As Waz said, the clubs are now in control of the W-League so I have the following bits of advice for them (in no particular order):
1. Sort out the draw. It’s a joke that neither Melbourne side plays in Melbourne until round 5 and then it takes place in Broadmeadows on a Thursday night and it takes almost an hour by train from the city to get there.
2. Don’t play double headers. It may be convenient for TV but gives the impression that the women’s match is secondary to the main event of the A-League. Also sees them playing at the hottest time of the day quite often.
3. Play a couple of standalone matches in big stadiums. Melbourne Victory’s mens team have the bye over Christmas so there was an opportunity to play a W-League match against Melbourne City over this period at AAMI and draw a big crowd.
4. Play a full home and away season.
5. Expand to include more teams.
5. Long term stand on your own two feet and don’t play poor cousin to the NWSL. This is related to point 4 as reason we don’t have full home and away season is because it would eat into the NWSL pre-season.
6. Ditch Fox Sports and help fund the ABC to show all games live (incl. on iView). Also experiment with streaming via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.
7. Create W-League specific merchandise and understand men also like women’s football and want to buy merchandise (although credit to Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne City who at least allow you to buy a jersey with W-League logo on it). Talk to anyone at a Matildas game and one of the biggest complaints is the lack of merchandise available (this was a major source of frustration at the recent world cup). The store link on the official W-league website takes you too the a-league official store FFS.
8. Understand that W-League crowds are vastly different to A-League crowds so you need to take a different approach to marketing these games. Active support is growing in the W-League but it needs help. Form connections with your local NPLW teams and give free tickets/memberships to junior players.
9. Don’t play games in the hottest part of the day.
10. Talk to your fans and find out what their preferred kickoff time is that’s going to make it easiest for them to attend.
11. Have one social media channel for both men and women per platform. I know clubs have said they are going to do this but there is no reason not to do this now.

There is so much potential in the W-League because credit to the clubs the majority are starting to really invest now and offer the players access to great facilities which is not always the case in Europe or USA. But there is still so much more work to be done and I really hope the clubs are smart enough to recognise how much untapped revenue there is to be had from the W-League.

Was a good article on the world game website about this very issue recently. https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/australian-youth-teams-face-difficult-future-predicts-coaching-guru

I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again – we have to stop glorifying the individual when this is a team sport. If it was all about the individual and the team didn’t matter then Portugal would’ve won every European Championship since 2004 and Argentina would’ve won the last 4 world cups.

“But now it’s time for the Suns to take themselves seriously so those outside the club can too.” Agreed and what better way to do this than sign Rhys Stanley.

That incident highlighted the stupidity of the new handball law. If that incident took place in Sydney’s penalty area and resulted in a goal it would’ve been ruled out. But because it came off a defender as I understand it then the old deliberate rule applies and would be hard to argue it was deliberate.

Agreed Mike and it was also way better in terms of on field quality than the Boca/River Plate Copa Libertadores semi final played during the week. And atmosphere wise it seemed the equal of that match (helped by the fact it’s safe for away fans to travel in Australia). It’s OK to celebrate the things the league does well while still focusing on what needs to improve.

The problem with VAR is its use on subjective decisions as it’s just another human applying their interpretation based on slow motion replays (which always make things worse). If it was restricted just to offside (but with an inbuilt margin for error such as cricket has with ball tracking) and double checking red cards for mistaken identity then it’d be OK. I’m all for the use of technology in sport but only when there’s no human involvement (e.g. goal line technology).

It’s actually quite common that even though someone is playing the sport at a high level they’re not that interested in the sport. Some players absolutely love the sport and will talk about it 24/7 others enjoy playing it but aren’t that obsessed by it. So I took her comments as someone who falls into the latter category and there’s nothing wrong with that. Seemed a pointless comment from Stuart to include it in this article. As for Archie it shows that commercial networks across all sports place emphasis on the profile of a player rather than their ability as an analyst.

ha ha good one. In time it could develop into a good rivalry but it needs them to be in their own stadium first

Great article Mike and indeed by any measure this is indeed a great derby (and I say that as a Victory fan so have no dog in the fight) – both teams having a genuine dislike of each other based on historical geographical differences, both sets of fans creating an incredible atmosphere and one that has grown organically rather than one that’s been artificially created (like the Melbourne derby). And in a ground whereby from what I understand the fan experience was at the core of its design.

The reason the bid changed from a Geelong based one to the west of Melbourne is the FFA strongly suggested they should change because they wanted to create more derbies. It was nothing to do with the Victorian government.

Agreed. Even the English have belatedly realised the importance of good coaching and are starting to invest more money into this area. A huge factor that helped Iceland qualify for the last two major tournaments was they made it free to obtain UEFA coaching licences.

Great news for women’s football in particular. Now if only we actually knew WHEN and WHERE w-league games were being played, but hey no rush it’s only been 8 months since the last season ended.

When to comes to the other codes being rivals it’s really to do with playing talent, signing the best ‘athletes’ so to speak. There had always been a battle between cricket and Australian rules in the southern states when it came to sigging talent in the mens game, with footy often winning by dent of more opportunities to play at the eltie level. Then people woke up and realised that women were also capable of playing sport and so again the battle for talent ramped up. That was why the AFL rushed into bringing the creation of AFLW forward as cricket had just made their elite players full time and The Matildas popularity was going through the roof so they were worried about losing ground. I reckon for at least 90% of fans there’s no rivalry between the codes as fans support teams in more than one code. And in the media it’s more a case of old white men that are scared the world is changing and they are in danger of no longer being the majority lashing out against football because it symbolizes the changing world and they don’t like it.

Geelong has a history of trading fairly with other clubs which is why they usually don’t have any problems getting players they want (provided the player wants to come to Geelong). Asking for two first round picks is fair given the quality of Kelly so if WCE don’t offer that then how is Geelong being unfair? WCE know what Geelong want, have had 12 months to figure out how to do it, so if they don’t come in with a fair offer then Geelong are within their rights to talk to Fremantle. I am a Geelong supporter and am sympathetic to Kelly’s situation and have complete admiration for the season he turned in after being refused a trade. However there are two clubs in WA so Geelong are perfectly within their rights to talk to Freo IF WCE don’t offer a deal acceptable to Geelong. If WCE want Kelly then they should pay what Geelong ask. If they don’t then fine.

Foxtel have said in the past that they are driven by subscriptions and not ratings which makes perfect business sense. One of the primary objectives FOX Sports had when buying the rights to football was the hope it would stop fans of AFL & NRL cancelling their subscriptions over summer as both sports have a long season this was a common occurrence. Football didn’t deliver the boost in subscriber numbers they hoped for hence their massive investment in cricket, AFL & NRL. So far this too has failed to give them the boost in subscribers they hoped for (because enough games in the AFL are available on ch 7, test cricket and BBL are available on Ch 7 and ODI’s aren’t that popular anymore and NRL fans by and large seem content with amount of games on ch 9). Foxtel has struggled since day one in Australia to attract massive subscriber numbers as Australians are reluctant to pay to watch live sport on TV when for so many years it was free. So whilst football hasn’t been the goldmine Fox hoped for, neither has any other sport.

Geelong will end up with pick 2 after making the bold move to trade Rhys Stanley and Zac Smith to GC in return for pick 2. To sweeten the deal Geelong supporters will enter a bidding war to be the one who gets to personally deliver both players to the GC and the money raised from the sale will be given to the GC to keep Stuart Dew supplied with pies.

” I have a feeling this lack of advertising wont hurt us as much as people think it will. At least not in terms of cost benefit.” Spot on. I really don’t understand how people think that all these thousands of people are going to flood through the gates just because they saw an ad on TV or a fancy poster. I know it’s been said before but i’ll say it again, we need proper football stadia and that will help increase crowds. Melbourne Victory’s average non-derby crowd at docklands stadium isn’t much different to the average crowd when playing at AAMI and even if they move the seats in atmosphere is still rubbish. So why not just play all games at AAMI and concentrate on selling it out every week. A huge part of the WSW early success in terms of crowds was because the atmosphere was so good and people wanted to be part of that.

Alternately have everyone play each other once and then have an extra round that is basically the AFL’s cash cow round – you’d have WC v Freo, Crows v Port, Swans v GWS, Lions v Suns, Cats v Hawks, Tigers v Blues, Dons v Pies, and then any combo out of Saints, Dogs, Dees and North. Unfortunately neither my idea or yours will ever come to fruition as the AFL is not a sporting competition. It’s a business operating in the entertainment market and the key objective for any business is maximum profit.

Yes other clubs also had that benefit and didn’t draft as wisely as Richmond, hence why I said I wasn’t downplaying what a great job their recruiters did. What I was referring to is that clubs who found themselves down the bottom around 2010 and 2011 had to deal with compromised drafts (and yes I take your point about Tigers but they had their elite talent by then that they could build their list around) and since then clubs down the bottom have been most impacted by shrinking of the talent pool. The point I was trying to make is that it’s all well and good to criticise clubs for not going to the draft armed with early picks and focusing more on trades but that the arrival of GWS and Gold Coast (combined with free agency) has changed the landscape. I believe we’re entering a period where teams will rise and fall rapidly and it’s unlikely any one team will dominate for prolonged periods.

Your overall point is valid Josh but you can’t use Richmond as the proof of this IMO. The reason being is Richmond had the benefit of having uncompromised drafts to build the core of their list and as there were two less clubs the talent pool in the draft was greater. I agree that early draft picks are where you build the core of your team (the likes of Dusty, Rance, Cotchin etc.) The arrival of Gold Coast and GWS severely disrupted the ability for clubs down the bottom to access elite talent via the draft, and the effects of this are still being felt now. Don’t forget that without Tom Lynch Richmond would’ve been lucky to have finished 8th and wouldn’t have got anywhere near a GF as he held the forward line together when Jack was injured. And he came via free agency and not the draft. None of this is to downplay what an excellent side Tigers are and what a great job their recruiters did, more that their side was primarily built prior to the arrival of GWS and Gold Coast and thus they had access to uncompromised drafts. The arrival of two extra clubs has meant an already thin talent pool has gotten even thinner (Australia’s population is only around 25 million and then factor in how many sports are available for boys and girls to choose from) so i’m not convinced you can use Richmond as the justification for your argument. Be interesting to see how Brisbane go in the next few years as they have been building their list during the era of compromised drafts. If they have the level of success Richmond have then they are the team that supports your argument. My suspicion is that we’re going to see teams win by having built almost entirely via the draft and others emerge having used a combination of draft, trade and free agency with no one method dominate over the other.

I’d love to see an old fashioned shootout between Lynch at one end and Cameron at the other with both teams scoring over 100 points.

For my money this is the discussion we need to have – why are the clubs pushing to sign more foreign players? Are they doing so because they don’t believe the quality of Australian players is good enough? If so, why not? Are they even bothering to scout NPL level? Whether you increase the number of foreign players or not, unless you actually invest in youth development then the league has no chance of increasing in quality (unless all of a sudden every club is brought by a billionaire and the salary cap is removed and the number of foreign players is unlimited). We also need to determine what the point of the a-league and w-league is. Is it to produce players capable of playing for the Socceroos/Matildas? Is it to make money for the club owners? Is it to provide entertainment? Is it a vehicle for clubs to represent their communities? IMHO the question of whether to increase the number of foreign players is too nuanced to be boiled down to a simple yes or no answer.

“What has to be figured out is whether the club is likely to give youth players an opportunity and just how good the coaching is”. This will be fascinating to watch over the next decade or so – how many academy players will get a chance at senior level (even if at a different club)? Will the clubs recognise the need to invest in quality coaching at that level to give themselves the best chance of developing players?

Any discussion about Chris Scott’s future is pointless as he’s contracted until end of 2022. I am not a huge fan of his however I don’t apportion much blame for Friday night on him, Richmond were too good and we missed some very easy chances in 2nd quarter. I thought he set them up to try and player quicker like against West Coast and we did that at times but had nothing to kick to. His decision to play Henderson worked exactly as I thought it would – it achieved nothing. Agree 100% with the author, time to promote some young talent from VFLM team. For next season I want to see a more attacking game plan and some more young talent in the side and what happens from there happens. I would be very surprised if Kelly stays given that he has a child on the autism spectrum which is why he wants to return to WA but he needs to be prepared to play for Freo if they offer Geelong a better deal. Taylor can stay f he wants but he may have to spend some time in the VFL which if he accepted would be of great value. Gazza if he stays then only as a small forward. Henderson and Touhy thanks for your time. Selwood to move to half-back same as how Bartel was used for last few years. Avoid free agency unless someone like Jeremy Cameron becomes available who would significantly improve our team immediately.