New AFL football boss Steve Hocking has defended the league’s handling of transgender footballer Hannah Mouncey’s draft eligibility.

The league’s national selection meeting will be held in Melbourne on Wednesday but clubs won’t know if they can pick Mouncey until an announcement is made on Tuesday afternoon.

The 190cm, 100kg ruck played eight games for Ainslie in Canberra’s women’s competition this season and kicked 17 goals.

Having previously played for Australia’s men’s handball team, Mouncey began a gender transition in 2015.

Despite having a season of state league football under her belt, the AFL will step in and make a ruling on her eligibility to play at the elite level.

“The AFL are just taking their time with it based on the fact there is a range of testing and so forth that Hannah has been put through and been asked to complete, so they can make a thorough decision on it,” Hocking told AFL Trade Radio on Tuesday morning.

“Probably the biggest person in all of this is Hannah herself, so from her point of view, we’ve got to be mindful of all of that.

“We understand it’s (draft) day tomorrow and we need to have clarity for Hannah and also all the clubs involved in that and all the players as well, so that will be announced later today.

“But the right people are working on that and are working very closely with Hannah on that as well.

“She’s been part of all the discussions and all the decision-making around it, so I’m quite comfortable with where that currently sits and how that’s been worked through.”

The AFL follows International Olympic Committee rules which state an athlete must prove their testosterone count is below a certain level.

It is understood Mouncey meets those requirements.

However, Hocking said it isn’t just a case of applying Olympic standards to the AFL.

“There have been a lot of references around the IOC and so forth and their criteria, but the AFL game is quite different to a number of those sports,” he said.

“The AFL are working through that … relevant people have been working really hard on that over the last couple of days in conjunction with Hannah, because it’s a big decision for everybody.”