Now that Ash Riddell is one of the AFLW's most lethal on-ballers, averaging a league-high 28.6 disposals per game in 2022, it's difficult to remember the star Kangaroo was overlooked in two separate drafts at the start of her career.

In the latest episode of the Happy Dais Podcast, AFLW Performance and Talent Manager Rhys Harwood recalls helping to build North Melbourne Tasmania's inaugural 2019 list from scratch, and how the Roos struck gold in Riddell. 

“I remember vividly [former coach] Scott (Gowans) coming over with a yellow post-it note with the names of seven players on it who hadn’t been drafted that he liked,” Harwood said.

"The top one was Ash Riddell.

“I went down to Melbourne Uni training and they had a 10-minute period of match sim. Without a lie she would have had 45 possessions in 10 minutes, and I figured that would probably work.

“I remember that list well. There are some who are here and there are some who are at other clubs. It was a pretty good list to be honest.

“The open-age signings, which we had quite a few of, was the trickiest part to navigate at the time. Ash and ‘Abba’ (Sophie Abbatangelo) are two really good examples of players who have forged really good careers."

To hear about Harwood’s journey into recruiting, the difficulty of delisting players and draft strategy, listen to the latest episode of the Happy Dais podcast here or watch in the player above.