Fire & Fury Women’s League 2026 Draft Rules
📅 Draft Date: Saturday, 4 July 2026
📺 Streaming Live on YouTube from 14:00 PM
1. Teams & Squad Structure
- The league consists of 6 teams: Phoenix, Dragon, Gryphon, Unicorn, Pegasus and Valkyrie.
- Each team has 13 players: 1 pre-assigned player-coach + 1 captain + 1 retained player + 10 drafted players.
- Each squad must include at least 1 wicketkeeper.
- All Easterns provincial players (Storm Women, U19, U16) are guaranteed placement.
- Each team may retain a maximum of 4 players from their 2025 squad, including captain and retained player pick.
- Maximum 50% of each team’s Grade 5 & 6 (Eastern Club) picks may be returning players from 2025.
- No post-draft trades permitted. Only injury or unavailability substitutions will be considered
2. Coaches
- Each team is led by a player-coach who makes draft selections in consultation with their captain.
- Dragons coach: Alysia Rudolph (retained). Phoenix coach: Ricea Coetzer (retained).
- New coaches selected: Pura Andreou (Unicorns). Kayleigh Craig (Pegasus). Jennifer Hall (Gryphons). Gopika Ramkilawon (Valkyrie).
- Player-coaches are pre-assigned to teams – they occupy one of the 13 squad spots and are NOT drafted.
- Player-coaches count toward their team’s POC total.
- All coaches receive full player info and player categories before Draft Day.
3. Player categories
Players are categorised grade 1-8. Max 1 Grade 1 per team.
| GRADE | CATEGORY | NOTES | COUNT |
| 1 | Captains | 6 | |
| 2 | Storm Women – Eastern Senior Provincial | Must place | 8 |
| 3 | Storm U19 | Must place | 6 |
| 4 | Storm U16 | Must place | 13 |
| 5 | Eastern Club – previous or upcoming provincial experience | Max 50% returning players (from F & F 2025) | 14 |
| 6 | Eastern Club | Max 50% returning players (from F & F 2025) | 35 |
| 7 | External Provincial | Max 3 externals per team | 8 |
| 8 | External Club | Max 3 externals per team | 8 |
POC Requirement: Each team must include a minimum of 5 players of colour (African, Indian or Coloured).
4. Retained Captains & Players and New Captains
- Retained captains: Dormehl (Gryphons), Van Voorst (Dragons), Van Wyk (Unicorns).
- New captains selected pre-draft: Bezuidenhout (Phoenix), Makhubela (Pegasus), Venter (Valkyrie).
- Retained players selected pre-draft: Barnard (Pegasus – new team), Botha (Phoenix), Coppin (Unicorns), Ferreira (Gryphons), Masilela (Valkyrie – new team), Sesing (Dragons).
- Retained captain + retained player count toward the 4-player retention cap per team.
5. Draft Sequence – 12 Rounds
The draft consists of 12 rounds. Rounds 1 and 2 are announcement rounds with no rotation. Rounds 3-12 are live draft rounds with rotating pick order.
| ROUND | PHASE | DETAIL | NOTES |
| Round 1 | Captain Announcements | Retained captains announced: Dormehl (Gryphons), Van Voorst (Dragons), Van Wyk (Unicorns). New captains announcement: Bezuidenhout (Phoenix), Makhubela (Pegasus), Venter (Valkyrie). All 6 captains now confirmed. No live picks – announcement only. | No rotation |
| Round 2 | Retained Player Announcment | Retained players announced: Barnard (Pegasus – new team), Botha (Phoenix), Coppin (Unicorns), Ferreira (Gryphons), Sesing (Dragons), Masilela (Valkyrie – new team). | No rotation |
| Round 3 | Live draft – Pick 1 | First live draft round. Team order drawn (1–6) applies from here. Each team picks one player. | Rotation applies |
| Round 4 | Live draft – Pick 2 | Second live draft round | Rotation applies |
| Round 5 | Live draft – Pick 3 | Rotation applies | |
| Round 6 | Live draft – Pick 4 | Expect to Open the Board in this round | Rotation applies |
| Round 7 | Live draft – Pick 5 | Rotation applies | |
| Round 8 | Live draft – Pick 6 | Rotation applies | |
| Round 9 | Live draft – Pick 7 | Rotation applies | |
| Round 10 | Live draft – Pick 8 | Rotation applies | |
| Round 11 | Live draft – Pick 9 | Rotation applies | |
| Round 12 | Live draft – Pick 10 | Final round. Each team selects their 13th and final squad member. | Rotation applies |
Squad maths: 1 player-coach (pre-assigned) + 1 captain (pre-assigned – announcement is Round 1) + 1 retained player (pre-assigned – announcement is Round 2) + 10 drafted players (Rounds 3–12) = 13 per team. 6 teams × 13 = 78 total. 98 players registered + 6 coaches = 104 total. 15 players go to reserve pool.
6. The Board Opens
Storm Women, Storm U19, Storm U16 players (Grades 2 to 4) must all be placed before any other grade can be selected in the rotational draft rounds (from Round 3). Once every provincial Storm player has been drafted, the board is considered OPEN.
Once the board is open, coaches may select ANY remaining player from ANY grade (grades 5-8) in any order, for the rest of the draft – subject always to the standard limits: maximum 3 external players, maximum 4 retained players from a team’s own 2025 squad, minimum 5 players of colour, and maximum 50% of combined Eastern Club picks being returning players.
This is expected to happen around Round 6, once the 21 must-place Storm provincial players have been drafted across the 6 teams. (27 players from grades 2, 3 and 4 less 6 pre-drafted Storm players)
7. Draft Order – Rounds 3 to 12
Teams are numbered 1-6 by random draw at the start of Draft Day. This order is entered into the live draft board at https://www.fireandfury.co.za/live-draft, which then automatically highlights the current and next picking team for each round.
| ROUND | PICK 1 | PICK 2 | PICK 3 | PICK 4 | PICK 5 | PICK 6 |
| R3 | Team 1 | Team 2 | Team 3 | Team 4 | Team 5 | Team 6 |
| R4 | Team 5 | Team 6 | Team 1 | Team 2 | Team 3 | Team 4 |
| R5 | Team 2 | Team 3 | Team 4 | Team 5 | Team 6 | Team 1 |
| R6 | Team 6 | Team 1 | Team 2 | Team 3 | Team 4 | Team 5 |
| R7 | Team 3 | Team 4 | Team 5 | Team 6 | Team 1 | Team 2 |
| R8 | Team 4 | Team 5 | Team 6 | Team 3 | Team 2 | Team 3 |
| R9 | Team 6 | Team 5 | Team 4 | Team 1 | Team 2 | Team 1 |
| R10 | Team 2 | Team 4 | Team 6 | Team 1 | Team 3 | Team 5 |
| R11 | Team 3 | Team 6 | Team 2 | Team 5 | Team 1 | Team 4 |
| R12 | Team 5 | Team 1 | Team 4 | Team 3 | Team 6 | Team 2 |
No team picks last more than twice across Rounds 3–12. The rotation is designed so every team gets an early pick position multiple times.
8. External Player Rules
- Maximum 3 external players per team (players who don’t play under Eastern Cricket).
9. Retention Rules
- Maximum 4 players per team from their OWN 2025 squad (including captain and retained player pick).
- Maximum 50% of each team’s Eastern Club players picks may be returning 2025 players.
- Pegasus and Valkyrie are new teams – retention rules do not apply to them.
- Retained coaches – Alysia Rudolph (Dragons) and Ricea Coetzer (Phoenix) are not subject to retention rules.
Example: If a team selects 4 Easterns Club players, at most 2 may be returning 2025 players. The other 2 must be first-time Fire & Fury players. A team is not limited to the number of first-time Fire & Fury players.
10. Live Draft Board
- The live draft board at https://www.fireandfury.co.za/live-draft displays all 6 team columns updating in real time.
- Admin operates the board – password protected.
- Spectators watch live – board shows PICKING NOW and PICKING NEXT indicators on team columns.
- Team numbers (Team 1-6 from the random draw) display above each column.
- Board auto-advances to the next round once all 6 teams have made their pick.
- PDF export available at end of draft for printed team lists.
11. Draft Day Flow
- Live streamed on YouTube or Twitch from 2pm.
- Random team number draw happens before the draft begins – numbers entered into the board immediately.
- Each round: up to 1 minute for coaches to prepare, then 30 seconds per team to select.
- If a team does not select within 30 seconds, next team picks and defaulting team picks last in that round.
- Estimated duration: 60-90 minutes.
12. Injuries & General Rules
- Injuries or unavailability post-draft must be communicated promptly. Only undrafted reserve pool players considered for replacements.
- All organiser decisions on Draft Day are final.
- Organisers reserve the right to adjust placement to ensure competitive balance.