As we celebrate NAIDOC week across the WAFLW this round, we look at some up and coming Indigenous talent as well as those who have put together impressive careers and are performing to high levels locally this season.
Krstel Petrevski (Subiaco)
Petrevski is a former AFLW player for Melbourne and West Coast and currently dons the maroon and gold for the Subiaco Lions.
She is having an outstanding season, averaging 28 disposals per game as she leads the Lions midfield at the coalface.
Subiaco, thanks to her superb form are on top of the ladder with the best percentage in the league.
Originally from Halls Creek, Petrevski, a proud Kija and Jaru woman, created Indigenous jerseys for the Eagles men’s and women’s teams in the 2023 AFL season, as well as the Demons Indigenous jersey in 2021.
Tiah Toth (Subiaco)
Toth’s Aboriginal descent is on her dad’s side, from which her father’s nan’s cousin is Polly Farmer.
Toth played 24 AFLW games for the Fremantle Dockers between 2017 and 2022 and last year she designed the Dockers’ Indigenous jumper alongside her sister.
Fremantle are known as Walyalup Football Club for games played during Indigenous Rounds.
Toth currently plays for Subiaco with Petrevski, having returned to the Lions lineup for the last three games of WAFLW football.
She has played 31 games of senior football for the club.
Toth won the Lions Fairest and Best award in 2020 and has been drafted three times, in 2014 to the Western Bulldogs, then to the Dockers in 2016 and back to the Dockers in 2020 after her first stint with Subiaco.
Hope Ugle-Hayward (Swan Districts)
With 60 WAFLW games already recorded at just 23 years of age, Ugle-Hayward has established herself as a reliable senior footballer.
Across five seasons with the Black Ducks, she has been part of the WAFLW since its inception.
Ugle-Hagan was a member of the National Female Indigenous Development Football Academy and last year said that it meant the world to her to be able to continue to acknowledge the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players through her football.
Emily McGuire (Swan Districts)
Former AFLW player McGuire is one of the longest serving WA footballers with more than 100 senior games next to her name.
She was drafted in 2017 to the Fremantle Dockers and two years later spent a season with the West Coast Eagles.
In 2018 she was an AFLW Rising Star nominee.
After returning to Swan Districts, she has played another three seasons with the club and taken her tally up to 39 career goals.
McGuire has spent time working with the Deadly Sista Girlz at the Wirrpanda Foundation (now known as the Waalitj Foundation).
In 2025 McGuire appears set to play the most games in a single season of her career, should Swan Districts maintain their spot in the top four and play finals football.
Tiama Collard (Peel Thunder)
Just 16-years-old and already with 11 WAFLW senior games under her belt, Collard is one of the state’s brightest talents.
In Round 7 Collard played her best game for the Thunder, collecting 19 disposals, taking four marks, laying eight tackles and booting two goals from five scoring shots in a win.
Collard was a 2024 AFLW Under 16’s All Australian after amassing 27 disposals and laying seven tackles against South Australia in the opening game of last year’s National Championships.
She debuted for Peel’s WAFLW side in Round 1 this season as a 15-year-old and has played in 10 consecutive games.
Keira Fawcett (Swan Districts)
Goalkicking machine Fawcett is dominating the Rogers Cup at just 14-years-old, having booted 33 goals from 54 scoring shots in just 11 games.
Fawcett represented the Woomeras, a squad made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players that compete against the AFL Multicultural side, as a 13-year-old.
She, along with her sister Khalia are High Wycombe alumni, and both don the black and white in the Rogers Cup.
Stefany Stack (East Perth)
17-year-old Stefany Stack plays for the Royals as a forward and has already racked up 13 appearances at WAFLW senior level.
She was a member of the side that won their only game of 2025 in Round four, contributing massively that day by being among the goalkickers.
She produced an equal game-high and personal career-high four scoring shots.
Alicia Blizzard (East Fremantle)
National Academy member and AFLW draft prospect Blizzard is one of the best talents coming out of Western Australia.
The 17-year-old has put together 14 impressive senior games for the Sharks, kicking 17 goals during that period.
Blizzard has represented the state at both the Under 16’s and Under 18’s National Championships in 2023 and recently played in the Under 18’s carnival again this season.
She has long been touted as an AFLW talent, but if there were any reservations she put them to bed in the opening round of this season, posting 16 disposals, five marks and nailing four goals in the Fremantle Derby.
Blizzard, a Whadjuk Noongar woman has stated in the past that she found it difficult to identify with her Aboriginality due to her light skin tone.
However, after learning more about it through her art and designs, has been able to feel comfortable connecting with her culture and finding her community.
Blizzard was one of the designers of Western Australia’s state guernsey this year, and the star forward said she is “really proud of all the girls that helped design it, and just being a part of it was an amazing feeling that you can’t take away”.
Shante Anderson (Boorloo)
Another bottom ager dominating the Rogers Cup competition is Demons forward Shante Anderson.
The star talent has played 26 Rogers Cup games across the last two seasons and has consistently hit the scoreboard, registering 62 goals from 26 appearances.
That includes bags of six and five twice each, most notably kicking 6.1 over the weekend against Subiaco.
Anderson represented the Woomeras last season, and the 16-year-old is tied with the previously mentioned Keira Fawcett atop the Rogers Cup leading goalkickers table.
Rikisha Nannup (West Perth)
Nannup is a bottom-ager from the Falcons who impressed through four Rogers Cup matches to start the season that earned her a WAFLW debut in Round 7.
She has played five consecutive games since then and improved in each one, finishing with 10 disposals and five tackles in her last outing.
She can play anywhere and was among the goalkickers in WA’s trial match against Claremont prior to this year’s National Championships after being named in the state squad.
Nannup played for the Woomeras this season and has done so in the past.