Did the AFL drop the ball on women's footy?

[Teen Wolf]

AFLW really needs to get rid of the boundary ump throwing the ball 10 meters in from the boundary line.

Makes it look like little league rather than a professional comp.

It won't take place inside the 50m arcs, from this upcoming season onwards. It'll still be done on the wings.

Regardless, different rules for women's football were a thing before the AFL got involved, which seems to be something a lot of people (including Caroline Wilson) don't realise.

Biggest issue is whether you like it or not to put it bluntly people watch sport for entertainment.

Who wants to watch an AFLW game with let’s say 6-8 goals at most and that’s at absolute best. Been saying it for 2 years, reduce the size of the field, reduce the players (take two mids out both sides). Get to a stage where 10+ goals a side is the bare minimum.

Then let’s compare to the Matilda’s who score goals and play attractive exciting football (soccer). They also have elite players in their side playing overseas and are well known not just Kerr. Without looking it up can anyone name more than 4-5 AFLW players? I’m struggling to name that many. There’s the issue.

They can easily get it to 10, 20 or even 30 goals a side by changing the field dimensions. Won't make it a better product, just a ridiculous flow-free stop-start game. Smaller ground equals more congestion.

Sooner or later, people making the "just take two players out of both sides" suggestion will realise the league has already done that. Longer games and less ugly tactics would be far more effective (and at least one of those things will be partially implemented, with an ~8 minute increase coming in this season).

 

[Wallaby]

No one is watching the World Cup at the moment because 'Women's soccer is a good game to watch'. They are watching the Australian Team playing in a world competition.
The reason most people watch sport is to see their team win - to get involved in the narrative of competition. Check out the Olympics - people watch sport they have never heard of (Rythmic Gymnastics? Synchronised Swimming?? Equestrian???), if an Australian is competing. This is a worldwide thing - not just Australia. People would rather watch a poor game or sport if their team is playing with a chance to win, than watch a classic contest between neutrals.

Comparing the Matildas to AFLW is silly - the Matildas are the only Australian team in the competition, so the media can run with 'Support the Girls! Our Aussie Champs' etc. The narrative becomes 'we are all barrack for the team'. For a local competition (like AFLW or the W-League) the media have to report on all teams, so they can't barrack for one team or the other - there are interstate biases, obviously, but these are minor compoared with 'The Entire Nation Is Cheering For One Team!'.

 

[HairyO]

The skill level is just too poor in aflw compared to watching a men's game. Matildas skill level isn't that far off socceroos

Socceroos would win 30 - 0, only beaten by lost time due to laughing too much.

People need to stop comparing womens' sports to mens' sports. Much like Heavyweight boxers dont fight Super Featherweights, or adults dont play against children.

As for the Matildas, they will go back into obscurity in a few weeks, much like AFLW disappears very quickly at the end of each season.

Final thought, comparing a single one-off, one month global competition with a domestic, 12? week long national competition is silly.

Do we compare World Cup with A League?

 

[Blackhawk42]

The Matilda's are a force right now because every woman you've ever known who never quite understood your love affair with sport now finally gets in. They're all in!
Think about how many people that is.

The interesting thing is going to be if it translates to AFLW and other women's sport after the world cup is over.

 

[keithrichards]

r. Without looking it up can anyone name more than 4-5 AFLW players? I’m struggling to name that many. There’s the issue

I can name dozens of AFLW players, and maybe 5-10 Matilda’s.

Had you asked me 3 weeks ago it would have been 1 Matilda

 

[Kwality]

I think the novelty factor is gone for AFLW. I’m being cynical here but I reckon a lot of clubs use it as a box ticking exercise and a way to get government funding for facilities and their ‘women’s program’. 18 clubs are far too many. Should be a 8-10 team comp at most.

Should have built on the State comps

 

[NYRB]

Women want the quick bucks like their male counterparts. Ive believed in tennis when they implemented equal pay in Grand Slams, I believed women should have been made to play a best of 5 sets.

The standard in womens sport is not better than males in code such as: soccer, tennis or cricket.

I watch womens cricket predominately because of the event. But if you were to get the equivalent of male cricketers v female cricketers in say a T20 game, i guarantee the males would win 950 times out of 1000.

If woman want equal pay especially in a sport like tennis, Im even all for them to either 1) play best of 5 sets in slams or 2) compete with the men.

It seems like most of the noise around equal pay come from the women who are disgruntled about their pay packets.

 

[Crowbling]

As for the Matildas, they will go back into obscurity in a few weeks, much like AFLW disappears very quickly at the end of each season.

Except they won’t. The Matildas were drawing 30-40k to friendlies a few years ago and they are going to be even bigger after this World Cup. And that is 40k people that paid, not free tickets like the AFLW.

The biggest problem with the AFLW is that it is incredibly poor. The skill level is atrocious and the only thing going for it is the AFL’s bottomless marketing fund trying to manufacture interest and relevance. Like everyone I saw all the publicity and thought it must be good I’ll give it a go. It’s unwatchable though.

 

[NYRB]

The biggest problem with the AFLW is that it is incredibly poor. The skill level is atrocious and the only thing going for it is the AFL’s bottomless marketing fund trying to manufacture interest and relevance. Like everyone I saw all the publicity and thought it must be good I’ll give it a go. It’s unwatchable though.

The skill levels are poorer but it has improved in the 2022 season from the games I saw. I think with the success of the Matildas, this might be a huge concern for the AFLW. It might make a huge dent into the market share of viewers and participation. Ill keep an eye out on the W-League season (which is usually held in summer) coming up. Im not sure right now , for me if AFLW is the hottest ticket in town at all especially among the female deomgraphic in Australia.

In the AFLW, there is a distinct gap between the top 2-3 teams and the bottom 4 teams. Yep I even reckon the gap between the North Melbourne males /West Coast males is closer to your top 4 currently in the AFL mens compared to the womens. It sounds scary but thats part of the problem when you dont have depth in your league.

Having been an avid watcher of womens footy in the past, im not sure if id be rushing down to the local or keen to watch it on Kayo this season given the amount of sports we will have overlapping . As an Australian male sports watcher you have to ask yourself honestly what you would watch in your spare time if all sports event overlapped:

1) NFL
2) NBA
3) WBBL
4) Australian Domestic Cricket season (male)
5) Soccer
6) AFLW


I know where my priorities lie with the September-October period approaching. The AFLW for me would have least appeal. And as righfully mentioned by a few here, in terms of skill level of those 6, AFLW is a much poorer level with alot of mistakes. You cannot compare AFLW to mens AFL in any way, shape or form. You could be mistaken to think they were different sports in itself.

 

[Fadge]

Did you miss Craig Kelly's comments ? The more games you play, the bigger the loss.

Craig Kelly: "we can’t just squeeze the lemon and just start handing out cash that we haven’t got" - ABC listen

Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly and Grandstand AFL Commentator Kelli Underwood have had a spirited debate around the AFLW competition.

www.abc.net.au

Craig Kelly: "we can’t just squeeze the lemon and just start handing out cash that we haven’t got"​

Jeepers.

Kelly gave Kelli a cold, hard dose of reality, didn't he?!?

Underwood sounded like Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 'I want it. Now!!!'

 

[GWT6]

The quality of the game has gone backwards in the last year, the expansion killed it by diluting the skill level.

Those teams that didn't want to be in it from the start should not have been given the option to join. The AFL in it's haste to make a feel good story have kneecapped themself.

 

[Fadge]

The skill levels are poorer but it has improved in the 2022 season from the games I saw. I think with the success of the Matildas, this might be a huge concern for the AFLW. It might make a huge dent into the market share of viewers and participation. Ill keep an eye out on the W-League season (which is usually held in summer) coming up. Im not sure right now , for me if AFLW is the hottest ticket in town at all especially among the female deomgraphic in Australia.

In the AFLW, there is a distinct gap between the top 2-3 teams and the bottom 4 teams. Yep I even reckon the gap between the North Melbourne males /West Coast males is closer to your top 4 currently in the AFL mens compared to the womens. It sounds scary but thats part of the problem when you dont have depth in your league.

Having been an avid watcher of womens footy in the past, im not sure if id be rushing down to the local or keen to watch it on Kayo this season given the amount of sports we will have overlapping . As an Australian male sports watcher you have to ask yourself honestly what you would watch in your spare time if all sports event overlapped:

1) NFL
2) NBA
3) WBBL
4) Australian Domestic Cricket season (male)
5) Soccer
6) AFLW


I know where my priorities lie with the September-October period approaching. The AFLW for me would have least appeal. And as righfully mentioned by a few here, in terms of skill level of those 6, AFLW is a much poorer level with alot of mistakes. You cannot compare AFLW to mens AFL in any way, shape or form. You could be mistaken to think they were different sports in itself.

Also competing against the Spring Racing Carnival in Sept/Oct/Nov.

After 6 months of full on Footy, including parents with junior footy commitments, what is the appetite for a further three months of AFLW standard footy at the end of the season?

 

[Breretonisahood]

The skill level is just too poor in aflw compared to watching a men's game. Matildas skill level isn't that far off socceroos

True. Not to mention the Socceroos will never get to within a bulls roar of a World Cup semi final. The Matildas are exciting because they are doing what the men’s team have not and never will ( at least not in my lifetime!).

 

[GWT6]

Jeepers.

Kelly gave Kelli a cold, hard dose of reality, didn't he?!?

Underwood sounded like Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 'I want it. Now!!!'

 

[RAPPA]

The Matildas are drawing in a lot of supporters and fans who would have next to no clue about soccer because of the national pride element, which is great. It's a sport that unifies the crowd based on social origin. There is an extreme dilution of the talent pool in AFLW, made excessively worse by expansion. If the AFLW thinks it can compete against the Matildas then they're in for a rude awakening. Hell, even the AFL wouldn't be able to compete against the Socceroos playing in the World Cup.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Women want the quick bucks like their male counterparts. Ive believed in tennis when they implemented equal pay in Grand Slams, I believed women should have been made to play a best of 5 sets.

The standard in womens sport is not better than males in code such as: soccer, tennis or cricket.

I watch womens cricket predominately because of the event. But if you were to get the equivalent of male cricketers v female cricketers in say a T20 game, i guarantee the males would win 950 times out of 1000.

If woman want equal pay especially in a sport like tennis, Im even all for them to either 1) play best of 5 sets in slams or 2) compete with the men.

It seems like most of the noise around equal pay come from the women who are disgruntled about their pay packets.

Men and women both play best-of-3 at big events like, say, the Italian Open where the prize pool for the men's is double the women's. But you haven't mentioned that disparity. You're probably not even aware of it. I wonder why.

The cheapest trick that gets pulled on this subject is implying a distorted manifesto among all female athletes. In reality, most of them just want ongoing incremental improvements, some just want to be able to play sport without threat of beheading. "If women want equal pay"... hey, guess what, the vast majority have never said that.

 

[Kwality]

Entertainment/skill level differential between men's and women's AFL is larger than soccer, cricket, tennis etc. That's partly why they achieved more popularity. But AFLW is getting better, but until the skill level improves drastically, most won't tune it for the entertainment factor unfortunately.

AFLW is the peak competition played on a home & away format.
Dont be silly enough to compare it with the Womens World Cup which is that codes peak competition & played as a tournament every couple of years.

 

[kickazz]

Not sure of your point re goal scoring. Their last start was a nil all draw after regulation and extra time.

The expectation for goals is higher in footy than soccer - I think that is the point. Though 0-0 AET is low, one can expect (and have seen) more this tournement.

AFLW games seems to always have low scores for Australian footy.

 

[Milanista28]

No sport in the world can offer that special moment like the world game, that 'goal' is so special and it's why it's the biggest code on the planet and always will be.

 

[Partridge]

Didn't the Matildas play some junior boys team a few years ago and get flogged?

Not sure. The US team definitely did.

 

[Partridge]

The Matildas are drawing in a lot of supporters and fans who would have next to no clue about soccer because of the national pride element, which is great. It's a sport that unifies the crowd based on social origin. There is an extreme dilution of the talent pool in AFLW, made excessively worse by expansion. If the AFLW thinks it can compete against the Matildas then they're in for a rude awakening. Hell, even the AFL wouldn't be able to compete against the Socceroos playing in the World Cup.

Correct. That happened in 2006. I vividly remember after Australia beat Japan watching a Carlton game in a pub (forget the opponent) and the vibe in the room was amazing, it was almost deflating by comparison. You really had a sense of legitimately the world's biggest sporting tournament vs a local competition.

 

[HairyO]

Except they won’t. The Matildas were drawing 30-40k to friendlies a few years ago and they are going to be even bigger after this World Cup. And that is 40k people that paid, not free tickets like the AFLW.

The biggest problem with the AFLW is that it is incredibly poor. The skill level is atrocious and the only thing going for it is the AFL’s bottomless marketing fund trying to manufacture interest and relevance. Like everyone I saw all the publicity and thought it must be good I’ll give it a go. It’s unwatchable though.

World Cup tickets were $10 for regular games, $20 for finals.

It would run at a huge loss if not being heavily subsidised by the men.

 

[HairyO]

Not sure. The US team definitely did.

U15 Newcastle boys team beat them 7 - 0 but that was a few years ago. It would be 3 - 1 these days.

 

[Partridge]

U15 Newcastle boys team beat them 7 - 0 but that was a few years ago. It would be 3 - 1 these days.

Maybe. I still think people don't truly get the physical gap that exists by the teenage years. It's gargantuan.

 

[BobbyMorri]

Yes...

30 years too late. That how long it has taken this girls to get from becoming nameless to the current biggest thing in Australia. The level these girls are playing now would beat the the 1990 side 10-0 and the 2005 side 5-0.

It takes time to build up the talent and for the womens game to take a distinct identify of its own. AFLW was playing catch up and has expanded too quickly. the quality is low. i am sure it will get better and that the skill will overtake the "rugby scum" we see atm.