SPECIALIST winger Frances Walsh is on the verge of achieving her AFLW Draft dream, but the Sydney Swans Academy member is never standing still. Though limited to doing only a little more than standing from a training point of view at the moment due to injury, Walsh has taken plenty out of her top-age season and intends to continue to learn everything she can to be the best player possible.

The Sydney University prospect missed the Students’ last two finals due to a stress reaction in her navicular. Speaking to Rookie Me Central at the AFLW National Draft Combine in a moonboot and crutches, Walsh said it was a tough finish to the year but she was relieved the injury had been caught early.

“It’s pretty early so we’re just trying to rule it out, don’t want to mess with the navicular,” she said. “Obviously was a bit hard to miss finals but it happens, it’s all part of it.”

Walsh put the injury down to “load” given her busy schedule from the Swans and Sydney Uni up to the Allies and even an MVP-winning performance with the All-Stars. The raft of teams the balanced outside ball user has represented can bring with it challenges, but also plenty of learnings.

“It’s been lots of fun, I love to get to know all the new people,” Walsh said. “Obviously it’s a bit challenging changing gamestyles sometimes but I’ve loved all the experiences and it went really well.”

While a lot of players often juggle between multiple roles and positions, Walsh has truly found a home on a wing, a role that she loves even though she is not opposed to trying out another gig.

“I love the wing role,” Walsh said. “I look up to one of my good friends (Swans injury replacement player) Emma Juneja and she’s a gun winger. “I look up to her a lot, so I spent a lot of time developing my game sense and everything.

“I’d love to trial other positions as well, I think I’m pretty versatile, but I think I’ve slotted nicely into the wing role this year.”

One of the more well-balanced players in terms of her draft profile, Walsh said her biggest improvement in season 2026 was understanding not everything had to be perfect, and that you could take the silver lining’s from even the situations that did not on the surface appear to be as one would want it to be.

“Obviously there’s going to be mistakes along the way and not everything is going to be linear, there’s going to be challenges, but just taking it head on and continuing on,” she said.

Sydney Swans Academy have a host of prospects at the AFLW Draft Combines, with no less than four – including Walsh – to land inside the top 25 or so picks. It means the red and white are likely to have to get busy at the trade table to obtain enough draft capital to select them all – as well as a few more later on – but for Walsh, the dream is the AFLW rather than just one side.

“Yeah it (going to another side) does weigh a bit into my thinking, but it’s all out of my control and at the end of the day I’d just love to be on a list whoever that is with,” Walsh said. “I’m so proud of our group. “We’ve all worked really hard and I’m so happy we’ve put ourselves in such good positions to hopefully get onto a list at the end of the year.”

Looking ahead to the preseason, Walsh said she was “super excited” to get to know her new teammates and coaches should she achieve her dream, and one of the first things she would do is “make those meaningful relationships” to acclimatise to the club. As for what she looked to improve on, it all comes back to learning.

“I think it just comes back to taking everything as a learning,” Walsh said. “I know coming into the W space I’m going to be a bit behind in some things, but just keeping on showing up and taking on every opportunity as they come.”

DRAFT FEATURES:

New South Wales: Evie Bowie
Queensland: Zoe Petrides, Summer Browning
South Australia: Emily Mableson
Vic Country: Greea McKeegan, Lily Milner
Vic Metro: Bailee Martin, Tayla Olivieri, Maddison Meagher, Brylee Anderson
Western Australia: Lexi Strachan