Women's Footy Crows AFLW Season 2021 - “2nd comes right after 1st”

[hey shorty]

It's just money. It's not like there's a salary cap (I mean, there essentially is with the tiered payment system, but this kind of payment doesn't come into it). What do Saint Kilda care if they spend an extra hundred grand? If it goes well they'll get that back in membership and sponsorship. If not, they'll just put their hand out to the AFL.

Mind you, we could make the same argument here at the Crows.

It's not just money though, it's the whole Tayla Harris circus that comes with it.

 

[cmndstab]

To be fair, that's less to do with the money and more to do with who Tayla Harris is. She is a lightning rod for controversy.

Also, as a midfielder, Marinoff will be able to contribute far more consistently than Harris.

 

[hey shorty]

As a better player she'll be able to contribute more.

 

[cmndstab]

Article on the AFL website today saying that the next AFLW season will start in December - excellent! I much prefer that to starting in February and then overlapping with the AFL. Now it means there will only really be two months of the year without some footy being played which is fantastic.

They're also aiming to add the remaining four teams by the season after that, so we have one more year without Port to contend with. We should load up on as much quality SA talent as we can!

Starting in December also gives them scope to go backwards once they add the extra teams, perhaps starting in November, or hell, even late October. They could play a proper comp where every team plays every other team once, seventeen weeks of minor round plus three weeks of finals. Have a mid-season break over Christmas, run the comp for 21 weeks culminating with the grand final on the week before round 1 of the men's season. Rotate home and away matches every two years, so if you play one team away this season you play them at home next season.

I really like this idea

 

[hey shorty]

Dumb idea IMO.

Let's Play all through summer so the players are gassed by finals time

 

[Firewalker]

Dumb idea IMO.

Let's Play all through summer so the players are gassed by finals time

Has to be a rule all December/early January games are at least Night games

 

[hey shorty]

Has to be a rule all December/early January games are at least Night games

I wouldn't mind if they all were TBH.

 

[ams4crows]

Now they've thrown open the doors to the last 4 clubs to submit their application, do we really think Port will want / be able to afford a team?

I wonder how many will jump ship to the dark side

 

[hey shorty]

Now they've thrown open the doors to the last 4 clubs to submit their application, do we really think Port will want / be able to afford a team?

I wonder how many will jump ship to the dark side

They will, the AFL will pay for it.

Erin Phillips will coach them

 

[Firewalker]

I wouldn't mind if they all were TBH.

Could quite feasibly go Wednesday night-Monday night during the school holiday period if the AFLPA accept 5 day breaks with the only issue being players who have overlapping work commitments and of course getting those WA teams to turn some lights on rather than play in 35 degrees in the sun.

Dec-Jan 2021/22
Wednesday night: 1 game/0 games
Thursday night: 1 game
Friday night: 1 game east coast, 1 game WA
Saturday night: 2 games
Sunday night: 1 game/2 games

Dec-Jan 2022/23
Wednesday night: 1 game
Thursday night: 1 game
Friday night: 1 game east coast, 1 game WA
Saturday night: 2 games
Sunday night: 2 games
Monday night: 1 game

Now they've thrown open the doors to the last 4 clubs to submit their application, do we really think Port will want / be able to afford a team?

I wonder how many will jump ship to the dark side

Was always gonna be the case with Kennett whinging and the Crows making another GF. I’d argue it’s such a drain having another debt ridden club coming in right now but hey if St Kilda can be near $20mill in debt and in the Comp and offering $150,000 contracts so why can’t Port from the financial side of things.

In terms of playing stocks Crows and GWS are going to be the ones stitched up especially the Crows, how the AFL go about legally trying to enforce the Crows to hand over players (which I have no doubt they will) is going to be interesting/annoying to see, a few will join willingly but given what’s been built there they don’t look like they’re exactly going to want to leave in droves especially the star players but hey money does talk.

 

[cmndstab]

Dumb idea IMO.

Let's Play all through summer so the players are gassed by finals time

They're already playing through summer at the moment. The games are shorter, and they can fixture more night games. It can definitely work.

The alternative is to continue to have their overlap with the AFL men's season which is an absolute death knell to interest in the women's comp at this stage.

 

[cmndstab]

Was always gonna be the case with Kennett whinging and the Crows making another GF. I’d argue it’s such a drain having another debt ridden club coming in right now but hey if St Kilda can be near $20mill in debt and in the Comp and offering $150,000 contracts so why can’t Port from the financial side of things.

In terms of playing stocks Crows and GWS are going to be the ones stitched up especially the Crows, how the AFL go about legally trying to enforce the Crows to hand over players (which I have no doubt they will) is going to be interesting/annoying to see, a few will join willingly but given what’s been built there they don’t look like they’re exactly going to want to leave in droves especially the star players but hey money does talk.

It's tough to argue with three GFs and two premierships from four completed seasons, but I think this year's grand final really showed that we're not this all-conquering powerhouse. As soon as Randall went down with concussion, we had to bring in Considine who, frankly, shouldn't be playing in a premiership side in 2021. It's not like we're stacked full of top-level talent throughout our squad. We were able to just barely put together 21 premiership-calibre players as long as injuries didn't strike.

If Port had been here since 2017 as well, we would have maybe half of those players, and then a whole bunch more players who presumably would be even further behind the players not making our current best 21. Our biggest matchwinner in Phillips is on her last legs and may never play again. Randall will soon be on the wrong side of 30. We should be a very competitive team going forward but it's not as though we're poised on the edge of an unstoppable dynasty.

As the level of involvement in women's footy in SA continues to grow it will eventually be able to sustain two teams, but there's no doubt that we could end up taking a big hit in the short term when Port arrives.

 

[Scorpus]

We've delisted Sedunary and Forth.

Sedunary is going on to try out cycling for a spot in the Olympics

 

[Scorpus]

It's tough to argue with three GFs and two premierships from four completed seasons, but I think this year's grand final really showed that we're not this all-conquering powerhouse. As soon as Randall went down with concussion, we had to bring in Considine who, frankly, shouldn't be playing in a premiership side in 2021. It's not like we're stacked full of top-level talent throughout our squad. We were able to just barely put together 21 premiership-calibre players as long as injuries didn't strike.

If Port had been here since 2017 as well, we would have maybe half of those players, and then a whole bunch more players who presumably would be even further behind the players not making our current best 21. Our biggest matchwinner in Phillips is on her last legs and may never play again. Randall will soon be on the wrong side of 30. We should be a very competitive team going forward but it's not as though we're poised on the edge of an unstoppable dynasty.

As the level of involvement in women's footy in SA continues to grow it will eventually be able to sustain two teams, but there's no doubt that we could end up taking a big hit in the short term when Port arrives.

Port will be the Gold Coast to our Brisbane.

So far there has not been a mass exodus of talent from the established sides to the expansion sides

 

[cmndstab]

Port will be the Gold Coast to our Brisbane.

So far there has not been a mass exodus of talent from the established sides to the expansion sides

I hope you're right. It's worth noting that Brisbane have been successful despite having a large number of players leave their club.

Correct decision on delisting Sedunary and Forth. Neither of them are going to get any better than they are now and aren't best 21 players. Better off replacing them with a young player who might improve.

 

[hey shorty]

They're already playing through summer at the moment. The games are shorter, and they can fixture more night games. It can definitely work.

The alternative is to continue to have their overlap with the AFL men's season which is an absolute death knell to interest in the women's comp at this stage.

Eventually you're going to have to.

The season will have to go longer to incorporate the extra teams.... **** playing footy for 4 months in the heat.

 

[brucetiki]

Port will be the Gold Coast to our Brisbane.

So far there has not been a mass exodus of talent from the established sides to the expansion sides

Or West Coast to Fremantle

The introduction of the remaining 4 teams into the AFLW will further dilute the talent.

You’d almost want to do a Division 1/2 type set up for the first few years until the talent in the expansion sides are up to scratch.

 

[Scorpus]

Teams will genuinely go winless with 18 sides and more rounds. There will be floggings

 

[jenny61_99]

 

[Scorpus]

So St Kilda targeting Marinoff, well Geelong are targeting Scheer - https://womens.afl/news/72225

 

[Firewalker]

So St Kilda targeting Marinoff, well Geelong are targeting Scheer - https://womens.afl/news/72225

Yep everything playing out like I said it would right after the Demons approached Marinoff a couple of years ago that I could see in the near future Victorian clubs were going to do what Victorian clubs did in the 1980s by offering all sorts of un-salary capped methods to drag young impressionable interstate players over to Melbourne due to the rather unregulated system.

 

[cmndstab]

Can't afford to lose Scheer. I suspect she'll stay.

 

[Scorpus]

Yep everything playing out like I said it would right after the Demons approached Marinoff a couple of years ago that I could see in the near future Victorian clubs were going to do what Victorian clubs did in the 1980s by offering all sorts of un-salary capped methods to drag young impressionable interstate players over to Melbourne due to the rather unregulated system.

We should make use of this "unregulated" system as you say

 

[ams4crows]

Our culture is about to be tested here, if our young stars stay then we're on the right track. Surely the club can get some of these girls jobs in "other areas" through corporate sponsors and so on

 

[Firewalker]

We should make use of this "unregulated" system as you say

Ah yes well assuming a level playing field exists in any Australian Football competition is one of the underlying issues as well of course, unfortunately for starters culturally SA still doesn’t have a the pull of a whole payed for summer interstate as a East Coast team will have for a semi-professional sportsperson/young person, if we can attract anyone it might be off the back of winning games and having such a well run organisation but in the infancy of the League with even more new teams coming in and willing to splash cash at semi-professional players winning lots of games probably still doesn’t have the same pull right at the moment.

You’d also be more worried that rather than what the concern was for us AFLW Crows fans when the expansion was announced for 2022/23 & being worried about Port coming in and being enabled to take Crows players what we’re seeing right now with Marinoff & now Scheer is already established Vic clubs getting on the front foot and getting in front of Hawthorn and Essendon coming in and using the tactics available to them to try to steal interstate players to bolster their talent in what is becoming a talent stretched state.

If the Crows take their eye of the ball they could get the double whammy of losing players that they had control over this year and players they have no control over next year.