I don't think they want to have 18 months between seasons. Just as new expansion clubs enter the league and start recruiting players, then they wait 18 months to play? Wouldn't make sense.
Play Nice AFL Womens - General Discussion
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I don't think they want to have 18 months between seasons. Just as new expansion clubs enter the league and start recruiting players, then they wait 18 months to play? Wouldn't make sense.
I'm not sure I understand what the alternative being proposed is. Are we talking about a second season within the same calendar year? If so, does that mean we have no AFLW in 2023, or is it an extra season? I would think that both those scenarios are less likely than just delaying the start of the 2023 season.
May 2022? There have to be some crossed wires here. U19 Championships run through April. VFLW finals run into June. Fixturing a season on such short notice would be a logistical nightmare at the best of times, let alone the fact there's no CBA for next season.
Teen Wolf
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Look at it through the lens of what was announced last year:
Moving the start of "season seven" forward 3 months from what's suggested there is a) far less dramatic than delaying it by 9 months, and b) still pretty much equates to a "Late 2022 start".
If they're still committed to that plan, I'll be very happy to be wrong. I'd rather not be waiting until August of next year for more AFLW. It just seems like there's an awful lot to get done before an August 2022 start.
I think they're just planning to start a few months earlier. So yes, the next season begins later this year, then the season after that starts in August 2023, and so on.
They're going to have to draft players out of the state leagues. If preseason starts in May and the VFLW season finishes in June, they're either drafting before the season has ended or they're starting preseason with incomplete lists.
The girls in the VFLW won’t need as much of a preseason, more a short break between the VFLW season and starting the second half of the AFLW preseason.
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The draft would just be held prior to the end of the VFLW season and presumably drafted players would either complete the season during the AFLW pre-season or cease playing immediately at that point to freshen up.
More of an issue is that the expansion teams would be adding state league talent off a less than full season and that the best top age juniors may miss the opportunity to play in the VFLW season after the under 18s championship matches.
Reading on Twitter today reported and actual pushback from current players and coaches to an August 2022 start date to the next season.
Sadly, this push for an August start is because more about the optics than substance.
Guess what is played on the 20th August 2023? The FIFA Women's World Cup.
The move of AFLW to late August (2022, but more so 2023) is to blunt any momentum women's soccer has coming out of the tournament - especially if the Matildas make a deep run, which they are capable of.
DRAGONS FFC - Moderator
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Wasn’t the intent (and I may be off base here) was to always have the next season start in august?
The current season was due to start in November, and was pushed back due to Covid and lockdowns. So is this not just a return to plan?
(Doesn’t discount the point above about the World Cup either)
The current season was due to start in November, and was pushed back due to Covid and lockdowns. So is this not just a return to plan?
(Doesn’t discount the point above about the World Cup either)
Close. It was meant to be an early December start for 2021 (going into 2022).
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I’m sure I read somewhere (although may be just Mandela-ing it), the season following (ie our next season) would start a couple of months earlier again.
Is it really so hard?
Start early October (30 Sept. next season at the earliest). From December to partway through February play ONLY at night where heat is a problem (matches every night if required). You can't have anyone playing in the summer sun, but the nights are fine (I do it regularly). There can be stacked night matches across Australia with matches now available each week in each timezone. Have mid-season byes for Christmas + New Year.
That's 12 rounds pre-Christmas, the remaining 5 rounds post-New Year. Add four weeks for finals, then the Grand Final would be played early March.
It's almost the same timeframe as NTFL, except they still play during the day in summer up there!
I really don't understand why they're looking at anything else other than this. Not only would the women's league be buried by the men's media in winter or during the men's finals, but the quality of the matches in winter would be much worse. The smaller and lighter footballs already get carried away in the wind, I can't wait to see it in the wet and slop of winter too. I would think that attention, advertising and sponsorships would suffer too, but that's just my own assumption. And apparently some clubs don't even share their facilities (or have the capacity to) when the men are in season, good luck to the women trying to use the gyms during pre-season and the first five weeks of their season!
Mind boggling playing in winter. There must be something else driving this change because it certainly doesn't make any logical sense.
Start early October (30 Sept. next season at the earliest). From December to partway through February play ONLY at night where heat is a problem (matches every night if required). You can't have anyone playing in the summer sun, but the nights are fine (I do it regularly). There can be stacked night matches across Australia with matches now available each week in each timezone. Have mid-season byes for Christmas + New Year.
That's 12 rounds pre-Christmas, the remaining 5 rounds post-New Year. Add four weeks for finals, then the Grand Final would be played early March.
It's almost the same timeframe as NTFL, except they still play during the day in summer up there!
I really don't understand why they're looking at anything else other than this. Not only would the women's league be buried by the men's media in winter or during the men's finals, but the quality of the matches in winter would be much worse. The smaller and lighter footballs already get carried away in the wind, I can't wait to see it in the wet and slop of winter too. I would think that attention, advertising and sponsorships would suffer too, but that's just my own assumption. And apparently some clubs don't even share their facilities (or have the capacity to) when the men are in season, good luck to the women trying to use the gyms during pre-season and the first five weeks of their season!
Mind boggling playing in winter. There must be something else driving this change because it certainly doesn't make any logical sense.
Ladies gaelic football is completely amateur.
Always has been.
OK, that's my poor choice of words. How about, "They've been playing under the Ladies Gaelic Football Associationsince 1974"?
Dirty Bird
Pokémon Master
Hate the suggestion of August
Make footy a year round game
Mens March-September, womens October-February
Basically - start the womens the week after the mens GF, start the mens the week after the womens GF.
Make footy a year round game
Mens March-September, womens October-February
Basically - start the womens the week after the mens GF, start the mens the week after the womens GF.
No worries, I get you now.
Although I would add that while the LGFA is around a while, they've come on massively in the last 5-10 years. Particularly in terms of fitness and tactics Before that, ladies gaelic football was a bit of a hard watch, to put it mildly.
