IN a new exciting collaborative countdown, Rookie Me Central has teamed up with other independent media organisations to bring a 2022 AFL Women’s Top 50 Countdown. Every weekday from now until December 17, a new player will be named starting from 50th down to 1st, stemming from a combined eight Top 50 submissions. Among those who submitted Top 50s include Siren Sport‘s Gemma Bastiani, Women’s Australian Rules Football (WARF) Radio‘s Peter Holden, and a combined Outer Sanctum team’s Top 50.

Today we continue our countdown with number 16, Adelaide Women’s Chelsea Randall.

Chelsea Randall

Adelaide, NT Thunder VFLW

League/s: AFLW, Vflw

Season/s: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, S7, 2023, 2024

• Games [tot]: 61

• Goals [tot]: 22

• Disposals [avg]: 14.7

• Marks [avg]: 3.2

• Tackles [avg]: 3.6

• Cont. Poss: 7.4

• Uncont. Poss: 5.6

• Hitouts: 0.1

• Clearances: 1.4

• Inside 50s: 2

• Rebound 50s: 1.6

As one of Adelaide’s inaugural marquee signings, Randall has been one of the faces of and one of the stars of the AFLW for a long time.

As captain of the Crows since season one, Randall has a reputation as a tough nut defender and is the AFLW’s very own ‘Captain Courageous’.

She is notoriously crashing into packs and putting her body on the line. This got noticed by her peers, as she won the 2021 AFLPA Most Courageous Award.

Although examples of her courage are littered throughout her career, one particular example that comes to mind is 2021 Preliminary Final, where she got knocked out in a head clash with Melbourne young gun Eliza McNamara.

This injury saw her miss Adelaide’s 2021 Grand Final defeat, so on top of having missed the entirety of 2020 with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, she will be looking to come back in 2022 stronger and hungrier than ever before.

Although a defender, Randall can also work her way forward and kick goals, so much so that she kicked six of them in 2021 alone.

In terms of this countdown, Randall was an almost unanimous choice among our selectors. All bar one person included her in their top 50, with Randall finishing in a wide variety of places among everyone’s lists. Some ranked her as high as 9th, while others had her as low as 43rd.

ROOKIE ME CENTRAL’S 2022 AFL WOMEN’S TOP 50

#50 Ash Brazill (Collingwood) | ARTICLE
#49 Tayla Harris (Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#48 Courtney Hodder (Brisbane) | ARTICLE
#47 Eden Zanker (Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#46 Kirsty Lamb (Western Bulldogs) | ARTICLE
#45 Tyanna Smith (St Kilda) | ARTICLE
#44 Breanna Koenen (Brisbane) | ARTICLE
#43 Dana Hooker (West Coast) | ARTICLE
#42 Georgie Prespakis (Geelong) | ARTICLE
#41 Breann Moody (Carlton) | ARTICLE
#40 Hayley Miller (Fremantle) | ARTICLE
#39 Emma King (North Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#38 Dakota Davidson (Brisbane) | ARTICLE
#37 Meghan McDonald (Geelong) | ARTICLE
#36 Stacey Livingstone (Collingwood) | ARTICLE
#35 Daisy Pearce (Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#34 Rebecca Beeson (GWS) | ARTICLE
#33 Sarah Allan (Adelaide) | ARTICLE
#32 Kerryn Harrington (Carlton) | ARTICLE
#31 Janelle Cuthbertson (Fremantle) | ARTICLE
#30 Emily Bates (Brisbane) | ARTICLE
#29 Katie Brennan (Richmond) | ARTICLE
#28 Gemma Houghton (Fremantle) | ARTICLE
#27 Kate Hore (Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#26 Ellie McKenzie (Richmond) | ARTICLE
#25 Ruby Schleicher (Collingwood) | ARTICLE
#24 Ash Riddell (North Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#23 Ally Anderson (Brisbane) | ARTICLE
#22 Brittany Bonnici (Collingwood) | ARTICLE
#21 Darcy Vescio (Carlton) | ARTICLE
#20 Lauren Pearce (Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#19 Jaimee Lambert (Collingwood) | ARTICLE
#18 Isabel Huntington (Western Bulldogs) | ARTICLE
#17 Tyla Hanks (Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#16 Chelsea Randall (Adelaide)

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