A SLOANE has joined Melbourne, with Shae Sloane, sister of Adelaide's Rory, signing with the Demons as a rookie ahead of the 2019 NAB AFL Women's competition.
The 26-year-old is a former captain of Australia's volleyball team, the Volleyroos.
She played junior football for Upwey-Tecoma in Melbourne's outer-east until under-12s.
"We have been in discussions with Shae for a number of months about coming across to play AFLW," Melbourne AFLW list manager Todd Patterson told melbournefc.com.au.
"We identified Shae as someone with real athletic potential and fantastic character, given she has captained her country.
"We are excited to have six months to invest in developing Shae prior to the start of the next AFLW pre-season and think she will add value in a variety of areas of the ground given her size and athletic ability."
Sloane will play for Melbourne's VFLW affiliate Casey Demons for the remainder of the year.
Collingwood signed former Australian volleyballer Eliza Hynes as a rookie last year. She played two games in the ruck in 2018.
Sloane is considerably shorter, standing 174cm compared to Hynes' 183cm.
Teams can sign rookies, who must not have played football in the past three years or been involved in an AFLW high performance program, until September 28.
