We have officially reached the end of a third AFLW season and, true to form, it has been filled with as much controversy as the last.
Conferences, free-to-air TV, poaching players, finals times and locations, expansion, standard of the game, have enough goals been kicked – and, true to form, lots of people complaining that the AFLW actually exists.
Sadly for those against the competition, their complaints couldn’t be heard over the crowd of 53,000 at the AFLW grand final.
AFLW is here to stay.
Don’t like it? Don’t read about it and don’t watch it. It’s not that hard to do.
I think it’s easy to forget that AFLW is still in its establishment stage because it’s aligned with the AFL and is the women’s official competition of Aussie Rules. But, as with every new league, it will take some time to grow, and the sooner we can accept that the easier it will be to appreciate the league’s growth from season to season.
Because, ultimately, the AFLW isn’t really about us. It’s about our girls of the future.
The key to this competition’s success is patience.
While the effects of AFLW may not be immediate on the competition itself, it is having incredible effects on its future stars. Sarah Black from AFL.com.au highlighted the “broader effect” AFLW is having on females across the country:
You can see what the AFL is trying to achieve, and it is working.
Exposing girls as young as ten and 12 to a professional competition will encourage them to start participating now, and by the time they’re 18 their skills will be developed. These same girls are attending the games week in, week out, watching their heroes in action and hoping to replicate their efforts some day.
Many of the women currently representing the ten AFLW sides have been playing the sport for only a few years, and all of them have jobs outside playing footy.
The Adelaide Crows celebrate grand final victory. (Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
It doesn’t seem like much now, but these women are developing the league each season, so by the time the competition is well established, the next generation of women’s footballers will be done with junior footy and ready for the big time.
If we want a women’s league – and a successful one at that – we have to start somewhere. We can’t just establish a league and expect the standard will match the men in an instant. Great things take time. Just ask anyone who watched the first VFL games back in the 1890s – I’m sure they’d say the same thing.
This is simply the starting point, and we have to start now in order to establish a successful league for the future. There are plenty of believers – over 53,000 of them were at Adelaide Oval for the grand final. Coincidently both Carlton sides played in Adelaide over the weekend, which would’ve been some incentive to travel over, but it was a sensational turnout nonetheless.
While the result was predictable, it was the unfortunate and unpredictable that united fans around the ground.
Star Crow Erin Phillips suffered a serious knee injury in the third term that resulted in her being stretchered off and taking no further part in the game. She left the ground to a standing ovation by every single person in the audience. It was a special reaction to a heartbreaking moment in the game.
Even without their star player on the field for the full duration of the game, the Crows won convincingly like many assumed they would. The team to beat all season was up against a Carlton side that made finals on the back of a questionable conference system.
Credit to the Blues – they played a sensational game against Fremantle in the semi-final, but they failed to fire against the Crows.
What I can’t understand is the need for a conference system in the first place. I understand the system works in other sports, but I also understand it hasn’t worked for us this season. This is a competition with ten sides in its third season. It is not the NBA with over 70 years of history, 30 teams and the ability to successfully run a season with two conferences. Sorry but that’s the reality of it.
I’m happy to give it a shot, but I’m also happy for officials to put their hands up and say they made a mistake and scrap the system halfway through the season.
On the flip side, is the AFL clinging onto the conference system in the hope that, along with the league’s development, it will all even out eventually? Probably.
As passionate as we are about wanting it to work right now, all aspects of the competition may be down to patience and waiting. And while we’re waiting, who says we can’t enjoy ourselves? We are blessed with some incredibly talented players who are superb on the field and outstanding leaders off it as well. It’s those amazing women that our girls are watching on and aspiring to be like, week in and week out.
The league has come so far in its first three seasons. Think about how far it can go. A little patience now will pay off in the future.
And the future is looking bright for our girls.
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#IAP Do you really believe that?? It was men who ruled the world; women had to fight to gain the right to vote. They had to convince men to give them the vote. Through most of the 20th century women in tertiary education were the exception by far. However up to about 30 years ago women were generally being groomed (pun alert) to be hairdressers and secretarys. Women excelling at sports were considered 'butch' and unsurprisingly in many high profile cases turned out to be lesbian and so reinforcing that image. Women did set up competitions - cricket, footy.....very much pushed to the back of mind. The top sports administrators regarded them as 'butch'....etc etc...and focused their energies on the men (understandably). However - we know that while girls were permitted to play footy with the boys for a while - they were overnight told there was no where to play and girls like Erin Phillips took up basketball (because she didn't like the look of the netball skirts....was she a 'Tom boy'?). Because the men were the 'keepers of the code' and controlled the grounds and controlled the media and controlled the money - - it required families of 3 girls to take the men to court in the early 2000s to win their right to play footy. That symbolic freedom from oppression has been playing out in real over the last 10 years in particular and most obviously over the last 5 years since the announcement and beginning of the AFLW. Damn right they (females) had been oppressed. However - as far as payment goes - I'm a realist, but and know this - the importance of female participation to the foreseeable future of the AFL is massive, absolutely massive - the girls have helped the AFL reign in soccer in the participation stakes and ensure that Aust Footy facilities can get funded.....just ask the Brisbane Lions how much it will have helped them get their Springfield facility funded by having the girls involved. It's going to cut both ways. The women also provide the AFL and the brands of it's clubs a bigger calendar of exposure. I'll suggest the girls are earning their money and more.
Aligee
Roar Rookie
Fair enough ????, everyone has their price
RT
Roar Rookie
Shifty, you have asked two questions in this thread. Your first question was answered in the first 3 words of the very first reply. Your second question was answered in the first 4 words of the very first reply to that post.
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#shifty I'd say clearly not. $50 would be overs (don't even charge that for the SANFL or VFL GF's). However - when you consider that the top tiers were not anticipated to be opened on the day - for the women playing and involved, as they saw those stands get opened and filled up before half time - - as some have said, they grew up getting pretty well no one to watch them play, and being told there were just 'Tom boys' and the like. The 53,000 that came, that forced the opening of the full capacity of such a venue - - that is a far, far bigger story and bigger deal than "did they pay?". Do you get that?
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
When petrol is below $1.30 I might buy a bag of chips or a choccie bar - above that and it's no go.
Penster
Roar Guru
Male ballet dancers get paid the same as females, but females are the stars of the show. There's a reason the all male Swan Lake never took off. We call this equality.
shifty
Roar Rookie
I'm not complaining about anything, simply asking a question. The fact that none of the replies actually answered my question probably confirms my point.
IAP
Guest
Women aren't fighting sporting oppression. There's always been avenues for them to play professional sport (if you choose being paid for playing a game as a signal of not being oppressed"). Women could have chosen to set up their own competitions; no-one's stopped them. Instead they've chosen to do nothing for decades and then let men set them up for them. That's not oppression, that's lack of endeavour. As far as getting paid goes, you know as well as I do that it's all about bums on seats. If people don't turn up to watch then they don't deserve the big bucks. It's as simple as that. This idea that women should get paid heaps to play a game just because of their gender is sexist and lacking any substance at all. And it's certainly not empowering or showing women's worth to mooch off the blokes to fund their leagues.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
I'm with you Penster. I've spent thousands of dollars over a lifetime following the football, nice to get something back for free for once. Long may it continue!
VivGilchrist
Roar Rookie
No surprise. Adelaideans get behind their teams. Crows have always been well supported and the Strikers are the best supported BBL team. This wouldn’t have gotten 53k anywhere else.
Raimond
Roar Guru
The best part about AFLW is that it infuriates a large segment of the public simply for existing. Possibly Gillon's finest achievement.
Raimond
Roar Guru
Latham did manage to get into NSW Parliament, though.
Penster
Roar Guru
Only you Kdog.
Penster
Roar Guru
I've been paying thousands to the VFL and AFL every year for decades for memberships, travel, food, drink, merch for my family. Really nice to be able to attend something free for a change. Great atmosphere, reminiscent of the old days, great sportswomen, standard improving yearly, it's impressive and daughters loving it especially because they now play. Only a miserable sod who perceives he's lost something would complain about that.
Penster
Roar Guru
Because nothing says winner like "i'm from Western Sydney".
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
One pet Kdog at least.
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#IAP Well.....women have been and still are fighting 'sporting oppression'. It's extremely naive to put forward the Australian Open women's final of a grand slam tennis tournament as being any form of proof in this area. It is precisely because of the general oppression that the AFLW in this country has been resonating so well. Much to the annoyance of soccer folk who seem to feel ignored - - but that's not the case - - women have been chipping away for quite some time; sure we've had great female role models: Dawn Fraser, Raylene Boyle, Evonne Goolagong, Cathy Freeman, many other swimmers etc. Generally international pre-eminence was required and rarely did big pay days follow. One of the key areas to break through is for a domestic league to gain real traction. Sure - the WNBL but very few players are doing much more than covering costs. The W-League, likewise, low paid if at all and minus any form of fanfare. Netball does it's best - and that has included hitching on to the AFL and Melb Storm (NRL). The WBBL in recent times and the AFLW have done what they other sports haven't really managed thus far. It IS a big deal. It's not the WHOLE deal.....no one is saying that - but - what it is IS another incremental step. It's allowing young girls far greater scope to see female sporting heroes across a broader array of sports - and potentially some that might offer a decent bit of coin without having to be top 10 in the world!!
Maximus insight
Guest
Ouch! And yet soccer fans in western Sydney apparently laff at alf
Andrew Miller
Editor
You're right, how dare those children play a sport of their choosing!
Mister Football
Roar Guru
That Sydney viewing figure is actually bigger than the NATIONAL figure WSW got last time round (the men that is).