Ruby Schleicher’s Exit Is a Reminder AFLW Loyalty Isn’t Forever

Collingwood fans are waking up today to news that genuinely stings: their skipper Ruby Schleicher is walking out the door at season’s end. This one isn’t a throwaway trade rumour, it’s confirmed, and it’s a legit big deal for how we think about loyalty and list management in this competition.

Schleicher has been the heartbeat of that Collingwood midfield since day dot, the sort of player who sets the standard at training and then backs it up every single week without fail. Losing a captain mid-arc like this is never just a one-line transaction, it reshapes a whole list’s identity.

Why this one actually matters

Look, AFLW departures happen every single trade period and most of them barely register outside the rusted-on fans. This is different because of what the armband represents. A captain isn’t just your best player, she’s the person the whole club points to when they talk about culture, about standards, about who they want to be. When that person decides the next chapter is somewhere else, it forces every single person at Olympic Park to ask some hard questions.

I’m not here to pretend I know the full ins and outs of why Schleicher is leaving, because frankly none of us outside the four walls do. Contract stuff, list balance, a fresh opportunity elsewhere, family and lifestyle calls, it could be any combination of those things. What I will say is this competition has matured to the point where players moving clubs for genuinely considered career reasons is becoming normal, not scandalous. That’s actually a healthy sign for the league even if it hurts in the moment if you bleed black and white.

The captaincy question nobody wants to answer yet

Collingwood’s leadership group now has a genuinely tricky puzzle to solve. Do they hand the armband to someone who’s been waiting patiently in the leadership group, or do they go external and reset the whole vibe around a different voice entirely? Clubs love to say these decisions aren’t rushed, but let’s be real, pre-season list meetings are about to get a whole lot more interesting at the Pies.

From the outside it looks like they’ve got candidates in that group who could absolutely do the job, but replacing a captain who’s also one of your genuine on-field difference makers is a two part problem. You’re not just replacing leadership, you’re replacing output. That’s the bit that should actually worry Collingwood supporters more than the symbolism of it all.

What it means for the rest of the comp

Here’s where I get a little bit excited, and I’ll own that bias straight up as a Lions fan. Every time a genuine quality player becomes available, it’s a reminder that AFLW list movement is now a real strategic lever, not an afterthought bolted onto the men’s trade period discussion. Clubs building for a flag window should be watching this situation extremely closely, because a leader of Schleicher’s calibre doesn’t become available very often.

I’d love to see a club like Brisbane put its hand up here, not because I think it’s likely, but because this is exactly the kind of move that signals a club is serious about winning now rather than just making up the numbers. The Lions have built something genuinely sustainable up here in Queensland and bringing in proven leadership from a club like Collingwood would be no notes, it would just make total sense for where this program wants to go.

• Clubs chasing finals footy will be straight on the phone this week
• Collingwood’s list management crew have a genuine succession puzzle on their hands
• The broader AFLW player movement market keeps proving it’s maturing fast

Respect where it’s due

Whatever happens next, nobody should let this moment get lost in the trade speculation noise. Schleicher has been an absolute credit to the competition, the sort of captain who talks footy with real substance and backs it up with genuine performance week in week out. Collingwood fans should be thanking her for the years given, not just fixating on where she lands next.

It’s easy in footy media to turn every departure into a drama, but sometimes it really is as simple as a player and a club deciding their paths are heading in different directions. That doesn’t make it any less significant for how Collingwood looks in twelve months time, but it also doesn’t need to be treated as some sort of betrayal. Players are allowed to make decisions that are right for thier own careers, and honestly the game is better off when we normalise that instead of treating every move like a controversy.

The bigger picture for AFLW

What I keep coming back to is this: a story like this getting genuine national coverage is actually a massive win for the competition itself. A few years ago a captaincy change at an AFLW club barely got a mention outside club media. Now we’re seeing proper analysis, proper speculation, proper stakes attached to it. That’s growth, plain and simple, and it’s exactly the trajectory this league needs if it wants to keep building depth of coverage right across the country, including up here where the Lions and the Suns are still fighting for cut-through against the NRL noise.

Collingwood will be fine long term, they’ve got the depth and the resources to find their next leader, but this is a genuine moment of reckoning for the club’s AFLW program. How they handle the succession, and whether they manage to keep the rest of that leadership core locked in and motivated, will tell us a lot about where the Pies sit heading into the next cycle.

For the rest of us, keep an eye on where Schleicher ends up. If a genuine captain-calibre midfielder like this lands at a flag fancy club, it could tip the competition balance in a way we haven’t quite seen before. That’s the kind of storyline that makes following AFLW list movement genuinely must-watch stuff, and if you’re not paying attention to it yet, now’s the time to start.