STRENGTHS:

+ Kicking
+ Goal sense
+ X-Factor
+ Clean hands
+ Forward craft
+ Class

IMPROVEMENTS:

- Opposite foot
- Conversion

PROFILE:

Pisano has long been a player on the lips of club recruiters, turning out for the Ranges as a 15-year-old where she kicked 19 goals in 10 games and announced herself as a star of the future. Unfortunately, the talented bottom-ager would add just five more games to that tally in 2022, going down with a dreaded anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear and her year ended with 10 goals in that season.

Though she missed Vic Metro representation as a bottom-ager, one would be forgiven for forgetting she ever had a long-term injury, because she returned the Ranges' first game in Round 1 of the Talent League Girls season. While many might have a slow start or nervous moments coming back from a knee injury, Pisano slammed home four goals from 13 disposals against Dandenong Stingrays, and backed it up with half a dozen against Northern Knights the following week.

It was simply mind-boggling to think that in just two games back from such a serious injury, Pisano had the confidence to twist and turn, weave and dodge, and slot goal after goal. By the end of the Talent League season, she would boot 38 majors in 11 games, and incredibly should have kicked at least 50 had it not been for some un-Pisano like inaccuracy in the final two months.

Looking purely at her forward craft, Pisano is clean at ground level as well as in the air, and the former is where she does her best work. Though not explosive, she is smart enough to gain separation on the lead, and even if a defender can get to spoil her, there is no one quicker at recovering, and off a step snap around her body straight through the big sticks.

Time and time again, defenders often shake their heads wondering how they could do everything right and still have a few goals kicked on them, but that is exactly what Pisano does so well. One example was against the Sandringham Dragons in Round 6, where after being quiet for most of the game, Pisano kicked three in a matter of minutes and turned the game on its head.

Pisano has traits that just cannot be taught, such as her class and goal sense. She knows where the big sticks are, and can do a lot of damage be it on the run or from the snap. Those traits, along with her kicking and X-Factor make her a highly sought after talent.

When it comes to a player of Pisano's talent, finding the areas of improvement or weakness are pickier. For the small forward, her left boot is elite, but her right is to an extent a problem. A few times she has been caught out trying to get to her left rather than the easier choice of her right, and that forces her to rush boot to ball. Improving that opposite foot will only make her more damaging, as will some four-quarter consistency.

As mentioned earlier, she can win a game off her own boot in a matter of minutes, and she did not go goalless in any game she played this year. That consistency is remarkable, but in saying that - and being nit picky - in a number of those games, and particularly the second half of the season, a lot happened in a short space of time, where there would be patches of being well held. That along with kicking 38.24, shows an area for improvement.

A deadeye kick from just about anywhere inside 50, at times, Pisano would be off radar, and miss ones she would normally gobble up. If she begins to nail more of them, then she is setting goalkicking records. It would not have been a big call to say that the Eastern Ranges small could have been the first Talent League Girls player to bring up 50 goals in the season.

Overall, Pisano is a magnificent talent who will go very high in the draft. She has class personified, incredible footy IQ and just does so much damage at ground level. Her clean hands be it on the deck or in the air make her an all-round threat, and she is hard to deny as one of the best Victorian prospects this year.