Expansion AFL to Fast-track Women's National League (2017)

[keithrichards]

Couldn't find a link, but I'm pretty sure most of the TAC Cup teams now have Female Academies for the best U18 girls in te region to fast track them.

Girls get the chance to train with and get coached by the boys squads Etc, so can only be doing good things for the standard of the comp going forward.

In saying that, I still think 2020 would have been a better target, starting a National Comp now, could decimate the state leagues if not done with some serious thought put in to it

 

[Captivating]

Can't see this having any serious interest as a spectator sport, especially when you have a higher calibre players who can't make it in the AFL running around in a state based league or worse and there's not much interest in them. Why would people tune into a league of even worse players?

 

[Seedsfan]

Couldn't find a link, but I'm pretty sure most of the TAC Cup teams now have Female Academies for the best U18 girls in te region to fast track them.

Girls get the chance to train with and get coached by the boys squads Etc, so can only be doing good things for the standard of the comp going forward.

In saying that, I still think 2020 would have been a better target, starting a National Comp now, could decimate the state leagues if not done with some serious thought put in to it

They don't at the Knights there is an under 15s comp called the subway cup and that is it

 

[jatz14]

Can't see this having any serious interest as a spectator sport, especially when you have a higher calibre players who can't make it in the AFL running around in a state based league or worse and there's not much interest in them. Why would people tune into a league of even worse players?

On what basis do you compare them? I agree that the average skills of the womens game is massively lower than AFL standard (or state league) There are however very skilled players dotted about.

If you look at a Daisy Pearce. Prolific ball winner because she reads play well, neat accurate kick, 2 sided, very good hands. Gives of good handballs, makes good decisions. I have seen her drop into the hole in front of hard leading forwards a number of times. Takes the grab, and the hit without flinching, so she has courage. How does she compare to an AFL footballer? Even if she was AFL standard skill wise, physically she couldn't do it. That doesnt make her an inferior player, just a female player. But if she had a male body, but her current skill set? Would she be AFL standard, or state league, or less than that. I do not know, and I do not think we can know, so what is the point in the comparison?

A national womens league will be the elite female league, like the AFL is the elite male league, and in that sense they will be the same. People will watch on that basis.

 

[keithrichards]

They don't at the Knights there is an under 15s comp called the subway cup and that is it

Your right with the Knights, looks as though Calder look after the northern area.

http://www.aflvic.com.au/youth-girls-academies-action/

Article says there will be 6 academies in 2015, but doesn't mention where

 

[H2F]

Women dominate what gen Y's do.

Great move by the AFl because if we don't get gen y females interested the sport will be dead in 30 years.

Go and survey 10 random 20 something guys in your circle and see how few care about AFL?

It's scary...

 

[thegreig]

Women dominate what gen Y's do.

Great move by the AFl because if we don't get gen y females interested the sport will be dead in 30 years.

Go and survey 10 random 20 something guys in your circle and see how few care about AFL?

It's scary...

Wow... I'm sorry mate but that statement couldn't be further from the truth. I don't have any links to back me up but I'm sure you'd find that participation and membership numbers for men 20-25 are stronger than ever and the AFL is still the number one subject to talk about at work/school... well maybe second behind hot women

 

[jatz14]

Wow... I'm sorry mate but that statement couldn't be further from the truth. I don't have any links to back me up but I'm sure you'd find that participation and membership numbers for men 20-25 are stronger than ever and the AFL is still the number one subject to talk about at work/school... well maybe second behind hot women

Both statements can be true. If you have a dwindling number interested, but those that are interested are more engaged, then you can get climbing memberships, participation etc. For a while, then it catches up with you. The AFL are keen to avoid that point, and what better way than combining both those things, AFL and hot women.

How much more interesting is the local footy club if its full of sports mad girls.

 

[fabulousphil]

^^^^^

Butler Falcons, if West Perth were not interested in spreading the game of football to girls and youth who have no history of the game these girls would have no or very little interest in the game.


Butler Falcons are a unique and enthusiastic team of AFL footballers who have travelled a long way to enjoy the game of AFL.

The 25-player squad consists of young CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) females ranging in ages from 8 through to 18, made up of refugees from Sudan, Uganda and Mauritania.

The team was born from an idea in 2012 from the Edmund Rice Centre who approached the West Perth Football District to help engage the Butler CALD youth and give them something active to do on a Friday night.

AFL quickly became a passion of the initial handful of girls and the sport became a tool for finding friends, becoming fit and engaging in their local community.

Training takes place every Friday nights at 7pm at the Butler Community Centre, and they want everyone to know that they are serious about their footy, and are making a real impact in their local community.

The team are very passionate about establishing themselves as a dominant senior women's football team in the Women's AFL competition.

A coaching philosophy incorporated by the Edmund Rice Centre involves a heavy game-sense approach and they believe that this philosophy has been the reason for the girl’s vast improvement and enjoyment of the game. The girls learn important valuable attitudes and values through the Butler Falcons leadership program, and this helps them to become valuable community members.

Since their inception, the team has gained some renowned acclaim including support from Majak Daw and Dennis Commetti, and they have made several appearances on national media stations, and were recently selected as ambassadors for Refugee Week from June 15 to 21.

They were also recognised and applauded by Premier Colin Barnett and Wanneroo Mayor Tracey Roberts at Australia’s biggest Citizenship Ceremony held at Wanneroo earlier this year.

2014 has also seen the emergence of the Young Butler Falcons, a team full of the younger girls aged from 8-13 years. This team has played separate matches to their older counterparts against other girls their age and are yet to have lost a match.

The Butler Falcons senior team have played several matches against local schools and have held their own against some male teams.

They will showcase their skills at the International Round this Saturday at the International Football Festival at the HBF Arena at 9:00am where they will play against the Joondalup Women’s Youth Girls team.

Female football is one of the fastest growing sports in Australia, and the talent pathways are almost complete with a push for a national women’s AFL competition to be established by 2020. This has been fast-tracked in the last two years with a women’s AFL draft and consequential national women’s team representing both Melbourne Demon’s and Western Bulldogs AFL teams in an annual exhibition match.

“The girls skills and natural talent are that impressive that it’s a very real prospect that we will be seeing a large number of the girls representing an AFL team in the near future” said Scott Minchin, West Perth Football District Community Engagement Officer.

http://old.westperthfc.com.au/district-news/butler-falcons-at-heart-of-international-round/

 

[Leeda]

No sexist stuff in this thread, thanks.

Er, I understand most things but no sexist stuff...

I am not going to draw dirty pictures nor grovel at the foot of my spouse which I have none nor am I going to
tell everyone else what I should or should not say...

Are you serious with condemning the prisoner before he has had his trial..l?

Musing and condemning myself before the almighty should have his way...

 

[Forward Press]

Er, I understand most things but no sexist stuff...

I am not going to draw dirty pictures nor grovel at the foot of my spouse which I have none nor am I going to
tell everyone else what I should or should not say...

Are you serious with condemning the prisoner before he has had his trial..l?

Musing and condemning myself before the almighty should have his way...

There were a whole bunch of deleted posts which were sexist.

If you don't like how the thread is moderated, you can choose not to post in it.

 

[Leeda]

There were a whole bunch of deleted posts which were sexist.

If you don't like how the thread is moderated, you can choose not to post in it.

Sorry, I am never against who posts here and I don't wish to tell you and others what to say.

Apart from the fact that you and others might be just wanting to limit the voice of others.

I do what I want and so do you.

I hope you know that I have a history here so I can't just grovel, or grumble, or call people rude names.

But maybe you just are trying to have me lob grenades and it just aint there.

 

[Forward Press]

Sorry, I am never against who posts here and I don't wish to tell you and others what to say.

Apart from the fact that you and others might be just wanting to limit the voice of others.

I do what I want and so do you.

I hope you know that I have a history here so I can't just grovel, or grumble, or call people rude names.

But maybe you just are trying to have me lob grenades and it just aint there.

If you have a gripe with moderation, take it up with the appropriate mod or mod teams in private.

If you have nothing else to add to this thread, don't post. We'd rather people in this thread, and others on the main board, stick to the topic and not turn it into discussions of moderation practices.

Cheers.

 

[MightyHawks]

More than 4 teams would completely gut womens club football of talent. Even 4 teams will have a huge impact. In WA it would decimate Coastal titans and Swan Districts. The club comp stills needs to a reasonable standard as that is where players will develop.

Maybe you ease into it for the first 2-3 years

If it was set up with 6 teams in the first year you could have a 5 week H&A season and 1 or 2 weeks of finals

Schedule the league after the end of the state seasons or in the middle of the season...

In the long run, if there's a professional or semi professional league operating then that will encourage girls into the state competitions

 

[The Passenger]

I think it's a great idea. I personally wouldn't follow it too closely, but for those interested it would be good to promote the game, and I'm all for any type of sport to be pushed.

But the big thing is they need to have the standard up to scratch, otherwise it won't work. People are unlikely to give it a second chance if they aren't impressed the first time.

I wonder if they might be better building up to this, rather than just going from a few exhibition games to a full blown league in one hit.

They will most likely have to piggyback off the AFL for a while, largely playing curtain raisers, but hopefully the idea would be that competition could stand on it's own after 3 to 5 years.

 

[jatz14]

Maybe you ease into it for the first 2-3 years

If it was set up with 6 teams in the first year you could have a 5 week H&A season and 1 or 2 weeks of finals

Schedule the league after the end of the state seasons or in the middle of the season...

In the long run, if there's a professional or semi professional league operating then that will encourage girls into the state competitions

They have to, and it is something they have to get right. Build to quick, and the quality is not there, and people turn off. Build to slow, and it will be seen as a mickey mouse league or tokenism

 

[dumb]

i would watch it. partly because of an assumption that the skill level would be lower and it could be a scrappy, suburban-type feel to the game. could be less over-umpired, played on grounds with not so amazing drainage.

 

[Roobs321]

Best of luck to them, hope it finds a place in the footy landscape, whatever that may be.

I think the W-League proves that you can make a women's footy league work. Canberra United is actually my favourite domestic soccer club. That said, soccer has traditionally been seen as a women-friendly sport in terms of participation, AFL probably won't quite have the same luxury, at least initially.

Either way, I imagine the standard of a women's national league may be more appealing to some footy followers sick of the vanilla professionalism in the AFL and fond of yesteryear footy. Given VFL has limited exposure on FTA at best, a Women's League might be a fun alternative.

As with the W-League, I'd mostly affiliate with existing clubs, particularly the well entrenched ones with big supporter bases, but maybe also look at Canberra, Darwin, Tasmania and maybe a Defence Force team (at least as an inaugural club anyway, or maybe merged with a weak club like Canberra or Darwin early on). Start with 8 teams - Melbourne x 2, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra/ADF & Tasmania, then look to expand to 10-12 within 4-6 years for Darwin, Western Sydney and 2nd SA/WA clubs. You could even trial a NZ team through the Women's League first.

 

[FRUMPY]

At present there are 6 sides in the VWFL premier division. Say there are 2 victorian clubs (as people have posted on here) in the new womans league, that would represent 60-80 players? That is an average of 10-13 players from each premier club (just speculating that no div2 players make the cut)

How on earth would the VWFL survive that type of culling? And the standard (already a reasonably low level) would be horrific.

There is not the public interest, no money in womens sport (sponsors) and there is definitely not the talent level across victoria/australia to substantiate a new league.

As i have said previously, its up to each state to develop their own leagues to become relevant and to develop the juniors to increase talent levels and number of talented players. The AFL can obviously pump money into these leagues to get them going in the right direction (got no problem with that)

 

[jatz14]

How on earth would the VWFL survive that type of culling? And the standard (already a reasonably low level) would be horrific. As i have said previously, its up to each state to develop their own leagues to become relevant and to develop the juniors to increase talent levels and number of talented players. The AFL can obviously pump money into these leagues to get them going in the right direction (got no problem with that)

Thats what has been happening. VWFL is now a 5 division comp, and Vic, WA and Qld are now starting to fill in the junior pathway and elite development pathway. So how long do they wait? I think 2017 is a touch early, but with the speed of development, i do not think they have to wait until 2020.

Last years WA U16 girls team and the u18s were very strong, and a lot of them haven't hit seniors yet. This years also look like being very strong. Victoria is producing a very good u16 and u18 metro team and a good country team each year. Qld have a strong junior team. All we need is SA to pull the finger out, and there is enough quality coming in to make up the gap fairly quickly (provided they do not do something stupid like go for to big a comp to soon)

However, i do think you are correct in that the chief concern is how big a hit the quality will take, it is one of the chief dangers.

How is this for a possible compromise.

4 teams, 2 Vic, WA, Qld/NSW.
They play each other 3 times for a total of 18 games. Then straight to a 1st v 2nd grand final.
Play 1 game each week, before an AFL game, televised. Players from the teams not playing play club footy.

Advantages
Normal club footy only lose the 44 players playing that weekend.
Having one televised game a week lets people get to know and develop an interest in the comp.
Minimises start up costs and travel costs.
Is an extension of the current concept rather than creating a whole new league.
Each game is a `marque` game. Perth etc would get 1 game a month that could be marketed heavily.
Makes it easier for amateur players to commit when they play every second weekend and travel once a month.
The current exhibition games will have trialled maybe 80 or 90 girls by 2017, so the talent is there for 4 teams.
Down the track add more teams, increase the number of games per week.

 

[pinot]

So the terraces shouting "Holding the Man" & "Baaall" will need to be reinvented?

 

[jatz14]

Watch the international women turn up in droves for this. Especially from the US and Canada.

Aimee Legault the Canadian womens captain has already announced she is moving to Australia for this reason. She nominated for the draft for last years AFL Womens game (as did another Canadian who was already in Australia to play football).

 

[Dr Tigris]

Many on this thread seem to think this is about a semi/pro league. I would imagine that is not even on the cards. Money for support staff, travel etc is all that is required. The AFL should be able to make deals with airlines etc to lower costs there. And existing AFL clubs can provide very cheap access to expertise. So I would not try to set up free standing womens clubs, but use existing AFL clubs. If the initial standard is low - so what?? It will increase rapidly and will provide a goal for young girls to aim at. And also improve the standard overall - over time.

If the AFL leverage what they have the costs are low. And they can grow the game, whilst making it more widely participated. Sounds like an easy win win. As long as they don't think they can make it professional. Over time more money will come in, especially if clubs are associated with AFL teams. I'd be very happy to the RFC to host a team - the Tigresses. Wouldn't hit our bottom line and could grow the future.

 

[The_Wookie]

Many on this thread seem to think this is about a semi/pro league. I would imagine that is not even on the cards. Money for support staff, travel etc is all that is required. The AFL should be able to make deals with airlines etc to lower costs there. And existing AFL clubs can provide very cheap access to expertise. So I would not try to set up free standing womens clubs, but use existing AFL clubs. If the initial standard is low - so what?? It will increase rapidly and will provide a goal for young girls to aim at. And also improve the standard overall - over time.

If the AFL leverage what they have the costs are low. And they can grow the game, whilst making it more widely participated. Sounds like an easy win win. As long as they don't think they can make it professional. Over time more money will come in, especially if clubs are associated with AFL teams. I'd be very happy to the RFC to host a team - the Tigresses. Wouldn't hit our bottom line and could grow the future.

I cant imagine the League would want womens clubs tied directly to the mens AFL clubs. For womens clubs to get the most support they need to be outside the traditional club structure. Take for example, when Carlton and Collingwood entered NSL sides - one of the biggest problems they had was attracting support from non Carlton/Collingwood sources.

Ideally you'd see completely new branded womens sides, sharing facilities with existing AFL clubs, leveraging afl facilities/assets/sponsors.

 

[jatz14]

I think supporters of womens football will go regardless of the branding of the team. Its the casually interested that is the question. While they may not go to watch a womens team if it is branded with the name of a rival club, they may not go and watch a neutral branded team either, where maybe they would watch a team in their colours. So the risk/reward for branding with established clubs is, the risk of alienating other clubs supporters verse having a pool of people who already passionately support the colours. For new branding the equation is, you make the pool of possible supporters as large as possible by not getting anyone offside, verse, that large pool of possible supporters will possibly be mostly people who are at best luke warm, and at worst stone cold on the idea.

I think they need a middle way, but not sure what that is.