Essendon have used pick three of the inaugural AFLW Pre-Season Draft to recruit 26-year-old Irish forward Emma Dineen, an All-Ireland Senior champion from County Kerry who joins the Bombers from the Gaelic football pathway.
Dineen, currently based in Dublin, has six years of senior inter-county experience competing in Division One with Kerry and was on Essendon's recruiting radar as part of the league's expanded Irish program. The Bombers nominated her as one of the highest athletic profile recruits available in the draft.
The club described her on-field profile as built around explosive movement and aerial ability, with reliable two-sided kicking and the running capacity to play a dynamic forward role. Her capacity to read the ball in flight has been one of the key parts of her Gaelic game and is being projected to translate into the AFLW marking and ground-ball contests.
Essendon AFLW List and Recruiting Manager Josh Moore put her addition in the context of the program's longer-term build.
"We're thrilled to bring Emma over from Ireland and welcome her into our AFLW program. Her experience as a high performing athlete will be valuable as we continue to build towards the season," Moore said.
Dineen and her partner are expected to arrive at the NEC Hangar within days, with the AFLW pre-season program starting league-wide on Monday May 11.
She is one of three Irish Gaelic football players who entered the AFLW pool this draft cycle. Mayo's Saoirse Lally was selected by St Kilda at pick seven, while Antrim's Omalara Dahunsi - the All-Ireland Senior Final player of the match - was eligible but not taken. Lally is described as a defender with all-field versatility.
The Irish recruiting pipeline has been one of the most consistently productive talent flows for AFLW programs in recent seasons, with players coming across from Gaelic football into AFLW lists at an increasing rate. Dineen's All-Ireland Senior champion status places her at the top of that talent pool by international honours.
The inaugural pre-season draft was created to fill list spots opened by pregnancies, injuries and retirements ahead of the 2026 season. Bess Keaney was the Essendon list spot Dineen technically replaces - Keaney is among the AFLW players unavailable for the year because of pregnancy.
The draft ran across nine clubs and 11 selections in reverse ladder order on Monday May 4. Gold Coast took Lily Quigley with pick one, GWS took Maisy Evans at pick two, and Western Bulldogs took Amaia Wain at pick four ahead of Fremantle's selection of Noa McNaughton.
Dineen will be expected to integrate into Essendon's senior pre-season block from May 11, with first match assignments to follow in the lead-up to the league's late-August launch.