The beginning of the 2020 AFLW season is finally within reach. The familiar smells of freshly cut grass, hot chips and liniment are almost in the air; alongside warm late summer nights and crisp early autumn afternoons on the horizon, it’s a heady combination. Footy is back.
When the idea of a national women’s Australian rules competition first became less of an abstract idea and more of a reality, 2020 was floated as its inaugural year. It was a shock announcement by AFL CEO Gil McLachlan at a Women in Football event in 2015 that brought forward that start date to 2017. It seems improbable now that we could have waited until this year. Imagine the players and the stories and the memories we would have missed – a sliding doors moment if there ever was one. But as fascinating as it is to follow that path and wonder briefly at what might have been, it’s far more interesting to assess the state of play today.
It has been a tumultuous off season for the AFLW with the collective bargaining agreement negotiations placing the structure of the competition and the competing desires of the AFL and the players firmly in the spotlight. Surprising retirements, some tough choices for dual sport athletes and decisions to prioritise or not the AFLW also placed the part-time nature of the league under the microscope.
The structure of the competition continues to be a sticking point. In 2020, four new teams – Gold Coast, Richmond, St Kilda and West Coast – will join the AFLW. However, despite the addition of these teams, clubs will only play one more home-and-away round, up from seven in 2019 to eight in 2020. And while there will be an expanded three-week finals series bringing the season to 11 weeks, the conferences that caused so much heartache and headache last season are back.
As we saw last year, the conferences were imbalanced from the beginning which had a significant impact on the finals. North Melbourne, who had a remarkable first season, missed the finals completely while Fremantle, who only lost one game for the season, were denied a home final. Whether the AFL has managed to put together two conferences that are more evenly weighted than last season remains to be seen. Expect plenty of discussion around conferences and their impact, good or bad, this year.
The number of games was a sticking point in the CBA negotiations that almost threatened to derail the beginning of preseason at the end of last year. The CBA focused mostly on season structure because details around the basic arrangements for player payments had already been agreed to. But the first iteration of the CBA was rejected by the players with the players’ union, the AFLPA, failing to secure the agreement of 75% of the vote.
Details of the vote and the concerns, and some names, of the players who rejected the proposal were leaked to the media. One memorable article referred to four of the players who voiced concerns as “ringleaders” and “strong willed women”, like those are bad things. It was a reminder that the women of the AFLW have had to fight for every opportunity and that they’ll need to continue that fight for the foreseeable future. It also shone a light on the role of the AFLPA and whether they are the right organisation to be tasked with representing the women of the AFLW. That remains to be seen. At the very least, there should be more than one AFLW representative on the AFLPA board. Stay tuned for more discussion around that.
Players also raised concerns about the standard of umpiring in the league and the condition of the change rooms at some grounds. Many AFLW games are played at community or state league grounds like Victoria Park, Fremantle Oval or Ikon Park, venues whose heydays were more than a few years ago. The AFL has at least responded to concerns about the standard of umpiring, announcing in late January that AFL listed umpires would be involved with AFLW games for the first time. It is expected that half of the season’s games will be officiated by an AFL umpire. Keen eyes will be watching to see how this lifts the standard of umpiring and what impact that has on the competition.
Despite the turmoil of the first vote, a second iteration of the CBA was eventually agreed to with players successful in gaining an increase in games for the 2021 and 2022 seasons, up to nine and 10 respectively plus a three-week finals series. But it’s still a long way off what they, and what many fans, wanted: a 13-round home-and-away season.
The part-time nature of the AFLW, a sticking point for many, has been more pronounced this year with a series of players making decisions about their futures. In late November, only a day before the beginning of preseason, Amanda Farrugia, the Giant’s inaugural captain announced her retirement. The 34-year-old said at the time that the AFLW was not a “competition you can do half-hearted”.
The juggling act that many AFLW players have been asked to perform – managing ostensibly part-time roles as footballers with other sports, careers and families – appears to be becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. The Bulldogs’ Aisling Utri has taken a step back from her blossoming AFLW career to focus on hockey, while Melbourne’s Bianca Jakobson is to focus on her career with the police force. At the other end of the spectrum, Collingwood’s Steph Chiocci has taken unpaid leave from her job as a teacher to devote herself to the AFLW and Richmond’s Monique Conti has walked away from her contract with the Melbourne Boomers, making football her No 1 sport.
The AFL persists in their softly softly approach – clinging to their goal of ‘fresh air’ in a saturated sport calendar and resisting making the league and players full-time despite having the power and bank balance to do so – but players will be forced to make decisions that could potentially put them in precarious financial and professional positions. Or even see them leave the sport altogether.
None of these conversations – from the number of games, conferences and the CBA to umpiring, venues and the juggling act demanded of players – look like going away anytime soon. And there are plenty more on the table, including the scheduling of games and ticketing. However, despite the challenges faced by the players, the competition, the league and even the fans, there is no denying that the future of the AFLW is one that glitters with promise and passion.
