MELBOURNE has named six new players for its opening AFLW round clash against GWS Giants at Casey Fields on Saturday, 5.05pm.
Boom recruit Bianca Jakobsson, former Giant Ashleigh Guest and draftee Maddy Guerin will all play their first AFLW game with Melbourne.
As will ex-basketballers Tegan Cunningham and Kate Hore, plus former netballer Erin Hoare.
For Jakobsson, it will be her eighth AFLW game, after she played all seven home and away matches with Carlton in the inaugural season last year.
Guest, who played with Melbourne during the exhibition series, played every AFLW match with the Giants in 2017.
Guerin was drafted from the Northern Knights at No.14 in last year’s NAB AFL Draft.
Former WNBL player Cunningham, who kicked three goals in Melbourne’s practice match against Collingwood at Olympic Park Oval on January 19, has made an impression transition to the game.
Ex-SEABL player Hore and 2014 Melbourne Vixens championship player Hoare will also don the red and blue for the first time.
Defender Meg Downie is back in the team, after suffering a hamstring injury in round two last year, which ended her AFLW season.
But Melbourne duo Ainslie Kemp (knee) and Sarah Lampard (hamstring) will miss through injury.
Brooke Patterson, Claudia Whitfort and Eden Zanker were not selected and Maddie Shevlin and Anna Teague are on the club’s rookie list.
Superstar Daisy Pearce will again skipper Melbourne in 2018.
Melbourne AFLW team: round one
B: Laura Duryea, Meg Downie, Bianca Jakobsson
HB: Katherine Smith, Jasmine Grierson, Catherine Phillips
C: Elise O’Dea
HF: Richelle Cranston, Lily Mithen, Shelley Scott
F: Tegan Cunningham, Daisy Pearce, Kate Hore
Foll: Erin Hoare, Karen Paxman, Melissa Hickey
I/C: Ashleigh Guest, Lauren Pearce, Maddy Guerin, Emma Humphries, Aliesha Newman
Emg: Harriet Cordner, Alyssa Mifsud
New: Jakobsson (Carlton), Cunningham (basketball), Guerin (Fitzroy/Northern Knights), Guest (GWS Giants), Hoare (Geelong), Hore (St Kilda Sharks)
Not playing: Ainslie Kemp, Sarah Lampard, Brooke Patterson, Maddie Shevlin, Anna Teague, Claudia Whitfort, Eden Zanker
