We need more seats! Four talking points from AFL Women's Round 1

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the first round of the AFL Women’s competition, it’s this: people are loving it.

Sure, there’s those who have been quick to dismiss the idea, before, during and after the matches, but let’s not allow a few crusty nay-sayers to get in the way of the rest of us having a good time.

It’s actually a bit laughable now to think that the AFL originally had the season opener booked for Olympic Park.

The match was moved to the much larger Ikon Park, and still had 2000 fans in excess that just couldn’t fit in to the ground.

All of the matches this weekend have been attended by crowds far larger than the AFL projected for, as sure a sign as any that there is a strong and very real passion for the women’s game.

Certainly the crowds will become a bit more stable in weeks to come as a little bit of the novelty wears off.

However, the more time goes on, the more AFL Women’s will attract genuine fans. All over the country right now there are people young and old falling in love with the game after never having a reason to before.

For the time being, AFL Women’s having a relatively short season at a time where it doesn’t need to compete with the men’s competition (bar the upcoming JLT series) has been a stroke of genius.

The AFL is already investigating moving more games to larger grounds, and now has license to think big when it comes to the grand final, the location of which is still to be confirmed.

One thing is certain however, the message is lound and clear. Gillon McLachlan, we need more seats!

The Dogs deserve premiership favouritism

Saturday night’s game between the Bulldogs and the Fremantle Dockers had match-of-the-round billing in my view, as they were the two sides who had mostly commonly been tipped for the premiership in this inaugural season.

Now to be fair, the Dogs did have a home ground advantage, so the result may not be fully reflective of the two teams’ capabilities.

All the same, the daughters of the west did their reputation as flag fancies no harm by putting in a strong performance.

Most impressive was their ability to spread the goal-kicking workload across the team – while Adelaide and Carlton achieved their wins in a large part thanks to one dominant player, the Bulldogs had five individual goal-kickers.

If they do manage to go all the way this year, there would be a little extra history involved – the Bulldogs would be the first team ever to hold the all three of the AFL, VFL and AFL Women’s premierships at the same time.

The skills will improve, the endeavour is already there

It’s fair to say in the opening round of the competition that the skills haven’t always been up to scratch, and I’ve seen more than a few people having a dig at the players on social media.

I’d really like to find out where this perfect error-free version of AFL that everyone else is apparently watching is broadcast – because I certainly have never seen it.

Men kick clangers. Men miss goals from ten metres out. Men kick the ball out on the full. Alright? Let’s not pretend that doesn’t happen.

I’ve seen North players do all three in the space of five minutes and my coffee table has just barely lived to tell the tale.

Certainly the skill level in AFL Women’s is a rung below that of the fully professional men’s competition at the moment, but let’s look at the facts.

In addition to only being semi-professional at the moment, the players would all understandably be dealing with some significant nerves playing their first games in a new competition, adjusting to the smaller-size ball being used, learning to deal with the noise made by much larger crowds than they’re used to, and developing a rapport with their teammates, many of whom they’ve never played with before.

All those things are essential to good footy skills, so give the players a bit of time to find their rhythm in this brave new world and the quality will increase noticeably.

In the mean time, what can’t be faulted is the passion and hardness with which they play – I can think of more than a few blokes on six-figure salaries in the men’s game who could learn a thing or two from watching the games we’ve seen this weekend.

The players are putting their bodies on the line and showing immense courage, and that’s what makes football great.

GWS are in for some pain

The Giants’ list was one of the lower-rated of the lot before the competition began, and their struggle to be competitive against the Adelaide Crows on Saturday confirmed a lot of those suspicions.

They boast a pretty young team but in addition to that, they’ve had the misfortune to lose a lot of key players to injury before things even got going.

Of their two marquee signings, Renee Forth is out for the season with an ACL injury, and Emma Swanson missed Saturday’s game because of a hamstring.

They’ll also be without forward-ruck Louise Stephenson for most if not all of the season – in short, they are missing a lot of their top talent right now.

Their home games will hopefully give them enough advantage to be competitive and snag or win or two, but from this vantage point it looks like their form this season will be more in line with that of the men’s team several years ago, rather than the dominant powerhouse they’ve become.