GEELONG AFLW will put the final piece of the puzzle in place on Tuesday, selecting ten new Cats in the AFLW Draft to fill out the team’s inaugural list of 30 players.
The Cats have a strong draft hand with the first two selections at their disposal, and another three selections in the top 20.
The fledgling side is said to be highly likely to take some home-grown talent with its first selection, with reports suggesting Geelong Falcon Nina Morrison is firming to be taken number one overall.
Vic Country coach Sam Ahmet is full of praise for the young star.
"She's a good runner with strong endurance. She's hard at the contest and just a really good decision-maker. I'm a huge rap on Nina as a player," he told AFL.com.au.
"There's a lot of upside, which shows she's a good listener. She takes everything in. There'll be no issues at all when Nina goes to the next level, because they'll mould her into the way they need her to play and she'll take it in easily.
"She captained one of our under-18 games (Vic Country rotated its captaincy) and as soon as we announced it, you could see in her face that she really cherished it. She led beautifully. The players really respect her and enjoy her company," he said.
Cats operations manager Ben Waller says the regions players have selected to be drafted in will play a significant role in how the draft unfolds.
Players are currently able to select which regions they would like to be drafted in when nominating for the draft.
“There’s a number of talented players based in Melbourne that we’ll be unable to draft because they’ve nominated metropolitan Melbourne,” he told K rock.
“We understand that. It was part of the whole process with us getting a Geelong option that there was going to be that metro Melbourne option as well.
“But we know there are some other players that have nominated all of Victoria who we will be happy to bring to the football club.”
The draft will take place at Marvel Stadium and can be live-streamed on the @aflwomens Facebook from 11.45am as 10 AFLW teams make up to 70 selections.
The Cats will make selections with picks 1, 2, 7, 14, 20, 24, 35, 47, 57 and 62.
