NOTHING separated them during this year's TAC Cup girls' competition, but they had contrasting experiences on NAB AFL Women's Draft day.

Chloe Molloy and Bridie Kennedy, in just her second season of football, shared the inaugural TAC Cup girls' best and fairest award playing for the Calder Cannons and Dandenong Stingrays respectively.

Molloy, 19, was considered the major challenger to eventual No.1 draft pick Isabel Huntington, after also being the equal leading goalkicker with AFLW star Katie Brennan in the VFL Women's season.

She ultimately joined Collingwood at pick three, one spot ahead of the next-most-hyped teenager, WNBL point guard Monique Conti.

AFLW Draft: All the picks, all the profiles

Molloy knocked back a basketball scholarship at the Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States and will now pour all her energy into football.

"I feel at home, to be honest," Molloy said.

"I've supported this team growing up and I've put this jersey on as a supporter, but now I'm putting it on as a player – it's pretty unreal.

"I played footy as a younger girl and then it was my dream, but my dream actually switched. I wasn't sure there was a Youth Girls side, so I went to basketball.

"My dream was actually college and I did have that available for me, but I turned that down and my dream did change (again) in a matter of a year and I've ticked it off already, so a bigger dream to come."

There was every reason to expect Kennedy wouldn't be far behind, especially after she won the 2km time trial and the Yo-Yo test at the NAB AFLW Draft Combine.

But the 18-year-old rebounding defender instead rode an emotional rollercoaster that at one stage convinced her she wouldn't get picked.

Carlton finally put Kennedy out of her misery when it called her name out with the 36th selection, making her the final Victorian taken in the draft.

The Cranbourne footballer instantly embraced her grandparents and parents as her AFLW dream became a reality.

"I was very excited at first, then it went to being nervous, and then I felt like I had some tears running down my face," Kennedy told AFL.com.au.

"It all came out at the end and it was very overwhelming, but I'm very happy now.

"When it got to the very last two picks, I was like, 'I don't think this is my year' and I was just thinking of my pre-season and how hard I'll have to work, but now I'm very excited and it's definitely happening."

Kennedy looms as a potential cult figure for the Blues, owing to the pink ribbon she wore in her hair this season, as well as on draft day.

The hair accessory came as a result of her decision to ditch her colourful boots, only for her grandfather to complain he couldn't spot her on the field.

"I used to have a braid in my hair, but I have the ponytail this year, so it might be (there for good now)," Kennedy said.

"But I might go with the blue colour now – I'll see what Carlton thinks."