BACK for another year, Rookie Me Central’s 24 to Watch in 2024 returns and this time around, the focus is on underage players, being those who are yet to have an AFLW Draft chance. For the list of 2024, it will range between players who are predominantly 2006 (top-age) and 2007-born talents likely to take the SANFL Women’s by storm or set themselves up for the future.

At the top of the list of player to watch for the 2024 SANFL Women’s season, it is none other than reigning South Australian AFLW Under 18 Championships MVP, India Rasheed. The Sturt young gun overcame a delayed preseason to step up for the Double Blues, then dominate her last two national carnival games to collect the honour for the star-studded unbeaten Croweaters.

INDIA RASHEED PROFILE

DOB: 29/11/2006
Height: 174cm
Position: Tall Forward/Midfielder
Club: Sturt

SUMMARY

Rasheed ticks so many boxes when it comes to profile, it is difficult to even know where to begin. Usually her kicking is a great start, with the left footer boasting an elite kick that is as good as anyone’s going around. Able to deliver it long and hit difficult targets inside 50, Rasheed is ultra-damaging with ball-in-hand.

Though she is keen to work on her contested marking, Rasheed’s aerial ability would be the envy of most, averaging 3.9 marks at SANFL Women’s level, and 4.3 marks at the AFLW Under 18 Championships. She brings the heat at ground level too, with 4.6 and 6.3 tackles in those competitions respectively. Then there is her goal sense, kicking some ripping goals from just about anywhere. For most players, kicking the goals she does could be seen as a ‘fluke’ but for Rasheed, she has done it so many times that it has just become second nature.

Rasheed is a player who is driven and is not easily impressed by her own work. She constantly strives to be better, and her performance at the national carnival showed that. Disappointed with her first game which saw her be uncharacteristically inaccurate on goal against the Sandgropers, Rasheed stepped up in her final two matches to essentially secure her state’s MVP, kicking the four goals, but averaging more than 20 touches per game in the process.

The Sturt top-ager is set to play both midfield and in attack, as her ability to glide out of stoppages and get the ball into goal-scoring positions is a gift, and when inside 50, is a marking target, as well as someone who can crumb and swoop in to score. Given her size and attributes, Rasheed is such an exciting natural footballer who is also athletic, ticking plenty of boxes across the board.

SANFLW 24 TO WATCH IN 2024:

>> #2 Georgia McKee (Central District)
>> #3 Charlotte Riggs (Central District)
>> #4 Jasmine Evans (Central District)
>> #5 Poppy Scholz (Glenelg)
>> #6 Jemma Charity (North Adelaide)
>> #7 Lucy Boyd (West Adelaide)
>> #8 Violet Patterson (Glenelg)
>> #9 Sophie Eaton (Central District)
>> #10 Monique Bessen (Sturt)
>> Ruby Ballard (West Adelaide)
>> Shae Archbold (South Adelaide)
>> Asha Dufour (West Adelaide)
>> Coby Morgan (Norwood)
>> Esther Schirmer (South Adelaide)
>> Emma Kilpatrick (West Adelaide)
>> Lily Baxter (South Adelaide)
>> Grace Martin (Woodville-West Torrens)
>> Laela Ebert (North Adelaide)
>> Steph Tredwell (West Adelaide)
>> Matilda Wilmore (Glenelg)
>> Charli Hazelhurst (Norwood)
>> Chloe Tonkin (West Adelaide)
>> Imogen Trengove (Woodville-West Torrens)