Play Nice AFL Womens - General Discussion

[weevil]

Another thing I've noticed is most of the negativity towards the league nowadays originates from Brisbane supporters.

Why Some People Will Never Admit They're Wrong

Some are narcissists; others are struggling with guilt and shame.

www.psychologytoday.com

 

[mpal6]

Another thing I've noticed is most of the negativity towards the league nowadays originates from Brisbane supporters.

Stating the obvious that you're too strong and didn't lose anyone significant during off-season. You are primed to go for another undefeated season and you expect neutral supporters / audience to sit there n watch your one sided domination? Wake up dude. Who wants to pay their hard earned to come n watch a qualifying final where a team scores only 3 points for the whole match - may be North supporters lol.

It's HQ job to balance the competition and when they're turning a blind eye to it - it's a fair thing to debate about. If you don't like this and stay in your "everything is fine" cocoon, that's ok. We'll continue to call out an obvious problem in the meantime.

 

[weevil]

It's HQ job to balance the competition and when they're turning a blind eye to it - it's a fair thing to debate about. If you don't like this and stay in your "everything is fine" cocoon, that's ok. We'll continue to call out an obvious problem in the meantime.

They are not turning a blind eye to it; they have said that competition imbalance is pretty much the key issue facing the comp.

They have been running around booting the lower clubs up the bum to improve them and they have also talked about the introduction of a salary cap to bring the top clubs down. But they need to give clubs plenty of notice about big changes like that, because player contracts are already in place, planning, etc.

So they have said it’s not going to happen until 2028.

 

[Teen Wolf]

West Coast average scores by season
2020: 14.2
2021: 25.4
22S6: 22.2
22S7: 23.9
2023: 26.9
2024: 29.1
2025: 37.8

Cumulative average per game, with head coach tenures noted:


Hmm interesting, interesting.

 

[petits]

Yeah, the W has the advantage of leveraging a huge amount of already engaged and rusted on AFL club supporters. I’d be surprised if anyone here came to AFLW cold; we virtually all came to our AFLW teams because we already followed our men’s teams.

Never followed AFL before AFLW. TLDR; grew up in a rugby area, played rugby at uni, had no way to watch women's rugby on the telly, saw that the AFL were launching a league and seemed to be taking it pretty seriously, been a GWS member ever since, and latterly a Swans member too. I still don't follow the men, it just seems like too much to get into.

I've brought a few similar friends to AFLW games, I'm not sure which of them has made the jump to regular supporters though. But there are some of us out here.

Share the link mate, I'll check it out for myself . sticking 100% next to every variance of crowd number doesn't create much confidence. Looks like someone in AFL woke up and said why we have to tell them what's the exact %, just say whatever sold is what we intend to sell - clever if you ask me.

Have you tried to get GF tickets over the last few years? They were totally sold out. In small venues to be sure, but there's no funny business to get to 100%.

 

[Expensive_Horse5538]

Port Adelaide's coach Lauren Arnell is stepping down.

Lauren Arnell to step down as AFLW senior coach

Lauren Arnell has made the decision to step down from her role as Port Adelaide's AFLW senior coach.

www.portadelaidefc.com.au

 

[FreoAFLWMan]

My Top 8 predictions for 2026:

1. North Melbourne
2. Brisbane
3. West Coast
4. Melbourne
5. Sydney
6. St Kilda
7. Fremantle
8. Carlton

 

[Teen Wolf]

Hard to imagine what sticking points there could be with a straightforward salary cap.

One interpretation of that might be the AFL deliberating on a limit for salaries beyond the $118k currently slated for 2027 tier 1, to prevent the struggling teams becoming even more reliant on too few players.

Doing the math, if you had 29 players on the 2027 minimum of $72,373 that would leave $363,321 for the other player. Speaking purely in terms of TPP, of course.

 

[weevil]

Hard to imagine what sticking points there could be with a straightforward salary cap.

One interpretation of that might be the AFL deliberating on a limit for salaries beyond the $118k currently slated for 2027 tier 1, to prevent the struggling teams becoming even more reliant on too few players.

Doing the math, if you had 29 players on the 2027 minimum of $72,373 that would leave $363,321 for the other player. Speaking purely in terms of TPP, of course.

Interesting that it's a year earlier than they had said previously.

 

[timokane]

Who thinks the blue girls can win the flag in 2026

 

[Teen Wolf]

Meant to also say the ASA limit in 2027 is $135,470. So if there are no additional league-imposed ceilings, theoretically a player could earn half-a-million next year ($498,791 to be exact) via those two avenues. Approaching double what the highest paid currently get, reportedly.

 

[Teen Wolf]

From October 2025:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/wpl-franchises-set-for-major-revamp-at-mega-auction-1506276

The five franchises in the WPL are set for a revamp, with the BCCI deciding to hold a mega auction ahead of the 2026 season.

...Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz - support a mega auction. Both these teams have never made the final and are keen to overhaul their squads and rebuild. One WPL official said that while they understood the reservations of the three franchises against the mega auction, it was important to ensure the tournament had five strong teams, otherwise the imbalance could only harm the brand.

Hence Meg Lanning gets shifted from Delhi to one of the teams that believes putting pink on your uniform = women's sport.

---

So how did this attempted revamp go? Let's see:



Hmm seems as if it changed nothing, even though RCB had just 3 players leftover from their first title. Maybe there's a lesson here about trying to manufacture a Everybody Should Win 'competition'.

(and also goes to the question of starting new teams from scratch vs adding a women's team to an existing club/franchise)

 

[CURVE]

Has anyone heard anything regarding the coaching positions for Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Richmond?

 

[The Nostradamus]

GWS vice captain retired - big blow for them

 

[jatz14]

GWS vice captain retired - big blow for them

With their influx of talent, thing she was going to struggle to be an automatic start.

 

[Liam Boy]

North have dropped "Tasmanian" from the name: https://www.nmfc.com.au/news/1951991/north-melbourne-aflw-team-extends-tasmanian-partnership

One update to the renewed terms, is the change of the team’s official naming convention.


Previously known as the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos, from the 2026 season, the team will now be known as the North Melbourne Kangaroos – realigning the AFLW program with the club’s AFL team.


“We have taken great pride in representing Tasmania since our entry into the competition, but with the Tasmania Devils set to be competing in the not-so-distant future, the decision to update the team’s name is a logical one,” Watt said.


“While our name changes from 2026, our love of competing in Tasmania remains the same.”

 

[weevil]

After all the talk of moving much more slowly and deliberately, they have realised that they need to get a wriggle on.

A tier-y farewell? AFLW to fast-track salary cap introduction

The AFLW is moving to implement a salary cap to replace the current player payment structure, in a move that could see an increase in player movement

www.afl.com.au

 

[Profop]

After all the talk of moving much more slowly and deliberately, they have realised that they need to get a wriggle on.

A tier-y farewell? AFLW to fast-track salary cap introduction

The AFLW is moving to implement a salary cap to replace the current player payment structure, in a move that could see an increase in player movement

www.afl.com.au

I mean this is spelling out that the AFL understand the issue the same as what many in this thread have been saying

Also spells out that it probably doesn’t pay to tow the company line too hard when the company is the AFL and so happily prone to both incompetence and wild switches in method/planning

 

[Teen Wolf]

I mean this is spelling out that the AFL understand the issue the same as what many in this thread have been saying

Also spells out that it probably doesn’t pay to tow the company line too hard when the company is the AFL and so happily prone to both incompetence and wild switches in method/planning

Clubs with bad women's teams are pushing for the change. The AFL are giving them what they're asking for, knowing they can absolve the blame if it doesn't work as intended.

Similar to the first expansion, when the league devised a system to ensure teams would lose equal batches of talent. Inaugural clubs rejected it, thinking they knew better, and it backfired massively on some of them.

 

[jatz14]

Clubs with bad women's teams are pushing for the change. The AFL are giving them what they're asking for, knowing they can absolve the blame if it doesn't work as intended.

Similar to the first expansion, when the league devised a system to ensure teams would lose equal batches of talent. Inaugural clubs rejected it, thinking they knew better, and it backfired massively on some of them.

It seems dangerous.

It's just easier for high performing teams to get players at their true value, or less. Poor performing teams will often have to pay at overs, if they are competing with a good team, for a player they deem necessary.

Squeezing their own salary cap.

 

[Teen Wolf]

It seems dangerous.

It's just easier for high performing teams to get players at their true value, or less. Poor performing teams will often have to pay at overs, if they are competing with a good team, for a player they deem necessary.

Squeezing their own salary cap.

Yeah that's why I'm, perhaps foolishly, anticipating the head honchos are wary of this and so there may still be an engineered limit on what a player can get.

Somewhere from $145k to $170k, I'm thinking. For 2027, that is. (as opposed to the $118k max under the tier system)

Doesn't really solve the problem, but at least prevents the problem blowing out to catastrophe. HQ shouldn't assume all clubs will naturally avoid taking insane risks with their AFLW cap just because they wouldn't take them with their men's cap.

 

[mpal6]

From October 2025:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/wpl-franchises-set-for-major-revamp-at-mega-auction-1506276

Hence Meg Lanning gets shifted from Delhi to one of the teams that believes putting pink on your uniform = women's sport.

---

So how did this attempted revamp go? Let's see:

View attachment 2523323

Hmm seems as if it changed nothing, even though RCB had just 3 players leftover from their first title. Maybe there's a lesson here about trying to manufacture a Everybody Should Win 'competition'.

(and also goes to the question of starting new teams from scratch vs adding a women's team to an existing club/franchise)

Showing final winner/runner up paints a disingenuous view to set a narrative.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/wpl-2026-gujarat-giants-look-past-another-eliminator-exit-1522245

A club like Gujarat Giants have improved from 5th/3rd to 2nd - while Mumbai Indians took a drop, RCB who finished 4th in 2025 became champions in 2026. UP Warriorz are the only ones who didn't move much but it has become a 4 team competiton now rather than the previous 3 led by RCB, Capitals and Mumbai. What they set to achieve - making the league more competitive - appears to have worked here, let's see if it sustains next season, especially for Gujarat.

Again, there was at least 2-3 clubs having equal chance to win one keeping the league competitive overall.

Not a "we haven't lost a game in 2 years and we don't lose any critical players in offseason either" run that someone's trying to defend here as good for the game.

Women's Premier League (cricket) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[mpal6]

After all the talk of moving much more slowly and deliberately, they have realised that they need to get a wriggle on.

A tier-y farewell? AFLW to fast-track salary cap introduction

The AFLW is moving to implement a salary cap to replace the current player payment structure, in a move that could see an increase in player movement

www.afl.com.au

May be North can play another undefeated season and AFL will panic n do something to bring it forward even more.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Showing final winner/runner up paints a disingenuous view to set a narrative.

A club like Gujarat Giants have improved from 5th/3rd to 2nd - while Mumbai Indians took a drop, RCB who finished 4th became champions in 2026. UP Warriorz are the only ones who didn't move much but it has become a 4 team competiton now rather than the previous 3 led by RCB, Capitals and Mumbai. What they set to achieve - making the league more competitive - appears to have worked here, let's see if it sustains next season, especially for Gujarat.

Again, there was at least 2-3 clubs having equal chance to win one keeping the league competitive overall.

Not a "we haven't lost a game in 2 years and we don't lose any critical players in offseason either" run that someone's trying to defend here as good for the game.

Women's Premier League (cricket) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

View attachment 2528811

Clearly reiterates how the two teams who wanted the mega auction didn't actually benefit from it. One thumped in the EF again, the other finished dead last again.

It was also the first year the top of the table team went on to win the whole thing. Competition leaders pulling further away from the pack.

 

[mpal6]

Clearly reiterates how the two teams who wanted the mega auction didn't actually benefit from it. One thumped in the EF again, the other finished dead last again.

It was also the first year the top of the table team went on to win the whole thing. Competition leaders pulling further away from the pack.

The one thumped in EF has finished 2nd in ladder for the first time this season after the mega auction. Gujarat has now entered the top 2 bracket for the first time and making it a genuine 4 team comp. Only lagger at this stage is UP.

Still, 4 out of 5 teams genuinely able to compete for cup is way better than AFLW's current status. It brought the change they desired and pulled one more club out of the bottom. 3 good teams out of 5 before was still pretty competitive earlier.

Nothing justifies a comp as successful with one club running 2 years undefeated anyway, regardless of how you spin it.