey Tregellis, and Felicity Crank also nominated for the draft.
Of those, Murdoch is the most likely to be picked up, but even she is unlikely.
A strong aerobic runner who plays with dare, Murdoch started the season on the wing, before being moved to halfback, where she excelled in different roles.
She was able to provide drive out of the back half and shutdown small forwards on two separate occasions at the national championships.
One of the best players not to receive an AFLW Combine invite, Murdoch’s interest has come predominantly from interstate clubs.
Meanwhile, Tregellis returned to the Stingrays as an overager this year, before playing some VFLW footy for the Southern Saints.
Her versatility is a strength, showing excellent signs as a forward early in the season at Coates League level, but also having proven she can play in other lines.
Strong over-aged player Crank has also thrown her name in the national draft mix after being overlooked in the AFLW supplementary draft earlier this year.
