MELBOURNE has reclaimed Harriet Cordner as a free agent, after the club initially delisted her in the recent NAB AFL Women’s Trade Period.

Women’s football operations manager Debbie Lee said the club was delighted to add the 24-year-old back on its primary list for 2018. 

“We’re excited to have Harriet Cordner back,” she told melbournefc.com.au.

“She has only played a minimal amount of games – her first AFLW season was her first football season.

“We see some real upside in what she can do and she’s currently playing with VU Western Spurs as a key defender and also in the ruck.

“This is really a platform for Harriet to actually learn the game at VFL level and we think that will give her some better understanding of the game, coming into the next AFLW season.”

Lee couldn’t speak highly enough of the way Cordner handled her situation. 

“Harriet’s a fantastic character and she understood the reasoning behind it,” she said.

“We just wanted to be diligent in our list management and we shared what our thinking was at the time with her and where she fitted in the team.

“As a result and when the free agency period opened, we were able to approach her and re-sign her as an unrestricted free agent, which she was really happy about.”

Cordner, originally from a soccer background, was recruited by Melbourne in October last year as a category B rookie.

She made her AFLW debut in Melbourne’s first game against the Brisbane Lions at Casey Fields.

Cordner played all seven games in the AFLW inaugural season.

She is the granddaughter of Melbourne great, Don Cordner, who won the 1946 Brownlow Medal and played in two premierships with the red and blue.