BRISBANE superstar Emily Bates, one of the AFLW's premier players and the winner of last week's League best and fairest, has been weighing up a host of considerable offers to play elsewhere next season.
Womens.afl can reveal that Bates, barely a week on from a clean sweep of the individual AFLW awards, has multiple clubs across the country attempting to persuade the midfielder to leave Queensland.
It's understood Hawthorn is seen by those in the race for Bates as the early frontrunners for her signature, should she opt to leave Brisbane, though rival Victorian clubs – both existing and expansion – are not yet willing to give up hope.
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Bates has been weighing up whether to re-sign with Brisbane, or take up a substantial offer elsewhere and leave the club after 53 games across all six seasons with the Lions.
The significant rival offers, and Bates' impending decision, comes after Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich unleashed a tirade against expansion teams and the player movement their arrival would generate, saying it "drives me frickin' mad".
They also arrive after a week in which Bates claimed the AFLW best and fairest, was voted the AFL Coaches' Association Player of the Year, and won the AFL Players' Association MVP award.
The 26-year-old Bates just enjoyed a career-best season for Brisbane, averaging 21.3 disposals, 5.6 clearances and 7.1 tackles to establish herself as one of the competition's best and most influential players.
The individual accolades achieved this year follow a premiership with the Lions in 2021, dual club best and fairests in 2017 and 2020, and three All-Australian selections in 2017, 2018 and 2022.
The first ever Queensland-based player drafted to an AFLW club, Bates has played with Brisbane in every season since the League's inception after she was recruited with pick No.2 in the 2016 NAB AFLW Draft.
Her looming decision may also have sparked Starcevich's frustrations after his side's preliminary final defeat to Melbourne, where Brisbane's 2021 premiership coach claimed the "tail ends up wagging the dog" with player movement.
"We've been in the comp six years and we went through, a couple of years ago, the big four-team expansion. That was like, 'Jesus, we're down to 17 players'. In hindsight, it did us a massive favour because we brought in O'Dwyer, Bodey, Davidson, Dawes, Hickie … you name it," Starcevich said.
"We had a good off-season there to bring them in, took us a year or two to get cranking, but we're OK now. If it's going to happen again now then it's fine to say the competition needs to expand and we need players going here and there, but it never helps us. It never helps us.
"Because we're the ones who put all the time and effort in developing players, developing relationships and then what do you do? Just go and pull the rug out from … it drives me frickin' mad.
"I don't know if there's another way of doing it, but it drives me mad. We run the team. We coach the team. We develop the players.
"I don't know what the answer is, but it absolutely drives me mad that big offers come in from clubs that aren't even in the competition and they end up … the tail ends up wagging the dog.
"They make all the demands about how to get players. I've said too much. It's very disruptive. We're not the only club, whatever was reported yesterday about the Bulldogs, for example … jeez, come on."
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A fortnight ago, womens.afl reported that the Bulldogs were at the centre of a rival AFLW raid with captain Ellie Blackburn, midfielder Kirsty Lamb, and forward pair Isabel Huntington and Bonnie Toogood all considering significant rival interest.
Blackburn and Lamb have since reiterated their commitment to playing for the Bulldogs next season and beyond, but Huntington has officially requested a trade to Greater Western Sydney.
It was also revealed last month that prolific North Melbourne ball-winner Ash Riddell, who finished fourth in last Tuesday night's best and fairest count, is weighing up an offer from expansion team Sydney.
Bates clocked up her 50th game for Brisbane earlier this season and, alongside teammates Alexandra Anderson and Breanna Koenen, is one of just three 50-game AFLW players for the club.
