When West Coast’s recruiting team gathers in the next two weeks to ramp up its Draft preparations, the club’s AFLW co-captain Bella Lewis will have a seat at the table and a role in shaping the rebuilding AFL team’s future. Armed with informed opinions on the game’s best junior talent, the gun midfielder will join list manager Matt Clarke, national recruiting manager Duane Massey, and the broader scouting team to thrash out plans for the club’s prized early picks.
A star player and on-field leader on the weekends as the Eagles’ AFLW team mounts a finals charge, Lewis has also pursued an off-field role in footy this season as part of the club’s recruiting team. She has been watching hours of live matches, crunching tape, and interviewing draft prospects and their families. The 22-year-old has brought a unique perspective to the department and is treading new ground for an active AFLW player, with the Eagles thrilled with how the arrangement has worked since Lewis joined the recruiting team in May.
Breaking New Ground in Recruitment
“Following these boys throughout the year and getting to know them has been really great. I’m loving it so far,” Lewis told AFL.com.au this week. “Initially it was just learning and seeing what our recruiters look at, and then once I got the hang of that it was watching everything from colts, league, national champs and all those games.”
Lewis’s involvement in the recruiting process is not just a temporary engagement. She has been deeply involved, spending a day in the office during the week and attending games in person on weekends. Her role also includes analyzing the Eagles’ list compared to other AFL lists in terms of age, games experience, and draft versus trade selections.
“I’ve really enjoyed it, and the recruiting team have provided such a great space for me to learn and contribute as well,” she added.
From Player to Strategist
Lewis, who is also studying psychological behavioral science, approached the Eagles’ head of women’s football Michelle Cowan earlier this year about exploring an off-field role and building up her work experience. Her timing was impeccable, aligning with the opening of applications for the Women’s Coach Acceleration Program, launched in 2021 to fast-track the development of female coaches within men’s AFL programs.
The program has since expanded to include opportunities within football operations, list management, and recruiting, with successful applicants receiving formal mentoring and structured learning over a two-year period. “It’s about getting women into higher positions in men’s programs and having the experience to do that, like Daisy (Pearce) did for coaching when she went to Geelong,” Lewis said.
Her initiative has not gone unnoticed. West Coast head of football John Worsfold has been extremely supportive, and the program has allowed Lewis to gain a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to build a team, having already experienced West Coast’s AFLW build as a player after being recruited with pick No.3 in the 2020 National Draft.
Bridging the Gap Between AFLW and AFL
While the Eagles’ AFLW team has now emerged under Pearce as a young and exciting finals threat, the AFL team is coming off a one-win season and enters one of the most important Drafts in its history with the first two selections in the pool. Learning about this stage of a team’s development and how a list is built has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of Lewis’s experience in recruiting.
“I find great interest in where people think that success comes from and what they think is most important in the rebuilding stage we are in, which I’ve experienced in the women’s program,” she said. “I saw that from the culture side, the coaching side, and the strength and conditioning, whereas now I can see it from a different perspective and from behind the scenes with who they’re bringing into the team and how they’re doing it, which I really enjoy.”
The crossover Lewis has between the AFLW and AFL programs is an example of what West Coast, and many other clubs, are striving to build. The young midfielder is helping foster connections across departments through her recruiting role.
Looking Ahead to the Draft
National recruiting scout Todd Nisbett has seen the role Lewis plays as a “connector”, mentoring the midfielder through her time in the department and watching as she uses her confident and affable nature to bring different parts of the club together. “She’s happy to go to anyone and just pick their brain, and she’s got the respect from everyone that she can do that as well,” Nisbett said.
“I think she’s going to be pretty key to getting the programs even more aligned and a really important connector. That’s one of her strengths obviously as a co-captain and I think she can have a really big role in that.”
While recruiters will track players years out from their Draft, Lewis joined the recruiting team in the final six-month push before the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft, which will be held over two nights on November 19-20. Nisbett said she had impressed the team with her ability to learn the finer details about this year’s prospects quickly and then share her opinions when required in the recruiting team’s weekly video meetings.
“She knows it fully, and that’s probably the thing that I was impressed with most, just that confidence to back herself in,” Nisbett said. “No one really knows for sure how good these players are going to be, so you’ve got to say your piece, and she was really good at that from the start.”
Lewis faces a juggle over the next month as she attempts to lead the Eagles into an historic first AFLW finals campaign while navigating the final weeks of Draft preparation. If the Eagles’ season ends before the Draft, she will join the recruiting team in Melbourne as the club’s next group of draftees are welcomed. Otherwise, she will be involved in all meetings in the build-up and contribute remotely.
A full year in the role in 2026 will ideally see her traveling more to watch Draft prospects live while taking on some more challenging scouting jobs, but the immediate challenge of this year’s Draft is front of mind. “This is probably the calm before the storm I think, just because you’re kind of wrapping everything up in terms of where things sit in the draft order,” Lewis said.
“We’ve got a big get-together for a couple days in the next couple weeks where we’ll be thinking about everything, but I find it really exciting to be wrapped up in. Even just thinking about the boys that you get to follow over the course of the year. They’re about to pursue their dreams, and you’ve kind of had a hand in that throughout the year. I just find that really exciting.”
