WESTERN Australia has announced its Girls Summer Squad talent program for the upcoming off-season with some of the brightest AFLW Draft prospects for the 2026-27 drafts. The squad of 38 players – which includes bottom-age All-Australian Cara Dziegielewski – features a league-high nine West Perth players, two more than Peel Thunder, while East Fremantle has five.

Five of the six remaining sides – Claremont, Perth, South Fremantle, Subiaco and Swan Districts – all have three players in the squad, while East Perth has two. The top prospects along with Dziegielewski include Falcons teammate Lexi Strachan, Under 16s All-Australian India Bonadeo, and West Australian representatives from this year, Charli Bassett, Avuya Nomlatyu, Heidi Ireland, Mia Carlshausen, Mel Grage and South Fremantle’s Marie Polimeno.

“It is a slightly bigger squad this year and we have about 50 per cent of bottom agers in the group as we think a lot of those players can develop into AFLW prospects in the future,” Trent Cooper, Manager Female Talent Programs and Coaching Specialist at WA Football said.

“We’d like to work with them for a couple of years because we believe some of them aren’t physically mature at the moment, but we see great potential in that younger cohort.”

There is an even greater depth at bottom-age level, which has lead to the predominant 2009-born squad.

“We’re probably just getting a bit more depth of talent coming through and with some quality bottom agers it gives them a chance to train alongside better players over summer and fast track their development for either 2026 or 2027,” Cooper said.

“We’re looking forward to seeing how this group progresses over the summer as they look to give themselves the best opportunity to get drafted over the next couple of years.”

The summer squad begins its program at the beginning of December.