Fixture Ideal season structure

[Mitchell Madness]

There's been a lot of angst about the season set up.
The players like it being at the end of the season, as it is a bit of free airspace for them.

Ideally, I'd like to see the first 7 rounds as curtain raisers or closers for the men's game, and then a further 10 rounds to close out a 17 game season before finals. Season would end at the same time.

I feel this best promotes the women's game to the "great unwashed," and still allows them to strut their stuff in clean air too.

Thoughts? Your structure?

 

[jatz14]

There's been a lot of angst about the season set up.
The players like it being at the end of the season, as it is a bit of free airspace for them.

Ideally, I'd like to see the first 7 rounds as curtain raisers or closers for the men's game, and then a further 10 rounds to close out a 17 game season before finals. Season would end at the same time.

I feel this best promotes the women's game to the "great unwashed," and still allows them to strut their stuff in clean air too.

Thoughts? Your structure?

Mixed opinions. While the idea of getting the women more exposure to the footy fans that do not normally watch them, before the stand alone portion of the season starts, has appeal, and seems ok at first glance, I have some issues.

I have always advocated avoiding more than the occasional novelty double header, because my fear is, in practice, it has the opposite affect to whats intended.

The womans part of the day gets completely lost, just part of the background noise to the mens comp. It also gets seen as pre game entertainment, eg not real footy, just some fluff before the real game starts. The people not interested in the womans game are likely to still not watch, imop.

I suspect the only result will be those that viscerally hate the idea of womans footy will start saying, see, thats the best way to approach it, some pre game entertainment. Shorten it a bit more so it doesn't drag the day out to much, 15 min halves or so. Dont pay them, not worth it just to provide a bit of distraction pre game. Maybe scrap stand alone AFLW teams, just bring in a local footy club, stick an AFL jumper on them, bit of a kick, bobs your uncle.

I still think stand alone games and stand alone comps makes for more visibility for people interested in, or likely to be interested in, womens footy.
Club fans that do not know about or follow their clubs womans team by now, arent going to imop.

 

[Teen Wolf]

If you know the meaning of the word, it would be "ideal" to have women's and men's matches run the same length (i.e. 2hrs 20mins), share all timeslots equally, and never go head-to-head (both time and location wise, for example: your women's team plays Saturday at home, then the men's team plays Sunday interstate, vice-versa, etc.).

H&A Week A
W: Thu 7.10pm x2
M: Fri 7.10pm
W: Fri 9.30pm
W: Sat 12.30pm x2
M: Sat 2.50pm x2
W: Sat 5.10pm x2
M: Sat 7.30pm x2
M: Sun 12.30pm x2
W: Sun 2.50pm x2
M: Sun 5.10pm x2

H&A Week B
Week A but with all W and M slots swapped

Repeat weeks A and B until every team has played one game in all 18 slots. Then apply the same principle for finals.

Finals Year A
Week 1
M QF1: Thu N
M EF1: Fri N
M QF2: Sat 12.30pm
M EF2: Sat 2.50pm
W QF1: Sat 5.10pm
W EF1: Sat 7.30pm
W QF2: Sun 12.30pm
W EF2: Sun 2.50pm
Weeks 2/3
M S/PF1: Fri N
M S/PF2: Sat 2.50pm
W S/PF1: Sat 7.30pm
W S/PF2: Sun 2.50pm
Week 4
M GF: Sat
W GF: Sun

Finals Year B
Year A but with all M and W slots swapped

Alternate between Year A and Year B in perpetuity.

We know none of that is going to happen because the AFL doesn't even give one men's team a fixture that is equitable to another men's team. So forget about what's ideal.

Yes, when more rounds are added to the AFLW season, it will just mean more early-season women's games are played as double-headers with late-season men's games. This is the compromise (which has already been settled) that balances the desire to not play too much in summer, not have the women's finals be overshadowed by men's football, and not stretch resources too much with heavily overlapping men's and women's seasons.

 

[petits]

I have always advocated avoiding more than the occasional novelty double header, because my fear is, in practice, it has the opposite affect to whats intended.

The womans part of the day gets completely lost, just part of the background noise to the mens comp. It also gets seen as pre game entertainment, eg not real footy, just some fluff before the real game starts. The people not interested in the womans game are likely to still not watch, imop.

I suspect the only result will be those that viscerally hate the idea of womans footy will start saying, see, thats the best way to approach it, some pre game entertainment.

They already do - not even just the people who viscerally hate it, but people who aren't into it/don't know much are always popping in with the 'just run it as double headers' idea, like they're the first person to have ever thought of it. And it sucks.

I don't want to buy a men's ticket and trek out to Olympic Park, I want to spend $10 and cycle over to Henson Park, sit on the grass, zero fuss, buy a sausage off a local club - and it's way easier to convince casually interested friends to do the latter. You lose one of the best differences, the smaller community feel. For the odd special occasion, yeah I can see it. Eg the Swans-St Kilda Pride game, I think that would be awesome as a double header. I think a lot of people would make an effort to turn up for the women for that game, and I'll stick around to watch blokes if they're putting on a rainbow jersey

 

[Walshawk]

There are advantages of double headers:

• playing at better venues will help the standard of matches
• exposure to fans who may not otherwise watch AFLW

But agree that there is a certain charm to playing at small suburban venues for some people.

With three gloss of the new comp/teams having worn off, crowds of 500 (GWS) to 2k/3k will be then norm, so the TV is more important anyway.

Also I think that ‘clear air’ is not that valuable when it is racing then cricket season. Reckon the comp gets more coverage exposure and interest if playing during footy season. This is also when footy grounds are available.

With all this in mind, I would add two games per season and bring the GF back two weeks each season, so by 2027 we are starting in April, 18 games, a mix of double header and smaller venues, finals in August then the GF during the AFL pre finals bye. Make a huge event like the my did for the Women’s cricket WC with a big name artist. Play it at the highest ranked team’s stadium. Saturday night. Cheap tickets sell it out.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Also I think that ‘clear air’ is not that valuable when it is racing then cricket season. Reckon the comp gets more coverage exposure and interest if playing during footy season.

The viewership numbers tell a clear story. More people watch when it doesn't overlap with the men's season.

I would add two games per season and bring the GF back two weeks each season, so by 2027 we are starting in April, 18 games, a mix of double header and smaller venues, finals in August then the GF during the AFL pre finals bye.

And how exactly are you doing that while clubs and broadcasters don't have sufficient resources to adequately support concurrent seasons?

 

[Walshawk]

The viewership numbers tell a clear story. More people watch when it doesn't overlap with the men's season.



And how exactly are you doing that while clubs and broadcasters don't have sufficient resources to adequately support concurrent seasons?

Must be just me then. I have more interest in VFLW than AFLW. Simply zero interest in watching footy after the men’s season has finished.

Concurrent with AFLW & VFLW? Why would running two separate seasons require fewer resources than running them at the same time.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Concurrent with AFLW & VFLW? Why would running two separate seasons require fewer resources than running them at the same time.

Concurrent AFL and AFLW seasons.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

The viewership numbers tell a clear story. More people watch when it doesn't overlap with the men's season.



And how exactly are you doing that while clubs and broadcasters don't have sufficient resources to adequately support concurrent seasons?

I like your passion for the women's game, but a lot of your posts seem to be really condescending.

 

[Teen Wolf]

I like your passion for the women's game, but a lot of your posts seem to be really condescending.

Could not care less what anybody thinks of my passion or tone, etc. Address the points of contention (which are about FOOTBALL), or don't reply.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Could not care less what anybody thinks of my passion or tone, etc. Address the points of contention (which are about FOOTBALL), or don't reply.

Do you honestly believe speaking down to people is the best way to get your point across?

It's also not going to do much in helping promote the game

 

[Walshawk]

Concurrent AFL and AFLW seasons.

Double headers would make that easier on clubs and broadcasters

 

[Teen Wolf]

Double headers would make that easier on clubs and broadcasters

So instead of having 2 games on at the same time competing for the AFL's TV audience, there'll be 4... I wonder which league will always be on Fox Footy getting the premium promotion and which league will be hidden away on a channel (and at a time) that nobody knows about.

Also, the turf at Marvel and the MCG (and the SCG and Gabba too) can't sustain double the workload throughout winter, which means the women would have to play mostly at the training grounds, therefore stretching resources. Broadcasters only have a finite number of trucks, likewise clubs wrt physios, supporters wrt time, etc.

And what happens when AFLW players want to train every session during the day, like the men. Who gets priority access to the training facilities? The team that's in-season is the obvious answer, unless the seasons run at the same time. Further, why is the current number of 75,000 AFLW members going to grow if matches are just played as double-headers with the men's.

Solve those four or five glaring issues, and you're onto something.

 

[Walshawk]

So instead of having 2 games on at the same time competing for the AFL's TV audience, there'll be 4... I wonder which league will always be on Fox Footy getting the premium promotion and which league will be hidden away on a channel (and at a time) that nobody knows about.

Also, the turf at Marvel and the MCG (and the SCG and Gabba too) can't sustain double the workload throughout winter, which means the women would have to play mostly at the training grounds, therefore stretching resources. Broadcasters only have a finite number of trucks, likewise clubs wrt physios, supporters wrt time, etc.

And what happens when AFLW players want to train every session during the day, like the men. Who gets priority access to the training facilities? The team that's in-season is the obvious answer, unless the seasons run at the same time. Further, why is the current number of 75,000 AFLW members going to grow if matches are just played as double-headers with the men's.

Solve those four or five glaring issues, and you're onto something.

So you think keeping ten games after the H & A men’s season is the answer? If the season is going to get to 18 games, there will be overlapping. And double headers and all the problems you mentioned. However:

• most games already overlap on Sat & Sun afternoons.
• AFLW games would not double the workload, as we are only taking Sat, half the games. AFLW is much shorter and the lighter players would do minimal damage. They would use the same grounds they do now for non DH games.
• The men train on an oval about five to eight hours per week, and about 20 hours all up, so if and when the women go full time, access not be a problem.
• why do memberships need to be separate?

 

[Teen Wolf]

So you think keeping ten games after the H & A men’s season is the answer? If the season is going to get to 18 games, there will be overlapping. And double headers and all the problems you mentioned. However:

• most games already overlap on Sat & Sun afternoons.
• AFLW games would not double the workload, as we are only taking Sat, half the games. AFLW is much shorter and the lighter players would do minimal damage. They would use the same grounds they do now for non DH games.
• The men train on an oval about five to eight hours per week, and about 20 hours all up, so if and when the women go full time, access not be a problem.
• why do memberships need to be separate?

I've already explained what the best structure is, earlier in the thread. The next best is ths AFL's, which is to extend the season gradually and only have the first 6 of 18 rounds overlap with the men.

Your dot points are not taking the issues seriously (to be expected of anybody who considers watching AFLW in October too much of a chore). Like wow, most men's games already overlap on Sat and Sun... I think that was my point to begin with.

If "oh but the players are lighter, matches are shorter" was a sufficient rationale, we wouldn't have had a string of embarrassing ground availability issues, including the 2017 grand final debacle.

The question over access to training facilities is who gets priority (the answer is: the men, just as they would get the prime timeslots and promotion, etc).

The whole crux of your short-sighted vision: AFLW doesn't need separate membership, or viewership, or sponsorship. Just force it to rely entirely on men's revenue in perpetuity. Deny and obstruct all avenues of independent growth. I'm not interested in women's football in October, and therefore nor is anybody else.

 

[Walshawk]

Club chiefs warned by AFL of 70 per cent slump in TV audiences for AFLW

The figures were presented to club chiefs at a time when players are demanding more games. Also in this week’s Scoop column, a former Bomber wants to be traded back to his old club.

www.theage.com.au

AFL reluctant to extend season due to shrinking crowds and ratings.

 

[____]

17 regular season games for each team, top 6 finals with a February start (play the first month at night) and June finals (work it around the men's bye weeks).

However I can accept a May/June start and October finals as a compromise.