THE 2024 Telstra AFL Draft night is likely to go down as a key moment in Richmond's history, and star AFLW midfielder Ellie McKenzie was on hand to see it all unfold.

The first step in the Tigers' regeneration after a golden period, the club had eight selections in the draft, and an incredible six in the first round on night one alone.

McKenzie – who works part-time alongside AFLW list manager Trent Mosbey in recruiting and the club's Next Generation Academy – was invited by football boss Tim Livingstone to be a fly on the wall in Richmond's draft war room.

All clubs are allocated a room each in Marvel Stadium, where they input their draft selections on a laptop, hold key discussions on the fly around player selection as other clubs make their picks, and in the case of the men's competition, participate in live pick swaps.

While a camera is fixed in each room for the broadcast – putting McKenzie front and centre, much to her (mild) annoyance – the audio is never heard publicly.

"I knew it would be pretty intense going in, but they're always on the phone. They're talking to clubs who've got five minutes on the clock to do their pick, and if your player goes the pick before, who are you picking next?" McKenzie told AFL.com.au.

"The sort of thinking that goes into five minutes to decide on a pick that could create history for your club. Blair (Hartley, head of talent) ran the night for us, and he was unreal to watch, he was very cool, calm and collected.

"Some of the recruiters said it wasn't one of their most stressful drafts, and I was thinking, 'that's not the most stressful?' I can't imagine what it would be. Just the amount of planning that goes into the night to know you've got everything covered and don't have to stress, that was probably the big takeaway."

After the sad passing of national recruiting manager Chris Toce in the final days of the trade period, the club invited his young son to input Sam Lalor's name as the No.1 pick, but as McKenzie revealed, it didn’t go quite to plan.

"I walked away from the experience just feeling very grateful that I was able to be in that room, in the inner sanctum of their Grand Final day. To have Chris' son come in for that first pick was really special," she said.

"Initially, I think he put the name in wrong for the pick, so all the boys got a bit jumpy, but we got Sammy to the club. I think there must have been another Sam, last name L, and then he's typed that in (and nearly selected the wrong player), and then I think he went to press the 'skip pick' button as well – they were all a little jumpy, but it was all good in the end.

"To just be invited was amazing, but having six picks in the first round doesn't come around very often, so I was stoked to be a part of it."

Despite being just 22 and with a long playing career ahead of her, McKenzie is determined to get cracking in her post-AFLW journey.

"Anyone that knows me, knows I'm a bit of a football nut. I just love watching football and I've been playing since I was little, and going to footy matches with my dad and brother and my mum," she said.

"Anything that involves being able to watch football as a job, I'll jump at that opportunity. There's that aspect, then there's feeling like I can develop my on-field knowledge as well, through this experience of watching more football in my off time.

"I'm trying to not overload myself with Richmond football and playing, because I can tend to get a bit carried away and obsessed with that side. Although it probably sounds a bit funny that my work is still in football, but for me, it's a nice little outlet – it's not about my own training, playing and vision.

"I know my limits. I'm doing two days a week at the club, I feel like that's a nice balance. Trent will throw a few other jobs in there, sometimes I'll get to go out to NGA games and be involved with the boys and girls there as well. It's not always watching and coding football."

Richmond's NGA is made up of Indigenous and multicultural players from the northern portion of Victoria, with Coates Talent League clubs Bendigo Pioneers (whose catchment reaches up to Mildura) and Murray Bushrangers heavily linked.

Over the years, the Tigers have only signed one NGA graduate – Derek Eggmolesse-Smith – to its AFL side, although the Sunraysia region was a historically strong recruitment zone in decades past.

Retired star forward Courtney Wakefield, Grace Campbell and Kodi Jacques were also brought into the VFLW side (then promoted to the AFLW team) through "come and try" days in the northern regions.

"A lot of my NGA work is around coding their game. They have little carnivals throughout the year, usually in school holidays, so I'll go through and code their highlights so they can see what they've been doing and what they can work on," McKenzie said.

"That'll include some of the boys who last year were included in Vic Country sides – Cody Walker (also tied to Carlton as a father-son) and Tanner Armstrong. Then when they come down to the club for a training session, I'll jump out on the field and help out there.

"When it comes to AFLW recruiting, I help out with the databases for Trent. He's got a tough job. We know the women don't have a big [soft] cap to include six, seven or eight recruiters like the men's do, so he's got a lot on his plate. But geez, he works hard, and I admire that about him.

"I've been able to go to the women's draft for the past few years and see the back end there, and then it's also looking at our (W) NGA players and how we can help them get drafted, because there's no concessions for academies in AFLW. Hopefully that'll come into play in the next few seasons."