Cooks Hill teenager Asha Turner Funk has taken a step towards her dream of playing AFLW by being invited to the 2022 Draft Combine.
The 18-year-old midfielder is the only Newcastle product to be named among 106 invitees from across the country for the state-based testing day, which will be held at a date and venue yet to be confirmed.
It has been reduced to a sole two-kilometre time trial due to the short turnaround between AFLW seasons.
Most of the invitees have already completed other testing in pre-season, such as speed and agility tests.
Salamander Bay's Pippa Smyth earned a contract with GWS when she blitzed testing at the 2017 AFLW Draft Combine.
"It was a bit of a surprise because I missed out on the Allies [NSW/ACT/NT representative] team as I had Covid so I wasn't really at my best at that point and I felt completely off the cards," Turner Funk said.
"I'm a bit disappointed that I can't improve on past combine results with the rest of the test but I'm excited to see how the 2k goes and how I stack up against the rest of the combine invitees.
"Just being at that level signifies that you have been seen and recognised so just to try to prove myself at that level is really exciting."
The Newcastle Grammar School year 12 student, who has played junior and senior football for Newcastle City, made the move to the Sydney women's competition this year, linking with Manly.
She is also in the Swans Academy side playing in the Female Winter Series, which runs from May until July and puts players into the eyes of AFLW coaches.
"Obviously the exposure down there and the skill level is a lot higher," Turner Funk said.
"The game is super fast paced and the adjustment has been massive, but it was definitely motivated by trying to see if I could stack up to that level and hopefully the next level again.
"It's getting easier. My first game was a massive shock but I think I've eased my way into it and gotten better with every game."
The Swans have already named a handful of players for their maiden AFLW campaign, which starts in the last week of August.
That includes signing Nelson Bay product Lisa Steane, who has played the past three seasons with Giants and at 27 will be one of the more senior players at the Swans.
"I feel like my timing couldn't be better," Turner Funk said. "The opportunities, especially for a lot of the Academy girls is really exciting. There's around five of us from the Swans Academy being invited and the opportunities that we could get from it are massive."
Leading into the Winter Series, Swans AFLW assistant coach and Female Academy coach Baker Denneman rated Turner Funk as a player to watch.
"Asha is a strong midfielder who has the ability to work from contest to contest and use her powerful right foot to open the game up," Denneman said. "She is a smart footballer, who reads the game well and gives not only herself, but her teammates the best opportunity to influence throughout the game."
Season seven of AFLW will comprise 10 rounds and a four-week finals series.
Last week a one-year AFLW Collective Bargaining Agreement was struck between the AFL and AFL Players Association resulting in a substantial pay rise of an average of 94 per cent across all four payment tiers.
The top tier will be paid $71,935, while the minimum AFLW wage will increase from $20,239 to around $39,184.
