Daisy Pearce has run her eye over the AFLW expansion teams, with the season set to kick off this Thursday night.
Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney are the four new sides in the competition, with all 18 AFL teams now represented.
They all took different strategies in building their lists, with Essendon and Port Adelaide going after ready-made talent, while Sydney has taken the long road, putting a young list together.
Hawthorn meanwhile missed out on the top names when putting their list together and have also gone down a draft heavy approach.
Pearce believes Essendon could immediately push for finals this season.
“I think there’s been a couple of different models in the ways they’ve gone about it,” the Melbourne captain told SEN’s Whateley.
“Essendon have probably been the ones that have gone after existing talent and been able to land a couple of really big recruits like Maddy Prespakis and Georgia Gee.
“They’ve been able to flush out players from all around the country like Steph Cain, Bonnie Toogood’s played some great footy at the Bulldogs, Sophie Van De Heuvel who is a young player from Geelong.
“They’ve been able to piece together this pretty talented list and I think they’ll be pretty competitive.
“And with the way that expansion has kind of eaten into the middle-tier teams from last year and I think Essendon could be competitive enough to get into finals if they can stay healthy.”
Pearce sees Port Adelaide being equally competitive in year one.
“Port Adelaide is similar. They’ve famously been able to get Erin Phillips across and a couple of the Crows girls and a couple of players from other states as well – a few of the Gold Coast girls ended up at Port Adelaide, they’ll be pretty strong,” she said.
The veteran also gave her thoughts on the Swans and Hawks.
“On the flip side to that, Hawthorn and Sydney seem to have targeted young talent through the draft, so may take a bit more time,” Pearce said.
“Having worked in the AFL Academy with the under 18s that have been drafted to those clubs, it won’t take long until they’re competitive as well.
“So it’s going to be interesting to see those two styles and the expansion teams and where that lands them.”
Essendon and Hawthorn will face off in Round 1 at Marvel Stadium.
Sydney hosts St Kilda at North Sydney Oval, while Port Adelaide takes on West Coast in Perth.
The Swans and Hawks have been looked after by the AFL, fixtured mostly to face lower ranked sides across their inaugural seasons.