‘What are we aiming for?’ Players want to know the plan for AFLW to explode

“How we structure the two seasons, side by side [men’s and women’s] or overlapping, is going to be a challenge, particularly with cricket over the summer periods. So we need to consider that, we need to consider second tier and where does VFL[W] fit in?,” Bunny said. “That’s a big puzzle we need to solve.”

The current state league competitions run from March to July. The hope by 2030 is that the feeder comps will align with the AFLW season, giving younger and fringe players the chance to develop.

Regarding season length, Moore said the AFL’s goal was to reach the targets in the current CBA.

“I also believe we’ve got to then settle on it [season dates]. We’ve got to do the work around all of these things that really matter to build it, and then we have to put some key dates in it that don’t change, and some key moments in it that don’t change because that’s what people want,” Moore said.

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“Players want that stability and predictability. Clubs need that predictability and stability. AFL House needs it … but most importantly, fans, they build their rituals around this stuff.”

More rivalries and marquee clashes, held at bigger stadiums

There is also a push for more marquee games and rounds, including a potential AFLW Gather Round or State of Origin.

But Moore says, “This isn’t just about doing what the men’s do and replicating it, [it’s about] what are the ones that make absolute sense for W as a national elite game?”

The jury is still out on double-headers with the men’s competition. “It’s a different game, it’s a different fan base, it’s a different look and feel. And I’m not personally not convinced that will work,” Bunny said.

However, others, such as Richmond vice captain Gabby Seymour, think it could allow for good marketing opportunities and “one-club” events.

There’s also an opportunity for storylines to develop by 2030, including rivalries. For example, as Essendon coach Natalie Wood pointed out, there’s not enough room in the current season length for all the big club clashes, such as Essendon v Collingwood or Carlton v Collingwood or Essendon v Hawthorn, to happen every year because those clubs then wouldn’t be able to play the other half of the competition.

“You can’t have Dreamtime [at the ’G], you can’t have Anzac Day, you can’t have country rounds, you can’t have Essendon v Carlton, you can’t have all these big games every year because otherwise I won’t play half the fixture,” Wood said.

Other rivalries will be given the chance to grow organically.

“And maybe some of these rivalries look the same as the men’s, but maybe some of them look different,” Seymour said. “Like, I’m thinking about ourselves [the Tigers] and Brisbane, for example; we beat them by a point on [men’s] grand final eve last year, [a big upset] and then they came out and rolled us in the finals.”

While the use of big stadiums, including the AFL-owned Marvel, hinges on TV and crowd metrics increasing, there is a hope that by 2030 larger stadiums can be used for marquee games, while smaller grounds would still be used where appropriate.

Seymour said players enjoy playing at smaller home grounds, such as Punt Road for Richmond and Windy Hill for Essendon, because they promote a lively atmosphere, while larger stadiums provide pristine conditions “giving the game the best opportunity to be of an excellent standard”.

“If you don’t host a premier competition at sort of premier stadiums and facilities, then I’m not sure what outcome setting yourself up to as well,” said Seymour.

“If we go back to the fan [experience] as well … if you’re going to watch an elite-level competition, there’s sort of an expectation of it being at an elite facility as well.”

Resources increased to meet player needs

At club level, the other dream, Wood said, was being able to adequately meet the needs of the players regarding resources and coaching, as player pay and hours have increased more quickly than the club resources that support them.

“You stretch one area and then, all of a sudden, another area feels like it’s sort of lagging. So the players getting their 12-month contracts, getting paid across the 12 months within their contract, their hours increasing, their ability to be athletes really increased, but our capacity within clubs, within the soft cap, to meet the demands of the players hasn’t grown at the same rate,” Wood said.

For example, assistant coaches are still part-time.

“We need to be able to set our staffing structures up within clubs that meet the needs of the players and at the minute, our experience is that that’s not quite aligned, and it’s hard to find the right people for the jobs with the right … culture fit, the right skill set,” Wood said.

“They’ve also got to have flexibility within their current job. Or they’ve also got to have remuneration in other places that they don’t need this compensated for as much. So all of a sudden, your pool of people is getting quite reduced.”

Further to this, more players will retire and pursue careers within the systems, whether that’s in coaching or other areas of football departments, to widen that pool. The AFLW has just two of its former players as coaches, Port Adelaide’s Lauren Arnell and West Coast’s Daisy Pearce.

“And so you can imagine, in 2030 and beyond, when you’ve got recruiters, media people, heads [of football], that have had these lived experiences in growing the game, the game is going to be much richer for it,” said Wood.

To make Chloe Molloy a household name

The quality of the broadcast is still a sticking point, says Bunny, noting the flow-on effects for the marketing of the game, which she’d like to see improved by 2030.

Commentator and former player Kate McCarthy told this masthead last year that suburban grounds were not usually hardwired for broadcasting, which made it difficult to cover those games and led to a poorer quality broadcast.

McCarthy said one game between Hawthorn and the Bulldogs at Box Hill City Oval last season would have been “been almost unwatchable” because of heavy rain and dire conditions.

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“The cameras are so far away, you can’t actually cut the vision down like you can with the men’s to get a really good snapshot [of football acts such as tackles or goals] that you can then reshare [on social media],” said Bunny.

She said addressing these issues would attract more people to the game and connect fans with players, helping to make players such as Chloe Molloy household names.

Similarly, Seymour added, she’d like to see “more displays of skill”.

“I think they [the AFL] do a good job at the moment of tapping into people’s sense of belonging or inclusion … that legacy kind of space. But I think elite sport thrives because people are amazed. So yeah, if I was doing the marketing, I would be trying to showcase how amazing it is,” Seymour said.

‘Increased physical and mental capacity’ to go harder, for longer

By 2030 Seymour hopes to see a more offensive style of footy. “I think as that skill level continues to develop, we then see the progression of that is a more offensive, more free-flowing kind of game that also allows for more intricacies in game plans.”

While the AFLW still has a significant number of “cross-coders”, who came from different sports in the early days of the competition, girls who enter the system now have been nurtured all the way through the football development pathway.

Fremantle coach Lisa Webb, who spends a lot of time watching under-18s women’s, said she’s “blown away with the amount of talent coming through”, who in five years will be mid-20s AFLW players. She noted this will lead “increased scoring” but also to a better quality of game. For example, their “ability to run really good patterns is quite exceptional, and their flexibility to play across multiple lines”.

Wood added that the physical attributes of the athletes would improve, along with being able to perform the basics under fatigue, with “greater capacity to understand the nuances and the different tactical strings that we could pull at different times”.

“Players have always probably had a good, strong skill set, but now with that increased physical capacity and mental capacity that they can now do what they do for longer and at higher intensity,” Wood said.

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