The changes AFLW needs to build a truly independent identity and thrive

Ta! Like most good kids she was an onballer, just sensational below her knees, seemed to just know where the ball was and never fumble. A very good sprinter at Primary school so she would be off and away in a flash Then she grew, a good also a bit not quite key position size. She turned into a good overhead mark and has a lovely, precise kick. So she can play forward. Or back. She’s one of the few with polish and all round game awareness at her club so gets played as a bit of a problem solver. She’s on the cusp of finding a women’s team or staying at her club (which will hold her back, but she is loyal), or just sitting on it for a bit as she is into her studies, too. It’s a hard time for women’s sport, keeping a connection between 15 and 17/18. Especially, bizarrely, with sport dropping off in year 11 and 12 - when we did the HSC we did as much sport as we could, in school and out, to manage the stress. — Mon is a jet. But then every club has one near as good, and 2-4 midfielders better than our next best midfielder. We have Conti, Sheerin, Brennan, Seymour as the best players just about every week, which talks to our depth and the predictability of our game. We’re still doing what we did last year but teams have worked it out and have got better themselves (standard of teams 5-14 this year through the roof). We are blaming injuries but really need to think how we structure up, use the trade. Make some hard calls, got some popular players who maybe aren’t going to be quite good enough. That’s all ok. As long as we look out not on. Big pre season, which is hard as it’s still only semi professional. Get some leg speed, some bigger body midfield. Hours and hours on marking. Skill based turnover is killing is, obviously it’s often pressure based - but not always. And jag more of these academy products. I don’t care if they are from Adelaide or Sydney or Brisbane or Perth. So many great fully rounded young players coming through.

Richmond are alright, Conti is a player you build a team around. Good luck to your daughter, what sort of player? Utility or Key position? Watch Bonnie Toogood this year, she is like a young Roger Merrett

funded by men? no women help fund the AFL?

yes. i don't mind the intent in the article but yours is the view I share. we're richmond but I have seen a lot of Giants games, we know Georg Hibberd who wrote the great book about the AFLW Giants and their struggles during Covid Year 1. My daughter is 15 and a kid with talent, was Swans Academy and didn't like it, but I hoped for a while she might try and play professionally (she prob still could but it's not her plan - so she won't). we are WBBL tragics. So I've got heaps of overlapping perspectives, that coalesce in a pro-AFLW perspective the thing I notice this year is the completely predictable uptick in physicality and skills, teams like Essendon destroyed Richmond with pace and skill. The Swans look scary, as you would expect of an Academy-rich team finally getting its mojo together. GIve it another 5 years and we will have a much better idea whether any changes are needed. Yes you will still see dropped marks and poor kicks. But the average player's standard is way up, despite the crowds being down. And i See many skills errors from experienced Richmond AFL players. My daughter's team got walloped this year by a Hills District team with about 8 Giants Academy girls in it. One of them kicked a waterlogged wrong-foot 45m bomb goal. Don't worry, they are coming... This time last yerar my daughter was in a thrown together Sydney Allstars team and played a scratch match against Michael Aish's Academy girls from Adelaide. OMG. Redhot. Don't worry, they are coming...

Interesting article. I am not a fan of any of the changes you suggested sorry, and feel that the biggest things that will improve the league are time, money and a 17 game season. Time because girls have only been able to consider an AFL career for eight years - since 2017. Many players converted from other sports, or did not get to play as much junior footy as men do. This will change as more junior teams establish AFL pathways for women. Money because being fully professional is likely to coincide with a significant jump in skills, as was seen in the men's game. Football from the pre-professional era is nothing like the modern game, mostly due to the increased fitness and skills players can develop when they are paid to play and train full time. And a 17 game season, because the more games women play against the best available, the better they will get. No AFLW player has played more than 75 games at the moment; many AFL men's players only really begin to hit their best footy after a few seasons of finding their feet. It would also remove fixturing inequalities, streamline the ladder and increase the relevance of match statistics. As for the rules, as a follower of AFLW, I want it to remain as close to AFL men's as possible. I like both games and want the rules to be similar.

If the AFLW went on their own they'd never get the competition going. The harsh reality is that the only reason it's going and survives is because they are piggy-backing off AFL/VFL clubs history and traditions. Everything is copied from the men, other that the abominable "tradition" of singing the club song on the ground. The reason the vast majority of people who watch do watch it is because they are wearing AFL club kits. The competition is funded by the AFL competition. If they went on their own only their families and friends would turn up. The women could have easily set up their own state or national competition, the AFL doesn't own footy, but they knew that they'd never be able to fund it, so they claimed "inequality" to get what they wanted, which was a competition funded by men.

I follow the Crows but if they had any sense they would've had local teams coming thru. I dunno, say Norwood

Good points. Especially the identity of existing clubs and the Foxtel comp

Whether liked or not, the city of Melbourne is the heart of Australian footy. It makes senses to have the women's footy linked to the existing AFL clubs. Dunno about anyone else but I follow the North Melbourne women because I follow the North Melbourne men. The standard and scoring continues to improve noticeably. The interchange cap has worked really well as has the lengthening of the quarter to 17 + 2. The only thing I would change is the length of the quarters to the same as the blokes. Like Gyfox says it takes time.

AFLW will always struggle for its own unique identity because the clubs don't have their own unique identity, the whole competition is a cut and paste of the AFL. Made even harder for clubs like Gold Coast and GWS who are still developing their own culture in the AFL. Had they taken a more measured approach, elevated existing clubs bringing with them their own history and culture, or created new stand alone clubs where the talent was more prolific, this would have created a point of difference and helped the league develop is own brand. Hell instead rushing to a national competition, we could have simply started with a Foxtel Cup style comp where the best women's clubs from each state compete against each other. But this is Corporate AFL, they don't give a damn about football. They own the IP of the existing 18 clubs, and it was easier to piggyback a women's comp off the men's, hoping the baked in supporter groups would follow the logo. Women's football could've been its own thing, it should've been its own thing, but the AFL could never allow that.

I am puzzled by this article. From what I understand, AFLW has the highest attendances of the other women’s football competitions. Despite the success of the FIFAWWC, AFLW is still more popular than soccer. Whilst acknowledging the complaints (low scoring & teams not playing 17 games) it is early days yet & we must be patient