STRENGTHS:

+ Explosive speed
+ Defensive pressure
+ Contested work
+ Stoppage craft
+ Work rate
+ Strength

IMPROVEMENTS:

- Ground balls
- Polish

PROFILE:

Stubs is a player that throughout the 2023 Talent League season, just kept popping up. She had some ups and downs both within the season and games themselves, but the evident development and thus upside for the future, certainly put her hat in the ring for an AFLW Draft chance. The 18-year-old went from being a role player to a prominent midfielder at Eastern, where she showed Vic Metro selectors enough to pick her for the national championships.

After a quiet Round 3 - Eastern's first game of the season - Stubs had a fairly consistent year, picking up 10 or more disposals in all bar one of her 13 other matches. Not a massive accumulator, Stubs does enough to get her hands on the ball, and most importantly has an influence. She is a player that loves to drive the ball forward, be it off half-back - where she started - or through the middle.

Though Stubs did start off the half-back flank, she gradually forced her way into the midfield and became a key component in there, allowing others to test out their own versatility at the same time in other roles. From an athletic standpoint, Stubs is explosive and has a knack of escaping would-be tacklers either in a straight line, or with a slick sidestep.

Even if she does get tackled, Stubs' consistency with standing up in a tackle and getting the ball away via hand is impressive. She is quite often a first possession winner off ruck taps, and her stoppage craft itself really came on as the season went along. Though learning on the fly, by the end of the season, Stubs was able to run into the right spots and find those gaps to utilise her explosive speed.

With ball-in-hand, Stubs is okay without being outstanding. She can deliver the ball well by hand, and when going forward in transition, puts the ball to the right spots. Though still having the tendency to blaze away and get boot to ball at times, it is more about tidying up with some polish more than anything.

The main knock on Stubs' game is her ground balls. It is an area that she herself identified as an area to improve on. Over time, by improving her clean hands at ground level, it will enable her to win a lot more of the ball and thus increase her impact on games.

When she can win the ball off hands or via a teammate's disposal, she is off to the races with her speed and able to set up scoring plays. When picking it up off the deck, her slight delay can be enough to be tackled by the opposition and they restrict her from getting away. A clean pickup gives the best chance of getting clear earlier.

Aside from that, Stubs has a really balanced all-round game of offensive and defensive traits. Though her offensive traits are evident from the above strengths, she also has plenty of defensive prowess as well, laying some fierce tackles. Her contest-to-contest work is also impressive, and reveals a high work rate, which is important for her role.

As a whole, Stubs has come on in leaps and bounds this year, and while she has those areas to tidy up, continued to keep her name in the draft conversation. Her blistering 3.12-second 20m sprint speaks to her explosive speed, and that element is not the only weapon in her arsenal.