Emma Dineen Goes At Pick 3 In Aflw Pre Season Draft

Eleven players were selected in the first aflw pre season draft on Monday night, giving clubs a new way to fill list spots one week before pre-season begins on May 11. Emma Dineen went to Essendon at pick 3, one of several players taken from a pool that missed out in the 2025 draft.

Gold Coast Opens The Board

Lily Quigley went first to Gold Coast, and Maisy Evans followed at pick 2 to Greater Western Sydney. Essendon then used pick 3 on Dineen, before the Western Bulldogs chose Amaia Wain at pick 4 and Fremantle selected Noa McNaughton at pick 5.

The draft order kept moving quickly after that. Sienna Gerardi joined West Coast at pick 6, Saoirse Lally went to St Kilda at pick 7, Mikaylah Antony landed at Hawthorn with pick 8, Lauren Clifton was taken by Melbourne at pick 9, Sophia Gaukrodger returned to Greater Western Sydney at pick 10, and Lily Smart went back to West Coast at pick 11.

Essendon Uses Pick 3

The draft was built for clubs with a list spot left over from December's draft or with players ruled out through retirement or inactivity. Players can be out for a full season for reasons including injury, pregnancy, mental health or work commitments, which opened the door for this first run of selections.

That made Monday night a practical list-building exercise rather than a one-off event. Clubs could move quickly on available draftees instead of waiting for replacement signings later in the pre-season window.

Pre-Season List Building

This new Telstra AFLW Pre-Season Draft replaces the injury replacement signings that commonly appeared before pre-season. In earlier years, those spots were often filled by 19-year-olds overlooked in the draft or top-rated state league players, but this format gave clubs a formal draft route instead.

For players such as Dineen, Quigley and Clifton, the night turned a missed call in the 2025 draft into a list spot before training ramps up. For clubs, the first 11 selections set the board before May 11 arrives.