AFLW 2025: West Coast Eagles recruit Mia Russo has the inside game to step right in

West Coast’s top AFLW draft pick knows she has a battle to break into a talent laden midfield. But that’s Mia Russo’s plan for season one. “They are a team that’s on the rise at the moment. They’re going really really well. Obviously, there is depth in there and it is what it is but the goal is to be in that first-round team,” said Russo, taken at pick 20 in Monday’s draft. Ella Roberts, Emma Swanson, Bella Lewis, Jaide Britton, Jess Rentsch and Lauren Wakfer lead the midfield rankings and Russo will bring a powerful inside game and stoppage craft that allows her to exit congestion with a brutal elegance. Russo’s footy CV already features two Rogers Cup fairest-and-bests with West Perth, an under-18s All-Australian berth and co-captaincy of the Western Australia under-18s. The West Perth product said she desperately wanted to remain in her home State. “I would’ve been very disappointed not to go to the Eagles to be honest. I wasn’t anticipating anyone (picking me up). I was just really hoping,” Russo said. “I was spoken to by quite a few clubs. (But) I felt very in the dark about the whole thing. “Just utter relief honestly. I think that was best case scenario for me to stay home and go to a club that I love. “I was really praying. I was clutching my necklace and my heart was racing and then when I heard my name called out, I just dove into my hands and started crying immediately.” Russo, 18, cut her teeth with junior clubs Stirling Saints and Wanneroo. The modern pathway meant she did not have to play in a boys’ team. Identified by West Perth at 14, she had two years of Rogers Cup and has spent the past two years in the Falcons’ WAFLW league team. A Carlton fan before the draft, Russo said former Blues and now Essendon midfield maestra Maddy Prespakis and her sister, Geelong jet Georgie, and her new Eagles teammate Roberts were three players she had admired. “Ella is dominating the league at the moment. She’s been someone I’ve looked up to for a few years now but when I was young, I used to look up to Maddy Prespakis,” Russo said. “She won the league best and fairest (2020) at a time when I was really into it and I was quite young so she was my favourite player and her sister Georgie grew on me quite a lot as well. “I admire their contested work and their work rate. The way that they are so hard in the contest and they win the ball quite often and they use it very well and Ella is also very exciting to watch.” Russo has worked hard to develop similar traits. “I’ve been told my clearance work is probably my strength, my ability to get in and get out, make decisions coming out of the contest and driving my legs through it,” she said. Russo gives the Eagles an extra weapon in attack. In July, she kicked two goals in difficult conditions in WA’s first win over Vic Metro in five years and averaged 19 disposals per game in the national championships. Her under-18s All-Australian selection this year followed the same honour at under-16s level in 2023, where she also claimed the Pool A best and fairest. A member of the AFL national academy, she excelled with the Falcons this year, averaging 20 possessions in eight matches. She received a FaceTime call from Eagles coach Daisy Pearce, who was in Melbourne for the draft, on Monday night. “I was bawling my eyes out. It’s so weird to me. I’ve looked up to her as as a footballer ever since AFLW started so it’s surreal,” Russo said. “It has sort of sunk in but it is still a bit weird. Honestly I just haven’t stopped smiling. “I feel like I’m ready to go if it was today. I just can’t wait to get stuck into it.”