{"id":223974,"date":"2026-10-20T10:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/?p=223974"},"modified":"2026-10-20T10:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:07:26","slug":"family-focused-tidemann-ready-for-next-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2026\/10\/20\/family-focused-tidemann-ready-for-next-step\/","title":{"rendered":"Family-focused Tidemann ready for next step"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FAMILY is a big thing for AFLW Draft prospect and Sydney Swans Academy member Charlotte Tidemann<\/a>. Her family is entrenched in North Shore Bombers folklore with her father coaching her at the club and her brother playing in the men’s side, all of whom were able to taste premiership success the past two seasons. Tidemann is now ready to make that transition into the AFLW, but if there was one thing that makes it bittersweet, it would be leaving the “family” club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“”I love North Shore. It feels like family and home to me,” Tidemann said. “It’s different going from a high-performance environment where everyone is looking at you and watching your every move to going home and everyone loving you back. “It’s been a really good shift, I enjoyed the shift and I’ll definitely miss it if I was to be drafted.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tidemann finished the year off with the Bombers despite her feet frustrating her. Speaking at the National Draft Combine, Tidemann was recovering from plantar faciitis. She admitted she had been battling it throughout the season, but it wasn’t until the end of the year she wanted to find out exactly what was giving her “cramps” every so often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I finished national champs, I’d had a few tweaks during the nationals and my Swans year, but nothing too major,” Tidemann said. “It’s maybe once every four to six weeks I’d get a foot cramp but nothing major. “Left national champs, started training combine and then just overloaded a bit coming back to club footy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missing three to four weeks of North Shore’s last month and a half, Tidemann knew the time was running out to play in another potential Bombers premiership as well as test at the upcoming National Draft Combine. While in a perfect world she would have done both, she was presented with a choice, one or the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was trying my best to get back for the grand final and the combine,” Tidemann said. “It came down to the decision between the two and the grand final for me was really important, it was family so I thought that came first over an individual performance. “Decided to play that and see how I’d pull up and try and do the 1.6 but feet didn’t handle too well so just decided to try and get it better.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tidemann is pretty keen to get back out on teh track to build her fitness back up in order to deal with the rigours of AFLW football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everyone’s got some technically learnings throughout the game that’s hard to do in the off-season, but if you can improve your fitness to make sure you don’t get hurt as much it will help you in the long run,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back at her junior career as a whole, Tidemann said she was pleased with how after a “breakout” bottom-age season, she did not shy away from the added pressure in 2026 and managed to continue on that upwards trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If I could sum it (2026) up, it would be a pretty exciting year,” Tidemann said. “I was pretty happy, pretty consistent would be my biggest describing word of it. “It was a bit difficult having a breakout season as an underager and then to back it up as an top-ager too and trying to work towards the top of the board was difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But definitely tried to do as much as possible, be consistent in my performance, focused less on the outcome and more on the process and what I was doing to try and play well and train well and make a good impression.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key member of the Allies, Tidemann said the added time spent between the New South Wales, Northern Territory and Tasmanian prospects showed out on the field with the combined side finishing second overall in the national carnivla, a best-ever result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I definitely did (think it helped),” she said. “Our trial game this year I don’t know if it was the group specifically or the overall experience, but we clicked within the first five minutes of training, and then to go out and play really for us together quite quickly under a bit more pressure when it mattered. I definitely would encourage that trial match.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tidemann is one of six Swans Academy members at the National Draft Combine who are in the draft frame, as well as more both at the State Draft Combine and in the mix. She said while the group did not let the prospect of being split up due to list spots worry them, they knew it would be “pretty unrealistic” to expect Sydney to be able to select every single one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think we’re all pretty aware where we’ll stand and that there’s a few of us and obviously it’s pretty unrealistic that the Swans can take all of us as much as they want to,” Tidemann said. “As much as we all giggle and dream about on our planes and our chats that we’d all love to put on the red and whites together, we definitely do talk a bit about where everyone could end up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We try and keep it as much out of our minds as possible because it’s out of our control. “It’s exciting to see where we could all end up.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While technically a Swans supporter in the W, Tidemann conceded she is actually an Adelaide Crows fan in the men’s with both her parents initially coming from Adelaide. “A bit too young” to know what side she went for when the elite level league began, the now Swans fan said she was a huge Erin Phillips supporter so conceded it was “probably” the Crows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red and white through and through now in the women’s space, Tidemann has been working hard on her defensive game to match her offensive capabilities which have always been eye-catching thanks to a blend of speed and skill coming out of the backline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Being a midfielder and a forward since you were 10, then coming into your under-age 18s year being a defender is a different experience,” Tidemann said of 2025. “It was just continually trying to get up the ground as hard as possible, making an impact, but then making sure you can get back and locate my player was a big one for me. “As much as I had the license to be free and just run around and do as I want, you’ve also got to come back to your player.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Touted as a potential top 10 pick and first round lock, Tidemann said the first thing she would do in preseason when landing at an AFLW club was to just be a sponge off her more experienced teammates and show what you have to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think trust is a big one that you have to gain from your teammates especially when you’re a young player and some of them have been in there for 10 years,” Tidemann said. “It’s a very close knit group i can assume, so coming in I hope if I’m moving interstate and moving pretty quickly I want to get to know the girls as quickly as possible, or if it’s Sydney at home then it’s getting around the club quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I feel like it’s the small things, like the optional training sessions or going for a kick and a coffee in the morning, that’s the sort of thing that you gain trust with and become close with the girls.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DRAFT FEATURES:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New South Wales: <\/strong>Evie Bowie<\/a>, Frances Walsh<\/a>, Majella Day<\/a>, Morgan Stevens<\/a>, Ashleigh Barlow<\/a>, Grace Tracey<\/a>
Queensland: <\/strong>Zoe Petrides<\/a>, Summer Browning<\/a>, Aiyana Pritchard<\/a>, Harlee McIlwain<\/a>
South Australia:<\/strong> Emily Mableson<\/a>, Emma Charlton<\/a>, Ruby Lynch<\/a>, Layla Vizgaudis<\/a>, Lucy Moore<\/a>
Vic Country: <\/strong>Greea McKeegan<\/a>, Lily Milner<\/a>, Eliza Roche<\/a>, Lacey Nihill<\/a>, Sophie White<\/a>
Vic Metro: <\/strong>Bailee Martin<\/a>, Tayla Olivieri<\/a>, Maddison Meagher<\/a>, Brylee Anderson<\/a>, Grace McIntyre<\/a>, Alli Allen<\/a>, Kiara Boyd<\/a>, Isabella Mazzei<\/a>
Western Australia:<\/strong> Lexi Strachan<\/a>, Mia Carlshausen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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