Inaugural Geelong Cats Women's captain Melissa Hickey has joined the All-Australian selection panel for the 2021 NAB AFL Womens Competition.

Hickey, along with former Adelaide Crow Courtney Cramey, accepted an invitation to join the AFLW panel, after being a high-performing senior player in the opening four years of the AFLW.

The former Cat, who started her career with Melbourne, captained the Geelong side during its first two seasons of the AFLW, before retiring at the end of 2020, while Cromey was a dual-premiership player at the Crows.

Under Hickey's leadership, the Cats made it through to the Preliminary Finals in their inaugural season back in 2019, and played 12 games across two seasons with Geelong.

Both Hickey and Cramey were members of the All-Australian side in 2017.

Meanwhile, Jude Bolton and Nick Riewoldt have each accepted invitations to join the AFL panel, with both having had outstanding careers at the elite level.

AFL Executive General Manager Football Operations Steve Hocking said he looked forward to welcoming the selectors at the next meeting for each respective group.

“We look forward to Courtney, Jude, Melissa and Nick’s unique insights and perspectives on the game as members of the AFL and AFLW All Australian selection panels, respectively,” Mr Hocking said.

“Each player has enjoyed a decorated career in their own right and their success as players has them well-placed as selectors of men’s and women’s All Australian teams for years to come."

AFLW All Australian Selection Panel
Nicole Livingstone (chair), Sarah Black, Courtney Cramey, Tim Harrington, Melissa Hickey, Steve Hocking, Sharelle McMahon, Kelli Underwood, Josh Vanderloo, Shelley Ware.