What have you liked, learnt or hated about AFL Womens Round 1?

[WakeUpPies]

You should hope for the league to be successful (even if you do nothing to support it) purely because it might give your daughter/niece/whatever the opportunity to play footy at a high level.

No one is forcing you to watch the women's footy matches, just like no one is forcing you to watch the men's basketball, soccer, cricket, whatever.

 

[chiwigi]

You should hope for the league to be successful (even if you do nothing to support it) purely because it might give your daughter/niece/whatever the opportunity to play footy at a high level.

No one is forcing you to watch the women's footy matches, just like no one is forcing you to watch the men's basketball, soccer, cricket, whatever.

I will certainly hope it is succesful once my team are in.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Definitely wrote my post with Connolly in mind.

“I think there is a small percentage of dinosaurs out there who are going to complain regardless, for whatever reason. Maybe they feel threatened by women’s success. Maybe they’re resentful of it. Maybe they’re just sad and inadequate."

Quotes like the above from Connolly serve nothing but to divide the footy public, while being harmful to the overall success of the AFLW. It's very easy to see the AFL and the media politicizing the new league, which is going to put a sour taste in the mouth of the general footy public.

You really think there's not a small percentage of dinosaurs out there who perfectly fit Connolly's description?

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

The other side to this is that those without teams are way more hostile than those without.

Speak for yourself. I'm super pissed off the Swans aren't fielding a women's team but I'm loving this comp.

 

[chiwigi]

Speak for yourself. I'm super pissed off the Swans aren't fielding a women's team but I'm loving this comp.

I am speaking for myself, who else would I be speaking for? What a strange thing to say.
If you read the follow up, you would see it is because there may be an advatage to the mens team that has yet not been seen.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

I am speaking for myself, who else would I be speaking for? What a strange thing to say.
If you read the follow up, you would see it is because there may be an advatage to the mens team that has yet not been seen.

I wasn't having a go at you, but "THOSE without teams" certainly could suggest the plural after all, so it's not unreasonable to read it as presuming to speak on behalf of others. Anyway, thanks for clarifying.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Autopsy of womens football is a fitting analogy of review . The womens game is a corpse and the fascination of seeing something weird and different will wear off quickly

I'm sure the women and girls who comprise over 50% of the Australian population will be intrigued to know that the very act of them playing a 158-year-old sport intimately entwined with our national identity is "weird" and "different".

 

[chiwigi]

I'm sure the women and girls who comprise over 50% of the Australian population will be intrigued to know that the very act of them playing a 158-year-old sport intimately entwined with our national identity is "weird" and "different".

To be fair (and I'm not trying to have a go), the fact that it IS a 158 year old sport and there hasn't been a pro womens comp yet MAKES it "weird" and "different", it all feels a little 30 years past due.

 

[Pessimistic]

...especially one where the live audience is almost 50-50 male female

 

[Big Animal]

I enjoyed another one of my teams overdefend and overuse the ball in the back half only to have no obvious strategy to goal once the ball passed forward of the centre. Keep it simple coaches. It's not the highly skilled men's game. Some of these girls hadn't even played an official game before.

Bulldogs were good though from what I saw.

Don't think much of 16 a side which I think they are testing for the men's game. In theory it should be more open but in reality I just saw the same number around the ball (on both sides) but just fewer options going forward on the fast break when the ball came out.

 

[Eaglemaniac]

I enjoyed another one of my teams overdefend and overuse the ball in the back half only to have no obvious strategy to goal once the ball passed forward of the centre. Keep it simple coaches. It's not the highly skilled men's game. Some of these girls hadn't even played an official game before.

Bulldogs were good though from what I saw.

Don't think much of 16 a side which I think they are testing for the men's game. In theory it should be more open but in reality I just saw the same number around the ball (on both sides) but just fewer options going forward on the fast break when the ball came out.

I think you'd find there was more space able to be used with 16 a side if they hit targets more regularly.

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

Definitely wrote my post with Connolly in mind.

“I think there is a small percentage of dinosaurs out there who are going to complain regardless, for whatever reason. Maybe they feel threatened by women’s success. Maybe they’re resentful of it. Maybe they’re just sad and inadequate."

Quotes like the above from Connolly serve nothing but to divide the footy public, while being harmful to the overall success of the AFLW. It's very easy to see the AFL and the media politicizing the new league, which is going to put a sour taste in the mouth of the general footy public.

The problem is that its difficult not to see an element of misogyny in some of the criticism of the women's league given the vehement nature of the criticism.
That's not to suggest that it cant be criticised in its own right but it does beg the question why bother critisisng something that is not ever going to impact you in the first place. Its not as though people are being forced to watch it and its easy to ignore if you are not interested.
Dont see anything wrong with Connollys post as it states clearly "a small percentage". As for it being decisive he is just commenting on others posts so any decisiveness is not being created by him as it already existed.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

The problem is that its difficult not to see an element of misogyny in some of the criticism of the women's league given the vehement nature of the criticism.
That's not to suggest that it cant be criticised in its own right but it does beg the question why bother critisisng something that is not ever going to impact you in the first place. Its not as though people are being forced to watch it and its easy to ignore if you are not interested.
Dont see anything wrong with Connollys post as it states clearly "a small percentage". As for it being decisive he is just commenting on others posts so any decisiveness is not being created by him as it already existed.

I reckon you meant "divisive", not "decisive" but otherwise I agree.

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

Yeah, this really annoyed me about Rohan’s tweeting on it. He was just creating a straw man argument that there significant opposition towards the AFLW when there had been massive positive coverage in the mainstream media and almost universal positivity amongst fans on social media I saw. Eventually he found one or two Twitter accounts antagonistic but you can find that on any topic on Twitter.

There was also an Age article late last week proclaiming AFLW would succeed despite all the naysayers against it. Who were these people? Again, unless I missed it there has been enormous anticipation from footy fans for this comp as reflected in crowds and TV ratings.

Just another example of why The Age is an irrelevant, dying publication.

I reckon you meant "divisive", not "decisive" but otherwise I agree.

I did, someone interrupted me mid way through, with some work to do which was really inconsiderate of them!

 

[GreyCrow]

Don't think much of 16 a side which I think they are testing for the men's game. In theory it should be more open but in reality I just saw the same number around the ball (on both sides) but just fewer options going forward on the fast break when the ball came out.

Might just be the nature of the game at the moment but the one thing I noticed was players playing in a position. Now that might be tactical or fitness but it was good to see.

 

[Pykie]

Love the concept, love the fact there's pathways for girls now, love the time of the year this is on, it's genius by the AFL...... after the big bash, the AO etc (The A-League must be absolutely filthy). It could commercially be a monster in 25 years, with the different types of sponsorships it will open up, as well as the % it will add to the TV rights deal.

However, the standard is absolutely terrible, which is probably to be expected, I never expected even D grade VAFA standard, just something more than a basic junior level, other than a few players it's essentially what you'd get from picking most girls out of a year 12 PE class.

I will be interested to see how well the crowd's do when the gloss wears off of the product. I can see the standard being exceptional with the resources that will be pumped into it in around 10 or so years, it's just weather the public interest will remain for that long.

A lot of people are talking about the talent drain from netball etc, but there's one sport I think this could help. Womens Rugby 7's at the Olympics, there's a lot of crossover skills and in 10 or so years, some of the girls by that time will be world class athletes.

It's in a footy starved period of the year and with the short season, I think it's here to stay. Just need to get the standard ALOT better.

 

[ash_1050]

Loved watching the Dees v Lions game as well as the highlights from others. Great to see the women's teams getting up and running it's well overdue.

 

[DexterTan]

 

[Moist Biscuit]

Like all sporting competition's in the infant stages, AFLW was never going to be the best spectacle right away. After the competitions been around long enough and rivalry's have had a chance to develop we will all enjoy it much more. But I can't take all that much out of the weekend as far as popularity for the sport goes, Let's just see how the crowds go when the public have to buy tickets, then we can see if they can make it on their own.

 

[MrPortAdelaide]

once a price is attached to it people will soon turn away, if you leave junk on the kerbside for free its gone in 60 seconds, if a fact of life

 

[Pessimistic]

once a price is attached to it people will soon turn away, if you leave junk on the kerbside for free its gone in 60 seconds, if a fact of life

Or they cut off the cord and leave the cheap eletctronic trash sitting there

 

[MrPortAdelaide]

Or they cut off the cord and leave the cheap eletctronic trash sitting there

lol, they do

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Go to any Herald Sun article that was written in the 9 month period between the league being announced and the matches actually starting, read the comments section, and people like RoCo are justified because those comments prove that there is a massive, misogynistic base out there.

Take this pretty stock-standard article with the announcment that Channel 9/Crocmedia were doing a Sunday Footy Show equivalent for the AFLW:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/wo...n/news-story/cae5f5adc7f5b0b611b1a056c78dc723

The AFL are now Jehovah's Wittnesses - even if we know about the message and can't be bothered with it they still bring it to our door. Free beer could not make women's AFL a success.

unproven unqualified all to appease the feminists who bark for equality.I wonder what Susie obrien will have to say about this considering her baying for the footy show to be axed.Time tells many stories and it does not matter how they glam it up it will be another show to hit the dust

And a stock-standard HS article about the release of the fixture:

Rather watch my grass grow all year round then to watch this garbage

- 14 HS account people "liked this"

Who cares!! Stop trying to force this crap down our throats! I'm sure the vast vast majority have zero interest in this, just as we have zero interest in a men's netball team! Enough with this PC rubbish!

- 19 HS account people "liked this".

I could go on and on but people get the point.

This thread has claimed that the supporters of the league have been doing a strawman argument by attacking opposition to the league that doesn't exist. But it's them that are the real strawmen here because in claiming that there wasn't real opposition (which I have just given a very small window of), it detracts from the actual monumental achievement in fighting this opposition in what creating this league is, and detracts from the many pioneers like Susan Alberti over the years in making what they have done seem less difficult than it actually was.

 

[stanley]

The women's game has been really positive. The thing is we are not going to see quality football for at least 20 yrs. These girls are the pioneers. It is not until there is a whole generation of girls who have played continuously from Auskick to Seniors that we will witness female football at a decent standard. The catch is you won't get that generation until it is on TV and getting the sponsorship etc...

The problem with the whole debate is that people don't like being told 'how great is this football' when in reality it is a very low standard. I can accept that it is going to be poor for a long time to come then we should see some real improvements.

This also touches on a deeper problem when it comes to equality. Female sports will never be to the standard of male sports. So should they receive equal prize money/sponsorship/tv coverage?

 

[GreyCrow]

once a price is attached to it people will soon turn away,

I think there is an element of truth to this but not to the detriment of the competition.

I think the pricing will go a long way to determining the start up success of this over the next few years.

But if we were to be honest with ourselves we must also recognize there is a self imposed price barrier for the mens game as well ie I am about $10 rise per game away from choosing a different membership package.