Remove this Banner Ad

AFLW 2026 Fixture - RELEASED

  • Thread starter Thread starter Teen Wolf
  • Start date Start date
  • Tagged users Tagged users None

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

The Nostradamus said:
remind me is the season starting same time as last year?
Click to expand...
Yes it is.

But I forgot that in the first week of May last year, it was just the season opener that was announced.

The full fixture again didn't come out until late May, two weeks after the men's R16-23 fixture was released.
 
pattymalone00 said:
I wonder if they are waiting for the second half of the mens fixture to be announced to drop it?
Click to expand...
I'd go further and say we need not even wonder, as one competition can't be fixtured independent of the other for a variety of reasons (the biggest reason this year being the double-headers).

Nevertheless, the silence from the league on a Gather Round in October (i.e. when no men's footy needs to be worked around) should reasonably be interpreted to mean it's not happening in 2026. Otherwise to not have it already announced is an outright blunder.
 

Log in to remove this Banner Ad

Could probably also rule out Gather Round based on the report of Sydney being in line to host the international match, conceivably as kind of a consolation deal with the NSW government.
 
pattymalone00 said:
Wasn’t there rumours it could be in Geelong?
Click to expand...
Likewise Darwin and Cairns if you go further back.

Fraught with danger though it may be to trust Caro, her reporting made it sound like Sydney have come over the top of the other bids and it'll just be a matter of whether the AFL initiates it this year or next.

Her exact phrase was: "everybody [at the AFL and Destination NSW] is incredibly keen".
 
Josh Bowler quote from last year is relevant:
"if a club is hosting two home games over one weekend, these will fall on different days to ensure the club can operationally deliver the best possible match-day experience for fans across two venues."
Click to expand...

The easy way around that is to just have 9 clubs hosting men's games while the other 9 clubs host women's games on the same weekend. But that is at odds with needing four clubs to host double-headers.

Makes it quite hard to fixture R23 men's and R1-2 women's this far out if you're committed to leaving R24 men's floating until much later.

Identifying and locking in the dates/times of the four men's matches to be played as double-headers should be done first (and announced asap), then work backwards from there.
 




This is quite a mixed bag of info.

This AFL is "looking at" starting on the weekend of R22 of the men's because the Saints want a women-followed-by-men double-header that weekend? So even though the following Thursday night was supposed to be the season launch, it sounds like the highly popular Opening Round is coming to AFLW!!!!!!!

FIVE double-headers rather than four? This is good but countered by one being wasted on the Swans. The one club that absolutely does not need to play back-to-back games with the men's. Insanity. And not having the same teams play in both legs is dumb.

GWS v WCE women played after GWS v WCE men? Excellent decision if true and the turnaround time is tight. Needs confirmation (Tom Morris has the round wrong, for one thing).

Basically the same goes for the NM-Geel double-header at Marvel. Could be the perfect call, pending details.

I will have to browse through Caro's show later, unless somebody else saw it and can say nothing new was reported.
 
Basically the only bit of extra info on the Vendetta Setters was that 4 of the 5 double-headers would be women first (obviously GWS v WCE being the exception). Bleughhh.

Caro's wording re StK-Carl was also the same as on 7news, which I interpret as R1 being split across R22-23 of the men's. Not an extra round, not the whole season being brought forward one week.

As I've said for several years, starting the season with a split round is a good idea if there's overlap with the men's comp to be navigated.

Ideally StK v Carl is the only men's match on Saturday night of R22, leaving the free-to-air slot open across the whole country. That would mean the first day of the AFLW season could start like this:

4pm AEST: StK v Carl at Marvel​
7pm AEST: PA v Coll at Alberton (Port men are in Sydney that weekend)​
9pm AEST: Frem v Ess/Melb/whoever in WA (Freo men are in Melbourne that weekend)​

If instead they just did the Saints and Blues on a Saturday arvo and then left it at that, to open the AFLW season, geewiz what an anticlimax.
 
Last edited:

Remove this Banner Ad

Round 22

Thursday Aug 6
Western Bulldogs v North Melbourne, Marvel Stadium, 7.30pm


Friday Aug 7
Brisbane v Hawthorn, Gabba, 7.40pm


Saturday Aug 8
Melbourne v Fremantle, MCG, 1.15pm
Sydney v Port Adelaide, SCG, 4.15pm
Geelong v Essendon, GMHBA Stadium, 4.35pm
Adelaide v Richmond, Adelaide Oval, 7.35pm


Sunday Aug 9
Greater Western Sydney v Gold Coast, Corroboree Group Oval Manuka, 1.10pm
West Coast v Collingwood, Optus Stadium, 4.10pm
St Kilda v Carlton, Marvel Stadium, 7.20pm

-----------------------------

Now that we know Round 22 for the mens is there a natural fit for one or more games in a split round 1 for the women's?
 
Well there won't be the usual men's Sunday 3.15pm game on FTA in Melbourne, so they might have two women's games on from 2pm to fill that slot.

Obviously St Kilda v Carlton AFLW would be one, starting at 4pm I guess (which will mean a ridiculous 80+ minute turnaround for the men's game).

Two Saturday twilight games followed by an unenticing Adel v Rich matchup suggests there could also be a Saturday night AFLW game (or 2 if they also have a later WA game).
 
I think this is probably the best we can do with what the AFL has given us:

aflr22.webp

Hawthorn and Collingwood men are interstate that weekend, so (working within the confines of AFL preference) they're two pretty good clubs to have open the season. By the same token it makes sense for Freo and Port to host women's games.

I have basically no confidence they'll actually use that Saturday night slot. But if they don't have two AFLW games in the Sunday slot, it's unfathomable for several reasons.
 
Yeah and GWS v WCE is R23. Although with an hour between games, you could still drive from Geelong to Marvel in that time, lol.

Also assume, like in the men's, NM are the home team and thus will unfurl the flag, but I wonder if they'll break convention and do it after the women play.

Couldn't grade the AFL higher than 4 out of 10 for their double-header fixturing efforts. They're committing every cardinal sin outlined previously at least once, and potentially taking a Swans game away from Henson Park (though SCG > Coffs Harbour if those are the two choices).
 

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

love Ws alot more then the Ms.

W rule best.

love vflw myself round 1 was played on the weekend as well.

Keen to get along to few vflw games at ikon and vic park.

I am a W man.

Best
 
The AFLW season opener between St Kilda and Carlton will start at 4.35pm
Click to expand...
This means it'll either be on 7mate directly up against a men's match on the main channel... Or, like the Aus v Ireland match, won't be on free-to-air TV at all.

ROUND one of the NAB AFLW season will be split, with the Spud's Game double-header between St Kilda and Carlton at Marvel Stadium the sole women's match of its weekend.
Click to expand...
This means St Kilda and Carlton then have a week off, and play in R2 against opponents who won't have had the previous week off.
 
Teen Wolf said:
This means it'll either be on 7mate directly up against a men's match on the main channel... Or, like the Aus v Ireland match, won't be on free-to-air TV at all.


This means St Kilda and Carlton then have a week off, and play in R2 against opponents who won't have had the previous week off.
Click to expand...
Why won’t the AU V IR game be on FTA? Feels like a given it should be on FTA
 
The Victorian said:
Why won’t the AU V IR game be on FTA? Feels like a given it should be on FTA
Click to expand...
It will be on Kayo Freebies, in addition to Foxtel, but not on free-to-air television strictly speaking.

Presumably the AFL didn't want it played at the same time as a men's game, but Foxtel did, so this was the compromise reached.
 
Teen Wolf said:
It will be on Kayo Freebies, in addition to Foxtel, but not on free-to-air television strictly speaking.

Presumably the AFL didn't want it played at the same time as a men's game, but Foxtel did, so this was the compromise reached.
Click to expand...
I wonder why the AFL even sanctioned it. Hidden away in a not AFL state, on a suburban undersized ground, with no FTA TV. Maybe they don't want people to watch for some reason.
 
Aardvark said:
I wonder why the AFL even sanctioned it. Hidden away in a not AFL state, on a suburban undersized ground, with no FTA TV. Maybe they don't want people to watch for some reason.
Click to expand...
Would've been easier to get both a standalone timeslot and fta coverage if they put it on the weekend of men's R12 or R13. Or even R16, if they still wanted it in Sydney while the Swans and Giants were away.

I guess the idea was to have it closer to the start of the AFLW season proper, hoping to capture attention and carry the momentum through to R1. But in doing so, they've had to sacrifice some things and that will make it harder to generate buzz.

If they didn't put all their representative eggs in one basket, these deficiencies wouldn't matter so much. The aforementioned weekends of R12, R13 and R16 have no men's games starting on Sunday before 3.15pm. Could've put women's games on in those slots as well, whether it be the overdue Indigenous All-Stars match, WA v SA, genuine International Rules or whatever.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Similar threads

Teen Wolf
    • Like
AFLW 2025 Fixture
2 3 4
Replies
89
Views
8K
Teen Wolf
Teen Wolf
Teen Wolf
  • Poll Poll
Fixture AFLW Gather Round (??)
2
Replies
29
Views
3K
TheTassieHawk
T

Remove this Banner Ad

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Back
Top Bottom