The GIANTS have announced their inaugural 37-player squad for the 2019 VFL Women’s season.

The squad, that will play five invitational games across four months, has been training together for the past month and features a number of current and former GIANTS AFL Women’s players.

18 of the GIANTS’ 22 players signed for the 2020 AFL Women’s season are part of the squad while former GIANTS Melissa Freckleton, Rebecca Privitelli, Pippa Smyth will also pull on orange and charcoal once again. 

Due to AFLW rules requiring squads to be reduced to 22 players ahead of this year's NAB AFLW Draft, recently delisted Delma Gisu, Tait Mackrill, Ebony O’Dea, Britt Perry, Renee Tomkins and Lisa Whiteley will play to strengthen their chances of being re-drafted.

The VFLW program also gives a number of emerging New South Wales and ACT players the opportunity to play against some of the best players in the country.

GIANTS VFLW Head Coach Roger Moten said the fixtures are significant for the club’s overall women’s program.

"The program aims to retain female talent in NSW/ACT by reducing the likelihood of AFLW and local players wishing to move interstate to play state league football,” he said.

“It also provides talent development opportunities for local players aspiring to play AFLW and improves the game knowledge of squad members which will filter back to local clubs.

“The finalised squad, including the addition of 21 of last season’s AFLW players, has come together very well with a genuine understanding of the opportunities that lay ahead.” 

Moten said the games give the GIANTS great opportunity to identify players that could join the AFLW team through the 2019 NAB AFLW Draft later this year.

“For many of the girls, this is the perfect stepping stone to gaining a spot on our AFLW list for 2020,” he said.

“We will experiment with player positions in a bid to identify new opportunities, yet the expectation will be to deliver strong on field performances with an eye on achieving positive results.” 

The GIANTS’ VFLW team will play its first game against Williamstown on Saturday, May 11 at 12:00pm at Williamstown’s Downer Oval. Click here to see full 2019 fixture.

GIANTS 2019 VFL Women's Squad