New GWS coach Cameron Bernasconi was very pleased with the club's AFLW draft picks for the upcoming season, but missing out on the ACT's number one prospect to the Swans is something that will surely add some spice to the very first Sydney derby on September 10.

Giants Academy product and Queanbeyan Tiger Cynthia Hamilton was selected 11^th overall by the Swans in last week's AFLW draft. The Giants coach said they saw it coming, but were no less disappointed.

"We would have loved for her to be a Giant," Bernasconi told The Canberra Times.

"But being a top-end talent and with the Swans having the first five picks for players that opted to play in NSW, we probably knew all along that it was pretty unlikely we'd get Cynthia."

It was a bittersweet result for the Giants having helped develop her talent through their academy system.

"We're stoked she's come to the academy and achieved the dream of getting onto a list," Bernasconi said.

"She should be playing some familiar faces at the Giants in round three."

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The coach has already pencilled in the derby as one the club is looking forward to, as the Giants seek to make a statement this season and improve on their 4-6 win-loss record. Bernasconi said finding an approach that delivers more goals will be a focus as they struggled in that area last season.

"The girls have been training really well at the moment. What we want to implement is a bit of a new game plan that is hopefully a bit more attacking and can generate some more scores for us," he said.

"We're really keen as a coaching group and players to shape an environment that allows us to achieve our goals for the upcoming season but also for years to come."

The Giants leaned on AFL Canberra's first-grade talent pool for some draft picks with Eastlake's Cambridge McCormick selected 84th overall and Ainslie's Tess Cattle taken at 86.

Earlier in the draft they took Victorian and former junior Matilda Zarlie Goldsworthy as their first pick (20th overall), Gold Coast's Fleur Davies (64th), two Tasmanians Meghan Gaffney (66th) and Madison Brazendale (75th) and Macquarie University's Jodie Hicks (82nd).

"We've recruited really well this year," Bernasconi said. "We injected some youth that will be full of energy and bring that buzz, but then the club's done an unbelievable job keeping our established talent too, so I'm really optimistic with this upcoming season."

It highlights the quality that is there in the Canberra competition with healthy numbers of youngsters coming up through the ranks, and now that the Swans are in the AFLW too, there's never been a better opportunity for NSW and ACT players to get the call-up.

"AFL Canberra has had a really strong female competition for a number of years, and with the Sydney Swans coming into the NSW draft pool now, AFL Sydney and AFL Canberra will become big recruitment hubs for AFLW clubs going forward," Bernasconi said.

"Mature-age ruck Cambridge McCormick was drafted purely out of AFL Canberra. Also Tess Cattle from the Giants Academy is another great story as a Canberra-based player.

"That was really exciting having two Canberra girls and even Jodie Hicks played a number of years of Belconnen."

As a former Ainslie and Canberra Demons player himself who got his big break in coaching with the Giants Academy, Bernasconi said GWS' investment in the region is a boost not only for those on the field kicking the Sherrin.

"It's something that's quite underrated with the academy, that not only is it a platform for players to develop, but also for coaches," he said.

"I'm really hopeful for coaches in Canberra at the moment that they can follow the same path and end up coaching AFL and AFLW level in the future as well."

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