MELBOURNE women’s coach Mick Stinear provides an update on all 27 players in the lead-up to the inaugural AFL Women’s competition. Be sure to check back each day over the festive season and new year, as we present the 2017 squad …

Mia-Rae Clifford
Mia is the ultimate team player. She’s really setting the standards from a defence point-of-view at training. She loves pulling the yellow bib on and making life hard for her teammates at training. Mia is a really good competitor and tackling is one of her strengths. She’ll do whatever it takes for the team, so I see her playing a vital role in the backline for us at this stage.

Harriet Cordner (rookie)
Harriet’s been fantastic. For someone who hasn’t had a lot of footy experience, she’s put in a lot of hours to try and get herself up to speed. She’s really worked on her kicking. As a centre back from soccer, she gets team defence. She’s already communicating on the training track and understands our defensive concepts. Harriet’s a really exciting prospect – we’re still not sure what her best position will be, but it might be in defence. There is plenty of upside for Harriet and we’re really happy with how she’s progressing.

Richelle Cranston
‘Rocky’ was crook for the first week and a half of pre-season, so it wasn’t the ideal start for her, but she’s started to show some really good signs. She’s a tireless worker and is pretty ferocious with her attack on the footy. We see her as being a strong, marking forward and she’s able to put relentless pressure on the ball in our forward line as well. She also has the potential to pinch-hit through the midfield as a bigger body.