TASMANIAN Jasmyn Thompson did not think that 18 months ago she would be in with a shot to be drafted to an AFL Women’s club. Having just switched out basketball to try Aussie rules with Ulverstone, the elite athlete went from local footy to the elite junior level in the space of a year.

“I only started playing football last year, I came off 12 years of basketball before deciding to have a go at footy last year,” Thompson said. “Had a really good year for Ulverstone and then got picked up by the Devils.

“Did the whole preseason and then started off really well this year. Got to to play in a VFL game for North Melbourne, and then got picked for Allies and got to play all three games which was awesome, a great experience. Then found out I was coming to the combine.”

Thompson is one of the best natural athletes in the draft, with elite endurance – she finished third in the 2km time trial nationally recording a time of seven minutes and 23 seconds – as well as the top third of testers for the 20m sprint. When she first received the Draft Combine invite she was over the moon.

“I was very happy because my biggest attribute is my athletic profile, my running,” she said speaking at the Draft Combine. “I think today is a really good opportunity to show my strengths.”

Rating her tackling pressure as one of her key strengths along with her speed-endurance mix, Thompson is looking to develop more of her fundamentals and footy IQ.

“Improving my awareness around the ground so if I’m playing through the mid I know when to go and when not to go,” Thompson said.

It should not come as a surprise that the talented athlete is still developing parts of her game on the fly, as even by her own words “it’s all happened really fast”.

“Obviously only starting last year and this year being my first year of Coates League and Devils,” Thompson said. “It was a very big step up from Ulverstone, but I’ve loved the challenge and then I feel like I’ve settled into the team really well. Then I really liked the next step challenge of playing Allies.”

Thompson follows the Western Bulldogs men’s and Brisbane Lions women’s at the elite level, with the latter basking in premiership glory from the weekend. Though there’s no story behind the Tasmanian picking the far Queensland side, Thompson said she just enjoyed watching them and could relate to their star Irish winger.

“I just really like the Brisbane girls because there’s a lot of runners in there like Orla O’Dwyer,” Thompson said. “I really base my game off her she’s a very good runner and her 2km was very good.”

Nominating nationally to “give (herself) the best chance”, Thompson said the overall experience of making the Draft Combine and chatting to AFLW clubs was “exciting”.

“It’s made it very surreal knowing that at the end of the year i could be moving away going to some club, but I’m very excited to see where it can take me,” she said.