MELBOURNE NAB AFL Women's Draft selections

Comments by Todd Patterson, AFLW Talent Manager

Selection No.6 – Eden Zanker (Bendigo Pioneers/Woorinen)

“She’s a 182cm, key forward, who lives called Natya, which has three families in the town. She’s just come back to the sport and has had a rapid rise. She was All-Australian and won the leading goalkicking in the championships, even though she missed one game. She also performed strongly in the State of Origin game, prior to the exhibition game. She’s a super competitive, Melbourne person. She has huge upside and will give us everything she’s got, so we’re stoked with that pick.” 

Selection No.14 – Maddy Guerin (Northern Knights/Fitzroy Juniors)

“She’s a super athletic, young kid. She’s got depth to her kicking and has really improved this year. She’s a real self-starter. She attends Katie Brennan/Mel Hickey Performance, so we’ve had a good insight into her character there. She’s a pretty straight-shooter and she has some good interest outside of football. Athletically, she’s pretty exciting.”

Selection No.22 – Tegan Cunningham (basketball)

“She’s played basketball for a long time and played for Oklahoma State University. She has played more than 150 WNBL games with the Adelaide Lightning, Logan Thunder, Dandenong Ranges and Melbourne Boomers. She’s 186cm and is as competitive as you’ll ever find. We’ve had a kick with her a couple of times and she’s really impressed us, so we think she’ll come in and have an immediate impact up forward. By bringing these key forwards in, it gives us the opportunity to shuffle a few players around and address other areas of the ground. We didn’t really see any key defenders that we thought we could get access to and have an immediate impact to. By going down the key forward line, we think Bianca Jakobsson, Shelley Scott and a couple of others can roll into defence.”

Selection No.30 – Claudia Whitfort (lifesaving)

“Claudia attends The Peninsula Grammar School. She’s played representative netball for Victoria and she’s represented Victoria in lifesaving, with beach flags and beach sprints being her main events. She has also represented Victoria in athletics and has competed against women at that level. She comes from a terrific family and is a fantastic person. She’s a real blank canvass, but with her athletic profile, she will be the most athletically gifted person in the competition, in my view. Her combination of speed and endurance gives her a real head start and allows us to invest in her skills heavily. We think she’s got some real potential.”