- May 5, 2006
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The sport is Australian Rules Football.
The premier competition is the AFL.
* I hate the AFL for contributing to this problem.
Women's AFL
- Thread starter Superstar swan
- Start date
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The sport is Australian Rules Football.
The premier competition is the AFL.
* I hate the AFL for contributing to this problem.
- Jun 16, 2012
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- #52
The game really doesnt transition to both sexes like cricket and soccer do. I havnt been to any female games but im guessing it resembles the ancient style of football (also known as horse's super masterplan) of kick ot as far as you can and see what happens next. People are not goinh to have the attention span to watch it take 6 kicks to go end to end. Ideally needs to be played on smaller grounds,which wont happen
dickballsack
Club Legend
- Jun 16, 2012
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To be fair, if you say afl EVERYONE knows what your talking about. When you say football, some think league, some think union, some think soccer etc and its easier than saying australian rules football all the time
- Jun 16, 2012
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The difference with ufc or mma is that women can do everything men do so your basically watching the same thing. Most women cannot kick 50+m, most women cannot run the speeds the men run. It will look like a completely different game. Everything the afl does is to boost excitement, thats what they market. Unfortunately for women the nature of the beast is that its going to be hard to keep peoples interest when the skill level will be so below the afl.
People dont care about the ej whitten game and most of the guys playing were damn good footballers
Wait what?
Which female soccer players earn their clubs as much if not more than the men?
- May 5, 2006
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A national women's league is a gimmick. The demand for it really isn't there and the AFL simply wants the PR value that comes from having one - which is silly considering women support the AFL in massive numbers anyway.
http://www.wafootball.com.au/development/players/female
There are 15 senior teams here in Perth. 15. Soccer, netball etc. have multiple leagues and clubs all over the place. That level of senior participation just doesn't scream 'national league needed' to me. And yes that's just one cap city.
People that think women's footy is something that people should be able to make a living out of at the moment are kidding themselves. Even the top female players know that.
- May 5, 2006
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I'm a big fan of the concept, but don't agree with how its being introduced.
The whole single club aligned model is shooting itself in the foot from the beginning. Am I meant to "barrack" for a crows female side?
It should have been generic SA/WA/NSW/QLD/maybe 4 vic sides to begin with just to grow the concept. Align every AFL club with a womens teams on a paired basis (it might mean enemies working together). Make it so both Port and crow fans can get behind the SA team, same for WA and other states. Play curtain raisers before both local teams throughout the year.
If things go well, and the talent pool increases, then convert to club aligned system at some future point.
The whole single club aligned model is shooting itself in the foot from the beginning. Am I meant to "barrack" for a crows female side?
It should have been generic SA/WA/NSW/QLD/maybe 4 vic sides to begin with just to grow the concept. Align every AFL club with a womens teams on a paired basis (it might mean enemies working together). Make it so both Port and crow fans can get behind the SA team, same for WA and other states. Play curtain raisers before both local teams throughout the year.
If things go well, and the talent pool increases, then convert to club aligned system at some future point.
This whole discussion has been done to death on a number of other threads, and while the details of the comp are far from finalised, the objectives and rational behind the comp are well explained. Firstly, addressing your question, the exhibition games are make up teams that only come together for a few days prior to the game, they are not an indication of what is to come. However, if you go to the Demons website, you will find Daisy Pearce is all over everything. She has been employed by the club in a roving role (essentially an apprenticeship in football business), and is front and centre in media for both Melbourne and the AFL, this is definitely a sign of things to come.
These teams are to be completely integrated into the clubs. The criteria the clubs were to address when making a bid are
Governance and administration - how they are going to integrate a womens team into the business
Football - football development, how does it fit in with the football operations team.
Business development - what commercial partners can they bring.
Strategic relevance - what is the purpose in wanting a womens team, what is the objective.
Broader commitment - what is the clubs commitment to women in football in a broader setting
St Kildas bid went so far as to detail which positions would have responsibility for both mens and women teams, and the new female team specific roles that would be created. ie a female team gets run out of the same football department as the mens, and to a degree by the same people. They even specified a joint training session to be held weekly.
The AFL itself has as a primary objective, for the league to be a driver of participation. Just the announcement of the formation of the league has had a huge effect. 150 odd new teams last year, on track for 250 this year. 400+ new teams in 2 years and the league has not even started yet.
The secondary objective is as a driver of female integration into the league, as administrators, coaches, commissioners, whatever. Again, this is already working.
As an aside to those talking down the women getting paid, a lot of them are already getting paid. There are quite a few of the top female players already on the books of clubs or the AFL in one capacity or another. Some employed as part of the bidding process, and I believe most of them will be kept on even if the clubs do not get a licence.
People saying they are not interested in watching are missing the point, the AFL is not interested that you are not interested. Thinking the league will fold after a couple of years because you and your mates do not care about, and are not interested in women playing a contact sport shows how little you know about what is going on. No one in AFL land cares that you do not get it, you are not the point of the exercise.
The advice the AFL got (from female footballers) was that 6 teams was the best number to start with to maintain a decent quality comp. The reason the AFL ignored this and went with 8, and is now considering 10, is that if the KPI is to drive participation, then getting AFL female teams into all the markets possible as soon as possible, is the best way to do this. If that lowers the quality and makes it less likely that people watch, it doesn't matter, that is not the objective, and lets face it, most that object to the league were not going to watch anyway, regardless of its quality.
As for alignment, it was also always going to be, and had to be, completely integrated into the AFL. It had to be teams in existing clubs. Again, suggesting they should have set up a separate league, with non AFL aligned teams, is to completely and utterly miss what is going on here.
Young girls growing up with a passion for footy dream of playing for the Eagles, or the Pies in the AFL, they do not dream of playing for the West Australian wood ducks in the female national league. The AFL, and the prospect of playing in it, is the most powerful participation driver the AFL has. Any other possible womens national league would immediately seem like a gimmick in comparison, and would have a tiny fraction of the drawing power of the AFL. When the AFL was canvassing people about this, one of the most immediate questions girls had was `will it be the AFL, or some other league`.
Girls do not want to play in a national league, they want to play in the AFL.
The womens league will start in 2017.
The AFL will carry it, even if it loses quite a bit of money, for a very long time (think forever, you will be close).
On the criteria the AFL is measuring for the success of the league, it is already succeeding, and it has not even started yet.
Clubs will completely integrate these teams into their footy departments. Expect things like joint leadership groups, and cross over on coaching panels.
I know many will be disappointed by all this, but it is what it is.
Some already are. They are not being paid to kick goals yet, but they have jobs with AFL clubs purely on their ability as footballers.
Incidentally, the AFL players association has been actively signing female players for months, and has already announced it intends negotiating on their behalf. So it seems that even if BF posters do not think female players deserve to be paid, the male players do think so.
- May 5, 2006
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Riiiight.
The money for the women's game will come from the men's game. Does anyone think otherwise?
Doss
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People who want to make the smart arse "stick to cooking" style comments would be well advised to not post in this thread.
Thanks.
Thanks.
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Point the toe, extend the leg - perfect technique
- Jul 5, 2012
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- Kidding, right?
I don't know what it is about it, but I just love watching women playing footy.
Having said that, there's no local women's comp in my area that I'm aware of, and I've never seen it on TV, just a few snippets on the Internet, but I'd love to watch more of it.
My son's Auskick coach is a young girl and she's a beautiful kick of the footy.
Having said that, there's no local women's comp in my area that I'm aware of, and I've never seen it on TV, just a few snippets on the Internet, but I'd love to watch more of it.
My son's Auskick coach is a young girl and she's a beautiful kick of the footy.
JeffDunne
TheBrownDog
While technically not a club, the US Women's soccer team in recent times have generated more revenue for US Soccer than the men's team.
In the World Cup, the USA v Japan final was most watched football match in US history.
sherb
Hall of Famer
But you don't have to put something together simply because the demand exists. You can do it for for other reasons in the hope and expectation that the demand will grow in time.
Tho other reason in this instance being growing the game for the girls at the grass roots level - ie from juniors through to seniors - and encouraging participation by (1) giving talented girls an elite competition to aim for and (2) more broadly, by showing young girls that it is a game that they can play through to adulthood.
The pathway from junior girls' football to senior girls' football isn't particularly strong - if it exists at all. In time I would hope that initiatives like this grow the demand so that they are in place (ie a strong and functional youth girls' comp in particular, to enable the transition).
I think it is fantastic to see girls playing the game. The more the merrier for me. As I mentioned earlier, we added a senior ladies' side to our local club here in Sydney about 5 years ago and it is one of the best things we have done for years.
For those who want to denigrate the girls' effort on the field, I can tell you they hit as hard and work as hard as the blokes. Sure, the skill level isn't the same, but I can see past that to enjoy a contest. (Having said that, some of the girls are very skilled, and the skill levels will only improve once more and more girls come through from juniors having continuously played from a young age).
Love that women's participation is growing in the game
I play in mixed gendered adult league. It's a pretty casual affair, but some of the girls go in harder than anybody
Anyone who actively makes a point about how disinterested they are about women's footy are by definition deuchebags
Fair enough if you're not interested, ignore it - but to make a thread with the intention of pretty much bagging the concept is poor form
I play in mixed gendered adult league. It's a pretty casual affair, but some of the girls go in harder than anybody
Anyone who actively makes a point about how disinterested they are about women's footy are by definition deuchebags
Fair enough if you're not interested, ignore it - but to make a thread with the intention of pretty much bagging the concept is poor form
Upgrayedd
A Vote for Clive is a Vote for Justice
If people on internet forums talked to girls. Like maybe people do, You would realise ladies still love participation sport, but Pathways really shrink once you hit teenage years. I know 4 people who are actually interested in playing in footy since a womans league is going to pop up and are going to give it a go.
As said that's not club football and the US National soccer teams are anomaly where the women's team is more marketable than the mens.
The Matildas don't bring in anywhere near the same amount of money that the Socceroos do (estimated to be a 10th), yet there is talk that their wage must be increased due to "pay discrimination". That increase is going to come directly out of the revenue generated by the Socceroos.
HotTinRoof
Debutant
Next time you're at the footy, look around at all the girls and women there. Maybe ask your club what percentage of members and volunteers they have who are female. Across the league it's something like 40%. THAT'S where the money comes from - supporters, tickets, memberships, merchandise, food and drinks on the day.... TV rights and sponsorship dollars are based on numbers watching or attending and they're not just counting the blokes.
Women contribute at all levels, financially and in other ways, and are finally being supported to play part-time at VFL level and that's too much for a few fragile male egos.
You might as well say 'don't give any support to any level of footy bar the elite AFL clubs because they're all just a drain'. Bloody Auskickers, what have they contributed to footy?
HotTinRoof
Debutant
The money for the men's game comes from men and women, who make up the AFL-watching population and contribute to the coffers. Blokes have been getting a free ride. Time they gave back
Got no issue with the women's league, personally I have no interest in it but that may come in time.
I keep coming back to why don't the AFL invest their money into the second tier and give it the coverage they are giving the women?
At the end of the day the second tier is where the AFL get their future from.
I keep coming back to why don't the AFL invest their money into the second tier and give it the coverage they are giving the women?
At the end of the day the second tier is where the AFL get their future from.
