Abbygail Bushby is an exciting, athletic talent out of Swan Districts who has improved rapidly over the past 12 months. Starting as a forward at the Swans, Bushby moved into the middle and lifted her numbers and impact up the ground. She has a nice balance of offensive and defensive traits, whilst still having areas to work on for the future.

Bushby’s athleticism is what really stands out, with the left-footer possessing a great balance of speed, agility and endurance that allows her to evade opponents, and also run them down. She does bring that defensive pressure each and every time she runs out on the field, and has offensive weapons as well. The balance of her defensive and offensive mindset allows her to be switched on at all times.

One aspect of the midfielder-forward’s game that needs to be sharpened up is her disposal consistency. At times she can nail pinpoint passes with ease, and then others spray them out on the full. She has the capability of being a damaging ball-user (as a lot of left-footers are), but it is just a matter of building a set routine and adjusting under pressure.

Similarly, winning the ball at ground level is another area Bushby can improve on, with a lot of her touches often being second possession handball receives. This is not to say she cannot win a contested ball - in fact a lot of her touches are won in close and she uses her natural gifts to extract it - but the teenager admitted being cleaner at ground level was an area she hoped to build upon.

Bushby has the licence to be that second possession winner because of her fantastic burst out of a stoppage. When forward that can be incredibly damaging, because she has that extra step that can help her snap a goal out of nothing, or get goalside of her opponent earlier. There is a lot of upside with what Bushby presents as an AFLW Draft prospect. If she can tidy up her areas to improve upon, and find that perfect fit where she can develop as that dual midfielder-forward, she will be one who further builds an already exciting base.

Bushby is a talent who has come on in leaps and bounds the last 12 months and has a good foundation to build upon for an AFLW club in the future.