QUALITY people underpinned the decision-making in last night’s 2020 NAB AFL Women’s Draft.

With limited football to reference following an abridged NAB League season, the focus on personality through the interview stage became all the more important in Carlton’s selection of Mimi Hill, Daisy Walker and Winnie Laing.

GM of Women’s Football Ash Brown believed the Blues have significantly strengthened their list position ahead of the 2021 season.

“I feel like we’ve addressed some needs that we wanted to but also got some great talent through the door,” Brown said.

“Our list management team have done a great job in terms of bringing in three quality players but also three quality characters as well.

“We were blown away by each of their interviews and it’s probably why they’ve ended up coming to our football club.”

Carlton were able to secure two leaders in Hill and Laing at picks Nos.12 and 36, captaining their respective sides at the Oakleigh Chargers and Sandringham Dragons.

A latecomer to football after an impressive basketball background, Brown was surprised to see Walker still available at pick No.28.

“Mimi’s been captain of the Oakleigh Chargers for two seasons so she’s a real quality leader and quality person, which is one of our key criteria of who we wanted to bring into the football club,” Brown said.

“Daisy was obviously our second pick; we were actually surprised Daisy was still there with pick 20 in the Victorian [pool], so Brett Munro was pretty excited to call her name at that stage.

“Winnie is captain of the Sandringham Dragons as well, so we’ve been able to pick up two captains in our three picks which is something we were really keen to do — bringing in quality people.”

The first ever virtual draft went off without a hitch, with the three new Blues expected to come into the Club later this week to commence training.

“It was clearly a different night, a different feel to previous years but still a really exciting night in particular for the players when we got to have a chat to them and their families on Zoom,” he said.

“Clearly we would have loved to have met them face to face and shared that experience, but it’s still a great night for the football club and I just want to commend the work that our list management team has done.”