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After a long wait, it’s the time you’ve all been waiting for: AFLW season is finally here! Our favourite girls in brown and gold are back to play the best game in the world.
Topping the headlines for our fifth AFLW season is saying goodbye to Frankston and hello to KCC as our new home ground. We will host our first home game at our incredible new KCC in Round 4 against Adelaide.
While 2025 ended on a disappointing note with another straight-sets finals exit and an injury-ravaged team, the 2026 AFLW season is upon us at last. Captain Emily Bates and vice-captain Eliza West are back to lead our team to greater things and new challenges this season.
If the sell-out marquee Australia v Ireland game recently proved anything, it’s that the AFLW is only getting better and better each year. The skills improve and the stakes get higher. The rivalries get stronger and the celebrations get bigger.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of AFLW season 2026.
Tilly Lucas-Rodd – traded to GWS
Sophie Butterworth – traded to St Kilda
Nat Exon – delisted
Kristy Stratton – delisted
Ainslie Kemp – delisted
Aileen Gilroy – retired
Players who are unavailable for the entire season due to long-term injuries.
Emily Everist – ACL
Matilda Van Berkel – foot (signed as a replacement player after Everist’s ACL injury, before unfortunately suffering an injury herself)
Jacq Dupuy: The 32-year-old, 181cm key forward arrives from Gold Coast as some much-needed support up forward for Áine McDonagh. She debuted in 2022 Season 6 and has played 49 games.
Niamh Martin: Martin represented Ireland in the historic Australia v Ireland clash recently, having previously played 16 games for North Melbourne across the 2023 and 2024 seasons, including three finals appearances. She took the 2025 AFLW season off to return home to Ireland. She’s 24 years old, stands 174cm tall and joins our forward line.
Hannah Looney: With pick No. 51 in the draft, we selected Looney, who hails from the sport of camogie in Ireland. The 29-year-old, 173cm player will add further depth to our forward line.
Maya Dear: Our first-ever father-daughter selection, taken at pick No. 57. Maya is the daughter of the late Paul Dear and sister of AFL Hawk Calsher. Unfortunately, it may be a while before we see Maya’s debut, as she is currently on the injury list with a leg injury.
Mikaylah Antony: In addition to taking Cameron Nairn, Aidan Schubert and Matthew LeRay from the Central District Football Club in South Australia, we also selected Antony at pick No. 8 in the pre-season draft. A 19-year-old defender who is yet to debut, Antony was overlooked in the main draft, likely due to injury.
Poppy Stockwell: Signed as a replacement player following Gilroy’s retirement, the small forward played two AFLW games for Fremantle in 2025.
Annabelle Embelton: Signed as a replacement player following the injuries to Everist and then Van Berkel, the 179cm key defender is a familiar face from the Box Hill Hawks VFLW team, where she won Best Player in Finals in 2025. She is yet to debut in the AFLW.
Emily Bates and Eliza West return as captain and vice-captain of Hawthorn respectively. They are joined by a leadership group of returning players Áine McDonagh and Jas Fleming, and new leaders Tamara Smith and Lucy Wales.
We finished fourth on the ladder with a 9-3 win-loss record. My personal highlight was the come-from-behind win against Geelong on their home turf in Round 5.
While we fought hard during the 2025 season, unfortunately it ended in another straight-sets exit from finals. It was a different story to 2024, though. By the time finals rolled around, we were ravaged by injuries and barely holding on. We weren’t favourites to win either of our finals against eventual premiers North Melbourne or Carlton.
It was our fourth season in the competition. We are still a young club and we have a bright brown and gold future ahead of us.
The Hawks participated in four pre-season outings: three match simulations against the Western Bulldogs, St Kilda and Richmond, and one official practice match against the Sydney Swans at the SCG. We won all four outings.
In our official practice match, we beat the Swans 8.11 (59) to 5.4 (34). Best afield were Emily Bates (1 goal, 19 disposals and 6 tackles), Eliza West (23 disposals) and Kaitlyn Ashmore (2 goals and 16 disposals at 81% disposal efficiency).
McDonagh, Dupuy and Ashmore each kicked two goals, with singles to Bodey and Bates.
Of the new recruits, Jacq Dupuy looks great already in the forward line alongside McDonagh. Poppy Stockwell impressed with a game-high six marks.
I have some concerns about how we look defensively given the loss of Tilly Lucas-Rodd to GWS and Everist to an ACL injury, but it’s worth noting that other important defenders, Mackenzie Eardley and Tamara Smith, were missing from the hit-out against Sydney.
Irish players Áine McDonagh and Niamh Martin also represented Ireland in the historic Australia v Ireland match held at North Sydney Oval on Saturday, 1 August, with Australia defeating Ireland 13.13 (91) to 6.5 (41) in front of a sell-out crowd. McDonagh left the field after jarring her elbow during the game but returned and has not been named on our injury list since.
Like last year, the 2026 AFLW season will see Hawthorn play 12 games in 12 weeks across the home-and-away season.
Hawthorn will play Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, GWS, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs. We do not play Fremantle, Gold Coast, Richmond, St Kilda or Sydney.
We play six of last year’s top-eight teams (excluding ourselves and seventh-placed St Kilda).
Of our six home games, we play four at KCC, one at our home-away-from-home, Cazalys Stadium in Cairns, and one at Princes Park.
We will play at eight different venues and travel to Queensland (Round 6 v North Melbourne), South Australia (Round 2 v Port Adelaide), New South Wales (Round 10 v GWS) and Western Australia (Round 12 v West Coast).
We’re building some new history with Geelong in the W. For the fourth year in a row, we play them at Kardinia Park. We have never played them anywhere else.
Last year we were very reliant on Áine McDonagh up forward with 22 goals. It’s undeniable she had a great year, earning All-Australian selection and finishing only three goals behind the AFLW leading goalkicker. But further down the list, things were not very promising, with Greta Bodey coming in second (11 goals) and Laura Stone third (4 goals). Hopefully new recruits Jacq Dupuy and Niamh Martin will help us fix this.
It’s looking a bit grim down there. We lost former captain Tilly Lucas-Rodd in a trade to GWS, Everist to an ACL injury, Van Berkel to a foot injury and now Eardley to an Achilles injury. It’s certainly our biggest weakness heading into this season.
Jacq Dupuy will play her 50th game if selected for Round 1. Emily Bates is currently on 96 games and is due to play her 100th in Round 4 against Adelaide in our first-ever KCC home game. Similarly, Kaitlyn Ashmore is currently on 91 games and may play her 100th this year. Players yet to debut are Mikaylah Antony, Maya Dear, Annabelle Embelton and Hannah Looney.
All-round superstar Lucy Wales has never kicked an AFLW goal. She was threatening during the match simulations. Will she repeat her performance during the home-and-away season?
Hannah Looney – foot – 1-2 weeks
Maya Dear – leg – 1-3 weeks
Mackenzie Eardley – Achilles – 2-4 weeks
Elli Symonds – foot – 4-6 weeks
Grace Baba – ankle – TBC
With a list size of only 30 players and a home-and-away season of only 12 games, injury lists in the AFLW can be devastating. For me, the biggest concern here is Mackenzie Eardley. The young defender is one of our most important and versatile players. We lose a lot of talent every week she’s out of the team.
For Round 1, we are set to play last year’s preliminary finalists Melbourne on Thursday night at Princes Park.
Melbourne had a great 2025 season. They were perhaps North Melbourne’s biggest challengers during the Kangaroos’ undefeated campaign and pushed them all the way in that exciting preliminary final. They remain one of the top contenders to finally beat North this season.
In 2026, they are led by new coach Tom Wilson. Melbourne’s notable off-season movements include trading Eden Zanker to Fremantle and receiving Mia Austin in a trade from Carlton. They continue to be captained by the incredible Kate Hore, who looks set to have another great season after her showing in Australia v Ireland.
Newly listed Hawk Annabelle Embelton is confirmed to make her debut against the Demons.
I’m back reporting for my third season at Hawks Insiders as your AFLW Correspondent. Make sure to get your tickets to the Hawks Insiders Pre-Finals Live Event happening on Wednesday 26 August and come say hello, or catch me on the boundary at the W!
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