Everything you need to know about the 2018 AFLW Season

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Jul 2, 2010
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36,077
Adelaide
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Carlton
The 2018 AFL Womens season is less than 30 days away, with Carlton v Collingwood on Friday night, February 2 at Ikon Park. Heres what you need to know about the 2018 season.



The Teams

There have been no changes to the number of teams for the 2018 season, 2 teams will be added in 2019 (The North/Tas hybrid and Geelong) and 4 more teams in 2020.

The Fixture

Like last season, there will not be a finals series, only a Grand Final.
  • No double headers with JLT series matches in 2018.
  • Melbourne v Collingwood will be played at Traeger park. This is partly to support their ongoing programs in the NT area.
  • No games at Victoria Park for the Pies, however they will play a match at Moe and 2 at Olympic Park.
  • All Adelaide based Adelaide games will be at Norwood Oval, with Thebarton Oval being dropped from the program,
  • Like last year, the Giants will play one game in Canberra. while Adelaide will play one game in Darwin.
  • Full fixture here.
Ticketing
  • All matches remain free to enter, except for Fremantle v Collingwood at Perth Stadium, where a $2.00 charge will be incurred.
Broadcasting
  • 1 match per week on a Satuday night, plus the season opening game will be shown on 7 or 7mate.
  • Local games in SA and WA will likely be shown on FTA as per last season, this does not extend to Qld or NSW except where they feature on Saturday night.
  • All matches will be shown live on Foxtel.
  • All matches will be shown live and free on the AFL website and associated app.
  • Full broadcast guide here.
The Rules

Three rule changes apply for the 2018 season.
  • The AFL has decided to modify the out of bounds rule, now a player will give away a free kick if they kick or handball the ball over the boundary line without it being touched by an opposition player.
  • a reduction of interchange players from six to five, meaning teams will now have 21 players in total (16 on the field plus five interchange)
  • the implementation of time-on for the last two minutes of each quarter. (as happened in the Grand Final)
Womens Pay
  • Total player payments will increase by $500,000 next year under a revised tiered payment system that sees the minimum wage of a senior listed player rise from $8,500 to $10,500. However, it should be noted that it amounts to a 36 per cent increase in contracted hours, but only a 20.96 per cent increase in total player payments.
  • Tier 1 players have received an 17.6 per cent bump, from $17,000 to $20,000, tier 2 rises from $12,000 to $14,500 (up 20 per cent) while the base wage is now $10,500, up from $8500 (up 23 per cent).
  • The base wage on the current deal was due to increase from $8500 to $9276, tier 2 $12,000 to $12,846 and from $17,000 to $17,946 for tier one players.
  • The players will now commit 13-15 hours per week during pre-season and 10 hours in season. Match day hours are on top of the 10-hour week.
  • Clubs also have a marquee budget they can allocate to their most marketable players, ranging from $5000 to $10,000 per player, with a cap of $40,000 per team.
  • Players have signed 24-week contracts, which includes two weeks of annual leave.
  • Other details in graphic here.
Player Lists post 2018 season

A window will open shortly after the end of the second AFLW season in which the Demons, Blues, Magpies and Dogs will need to give up players to their rivals.
  • The AFL has determined that the AFLW All-Australian committee will give each player at a Victorian club a points rating between 10 and 50, based on performance, but also taking into account injury, age and other relevant factors.
  • Existing clubs will give up between two and four players to a total worth of 100 points. Josh Vanderloo, told Fairfax Media, “Notionally your top rated players are worth 50 points, your low-rated players are worth 10 points.”
  • The expansion clubs will subsequently be allowed to sign any non-AFLW players over 18, before the league determines exact concessions for the 2018 draft.
Womens Footy Podcasts
 
Last edited:

langdon19

Club Legend
Dec 2, 2008
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perth
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Finally, there will be the implementation of time-on for the last two minutes of each quarter, as happened in the women’s grand final last season.

Can someone please explain this to me.
I understand that time on is the time that the quarter runs over the scheduled time, due to umps blowing time off-on.
What does time on for the last 2 minutes mean? No time off in the last 2 minutes and the clock keeps running resulting in a shorter quarter?
 
Finally, there will be the implementation of time-on for the last two minutes of each quarter, as happened in the women’s grand final last season.

Can someone please explain this to me.
I understand that time on is the time that the quarter runs over the scheduled time, due to umps blowing time off-on.
What does time on for the last 2 minutes mean? No time off in the last 2 minutes and the clock keeps running resulting in a shorter quarter?
Think of it from the perspective of a count-down, not a count-up clock. The clock keeps running down during time-off until there's 2 minutes left, then the clock pauses for time-off.
 

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jatz14

Brownlow Medallist
Dec 13, 2011
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Finally, there will be the implementation of time-on for the last two minutes of each quarter, as happened in the women’s grand final last season.

Can someone please explain this to me.
I understand that time on is the time that the quarter runs over the scheduled time, due to umps blowing time off-on.
What does time on for the last 2 minutes mean? No time off in the last 2 minutes and the clock keeps running resulting in a shorter quarter?
Its to stop a tight game ending while the players are standing around waiting for a boundary throw in, or for the ball to go back to the middle. You get 2 minutes of actual game time in the last 2 minutes.
 
Its to stop a tight game ending while the players are standing around waiting for a boundary throw in, or for the ball to go back to the middle. You get 2 minutes of actual game time in the last 2 minutes.
Teams were also playing for the clock when protecting leads late in the game. 10 seconds can be taken off by taking as much time as possible kicking-in after a behind. One throw-in followed by another can take 20 seconds off the clock. As a Dogs fan I was pretty enraged, but Pies were entitled, when we attempted to come back in our Round 4 game against them when our comeback was foiled by these tactics. Against the wind we absolutely dominated, but in only kicked 2.3 as time ran out with the Pies playing negatively (not scoring in the quarter).

Personally I think that they should do no time on in the 1st half and have time-on in the last 5 minutes of both the 3rd and 4th quarter for these reasons, meaning that the adjustment to TV schedules is similar, it's still balanced out for the wind (both teams kicking to each side gets the same time-on) but solves the problem more often.
 
Will it result in more game time or less game time per quarter?
More, but we're talking factors of perhaps 30 or 45 seconds a quarter. They already used the rules in the Grand Final last year after not doing so in the H&A season.
 

drunkill

Club Legend
May 16, 2017
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Media related but it can go here.

The outer sanctum podcast (covers women's footy, started a bit before last season) is moving to ABC radio Melbourne (774) and Grandstand Digital for this season with a show on Saturdays from 11-12 starting this week and running the length of the AFLW season.

They made this ad with some of the Carlton ladies for it:
 

BringBackTorps

Club Legend
Jan 5, 2017
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Media related but it can go here.

The outer sanctum podcast (covers women's footy, started a bit before last season) is moving to ABC radio Melbourne (774) and Grandstand Digital for this season with a show on Saturdays from 11-12 starting this week and running the length of the AFLW season.

They made this ad with some of the Carlton ladies for it:

Great to see an AFLW dedicated hourly mainstream radio program each week, for c. 9 weeks.
Do you know if:-
.this will be broadcast on all State capital & regional ABC radio programs around Australia?
.did the podcast last year regularly include some commentary on GR female AF? And will it do so in 2018?
 
Jul 2, 2010
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Great to see an AFLW dedicated hourly mainstream radio program each week, for c. 9 weeks.
Do you know if:-
.this will be broadcast on all State capital & regional ABC radio programs around Australia?
.did the podcast last year regularly include some commentary on GR female AF? And will it do so in 2018?

partnership between ABC Melbourne and Grandstand Digital. I expect its Melbourne only, with it available online elsewhere
 

NoobPie

Cancelled
Sep 21, 2016
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Seems like a lot less promotion for the up and coming season than last, maybe it might crank up in the next few weeks but i reckon the AFL missed a trick.

Do you reckon? It's still two weeks out...
 
Jul 2, 2010
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Seems like a lot less promotion for the up and coming season than last, maybe it might crank up in the next few weeks but i reckon the AFL missed a trick.

remembering a lot of last seasons promotion was about the league being created, not the season itself. Theres no such driver this year. Next year will be something else again - more teams, more matches, bigger overall season.
 

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Rabman

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remembering a lot of last seasons promotion was about the league being created, not the season itself. Theres no such driver this year. Next year will be something else again - more teams, more matches, bigger overall season.
I just think with the massive success it had last year and the impact its had across the board and grassroots, its deserved a bit more promotion and advertisement.
 

drunkill

Club Legend
May 16, 2017
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They had a national tv campaign last year with the re-used 'i'd like to see that' concept. This year it is Kelloggs who have a national print campaign with Darcy Vescio and Mo Hope on tram and bus stops. Silence from the afl.

The newspapers will spruik it a bit once the AO ends, hopefully.
 

jatz14

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Here is a question. If it is a lockout again, what would it have got at the G? Would the G have attracted a bigger crowd? If so, could they get 30k?

If there is the anticipated huge numbers for the Freo Optus stadium game, are the numbers enough to warrant the opener being at a major venue in the future?

Of course, lack of promotion, and lack of novelty may see a drop. Cannot see it being full this year, but then I wasn't expecting it last year either.

Sent from my XT1068 using Tapatalk
 
Here is a question. If it is a lockout again, what would it have got at the G? Would the G have attracted a bigger crowd? If so, could they get 30k?

If there is the anticipated huge numbers for the Freo Optus stadium game, are the numbers enough to warrant the opener being at a major venue in the future?

Of course, lack of promotion, and lack of novelty may see a drop. Cannot see it being full this year, but then I wasn't expecting it last year either.

Sent from my XT1068 using Tapatalk
Problem is that both major Victorian grounds still have pitches in. Etihad could have its out by now but it is very BBL dependent - and a theoretical Renegades home final is worth way more than the AFLW opener.

The reality is the G will be off limits until the Junction Oval upgrade is finished so Shield can go there.

The more interesting question is what happens if and when a Melbourne team hosts the GF. Most interestingly what if Melbourne does this year - would it be played at Casey or as a curtain-raiser to Melbourne v Geelong at the G? Similarly, is a Collingwood GF played before Hawthorn v Collingwood?
 

Cold Sober

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Spin doctors have done a decent job of minimizing the kick in the ? incident.
If that was AFL it would be all over the media with calls of a 12 month ban.
 

hawkgal02

Team Captain
Jun 21, 2014
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Spin doctors have done a decent job of minimizing the kick in the ? incident.
If that was AFL it would be all over the media with calls of a 12 month ban.
Vagina?
Just saw the incident it’s pretty disgraceful. Hopefully D’Arcy gets a decent ban. It’s not a good look...
 

NoobPie

Cancelled
Sep 21, 2016
7,356
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AFL Club
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Problem is that both major Victorian grounds still have pitches in. Etihad could have its out by now but it is very BBL dependent - and a theoretical Renegades home final is worth way more than the AFLW opener.

The reality is the G will be off limits until the Junction Oval upgrade is finished so Shield can go there.

The more interesting question is what happens if and when a Melbourne team hosts the GF. Most interestingly what if Melbourne does this year - would it be played at Casey or as a curtain-raiser to Melbourne v Geelong at the G? Similarly, is a Collingwood GF played before Hawthorn v Collingwood?

It will be played at 1 30 at the MCG on the Saturday I reckon. Likewise at perth stadium or the Gabba. The interesting ones are if the Crows or Giants host. The power play at 4 pm. Pretty sure spotless and scg would still be unavailable
 

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