Many young WA footy prospects are looking to make their way into AFLW at the draft on Monday, December 15.

Sports Breakfast spoke to former Dockers ALFW coach and now Female Talent Programs and Coaching Specialist, Trent Cooper, to gather his insight on some of the girls likely to go. 

WA has already had a Rising Star last year in Zippy Fish, hailing out of East Fremantle in the WAFLW and playing a stellar season at the Sydney Swans. 

Cooper believes we have another potential star within this year’s draft pool from WA, bringing up promising names such as Olivia Wolmarans who is expected to be the number one draft pick, and Evie Cowcher.

“I think this year we should have at least three first rounders, possibly five,” he said.

“It looks like first picks gonna be Olivia Wolmarans… she’s proven for a couple years that she can dominate games against older athletes.”

Wolmarans has had two great seasons with the Subiaco Lions, taking out their leading goalkicker title in 2025 and 2024, and displaying fantastic strength and marking skills throughout.

Evie Cowcher suffered a back injury earlier this year, with Cooper deciding to rest her for the better part of the 2025 WAFLW season, but she certainly hasn’t left the AFLW’s draft radar.

“If she wasn’t a top prospect she could’ve easily played, but she’s done enough to be a top 10 draft pick. She might slide down the order slightly, if she had played this year I was pretty confident she would’ve gone one or two in the draft, but someone’s probably gonna get a bargain,” he said.

“She’d be my pick for the Rising Star next year at this stage.”

A new pre-season draft has been introduced for AFLW, set to run in May, and will likely mean less WA girls get picked up in Monday’s upcoming draft.

“What we’re gonna see now is clubs in the bottom half of the ladder hold over picks and then go to that draft after the girls have had another six months to work out what they need and their program,” he said.

“Where there were quite a few likely to go, I’ve got a feeling now that there will be less. I still hope by the end of that pre season draft that we’ve had 10 picked up, it just means that some are gonna have to wait five months more than they initially thought.”

Other hopeful prospects out of WA include Olivia Crane, Carys D’addario and Mia Russo.

Both Crane and D’addario have overcome injury to make their way into this year’s draft, with Olivia suffering an ACL injury in the in last practice game before the WAFLW season started, while Carys has been overlooked in futures and by the national academy for various small injuries. 

Mia Russo has played good footy for West Perth this year in the midfield and Cooper is convinced she will be picked up in the first round. 

This year’s group is set to do WA proud in the draft and upcoming AFLW season beginning in August next year.

“They’ve overcome a lot of different challenges, but they’ve been really supportive of each other as well. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with this group for three years,” said Cooper.

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