WELL-SPOKEN Eastern Ranges skipper Emily Rankin is not just a player who is not just driving her legs on-field, but club culture off it. Taking a holistic approach to the game, the Vic Metro representative is a player who coaches and teammates can rely on to always make the right choice and both her on-field and off-field work at the Ranges was evident in 2026.

“I love leading, I feel like it’s one of my personal assets and I love being that person that people can trust and people can go to and is approachable,” Rankin told Rookie Me Central at the National Draft Combine.

“I just love the fact that you can see the club and players from a different point of view and the overview of the culture and you can make a real difference with how that’s lead and how to be a part of it.”

Coming off a premiership as a bottom-ager, Rankin’s Ranges bowed out at the hands of the team that they defeated 12 months prior in a preliminary final – Dandenong Stingrays – while finishing the national carnival with a 2-2 record for Vic Metro. Still, the top-ager is pleased with her and the team’s year.

“I was really proud of how the season went,” Rankin said. “Obviously we lost a lot of coaches early in the season at Eastern Ranges but I feel like that built a lot of resilience throughout the team and made us become closer together.

“Eastern’s like a second home for me, it’s like a family. I’m so happy how we ended up. “Metro was really fun, unfortunately we couldn’t win the carnival but the memories and my teammates that I had will last forever.”

Indeed, driving her legs was one of Rankin’s goals given she consistently runs a 20-metre sprint that is either side of 3.2 seconds.

“I feel like I throughout the season at the start it was pretty average, but throughout the back end of the season I got stronger and I improved, but obviously I still have a long way to go with that.

“What I want to improve on going forward is probably showing my speed. I feel like I have it, but I feel like I haven’t really been able to display it in games, so I want to be able to show my speed more throughout quarters.”

The talented midfielder got to spend more time forward, particularly in the second half of Eastern’s season, where the captain booted seven goals, while maintaining a season disposal average of 25.3 as well as 5.2 clearances.

“I loved it (playing forward),” Rankin said. “I’m used to playing mid the whole time so I feel like forward was a great opportunity to show my versatility and different positions and also play with different people as well, it was really fun.”

Going forward, if as expected Rankin hears her named called out in December’s draft, she anticipates it’s a role she will start with at the elite level and eventually work into the midfield over time.

“Obviously it’s quite hard to get into the midfield as soon as you get drafted to an AFLW club so I feel like playing through forward and just building my confidence and showing my skills at that level and getting used to it will really help me throughout my AFLW journey,” she said.

Rankin has certainly had her fair share of fans amongst the AFLW clubs, chatting to plenty of “different” sides all of whom have varying ways of how they approach each of the draft prospects and what they value at the respective clubs.

“Some of them have a more family based approach getting to know you and some are really into their footy, so you don’t really know what to expect,” Rankin said. “But it’s been such a great experience and I think it’s also built me as a person with answering questions off the cuff and just being authentic as well.”

As for what her first focus is once she hits the track in preseason, Rankin said it was about connecting off-field with the playing group in order to trust each other on-field.

“I just want to show them not so much the footy side, but just me as a person,” she said. “I love chatting and connecting with people and just show that I’m friendly and I want to earn their respect and trust as well.”

DRAFT FEATURES:

New South Wales: Evie Bowie, Frances Walsh, Majella Day, Morgan Stevens
Queensland: Zoe Petrides, Summer Browning
South Australia: Emily Mableson, Emma Charlton, Ruby Lynch
Vic Country: Greea McKeegan, Lily Milner, Eliza Roche, Lacey Nihill
Vic Metro: Bailee Martin, Tayla Olivieri, Maddison Meagher, Brylee Anderson, Grace McIntyre, Alli Allen
Western Australia: Lexi Strachan