IT HAS come to the close of another year, and as families and friends enjoy the holiday and festive seasons, Rookie Me Central prepares to close the door on 2025 and look ahead to an even bigger and better 2026 season.

We thank all those people who have taken the time to consume our content be it via the website, our social media channels or YouTube, in our best year on record. While there will still be content coming out over the next week or so, we encourage anyone interested in keeping up with basketball news in particular to check out our Rookie Me Central Basketball site which is going to provide all the latest in from the NBL and WNBL competitions.

As for Aussie rules football, January will mark the start of a big 2026 season, where the men’s and women’s draft crops promise to provide hope and excitement amongst AFL and AFLW Draft fans. In 2025, we had highlights for more than 200 prospects, while our AFL and AFLW Draft Guides had more readers than ever before.

Over the summer, you will see our attention turn to the next draft crop, where will we provide some early highlights as well as profiles on the players you need to remember for next November and December. When February and March come around, our feature pieces will begin rolling out as we chat to the next draft hopefuls across the country.

Then the action all starts and we’ll be there to cover it from around the nation. So strap in, because 2026 is set to be huge.