AFLW General AFLW Discussion

[richoplzbreed]

Girls/womens footy builds clubs at grassroots level that feeds the AFL.

AFLW has made footy a more popular sport with communities, making more consumers and people playing the game at suburban level.
There’s no two ways about it.

The AFL owes a lot to it

Hey I coached my daughter's U12's team for 2 years and assisted the U15's a year. A few of the girls barely touched the ball/ were too busy doing fortnight/ tictoc dances & cartwheels. Now that they're older they confessed had zero interest in being there only wanted to hang out with their friends. The best player who won a league best and fairest is lost to the game because 2 seasons ago she was smexually harassed/ assaulted on the field every other week by rainbow flag waving opponents. She's a good looking girl, great kid was completely disgraceful to have to put up with that, endless complaints went nowhere. Her Dad told me this led to self-harming, so she now hates playing and will never go back. (Dermie voiced concerns about things like that years ago and was torn to shreds, you've only got to look at the cess pit that's the Matilda's team to see it's rife, that also was hushed up btw).

We had all these unrelated women with their customary Rainbow flags loitering in the changerooms, prior to games, when the girls should be able to get changed in privacy, without being eyed off by wtf know's who they are and wtf they're even doing there in the first place since they weren't a female relative of any of the player's. After repeated complaints and being sick of getting told not to make a fuss: cos how dare anyone want their kids to have some privacy. I made it my weekly mission to front a few and try to give them jobs like scoreboard, umpires escort but i'd always get the response oh i'm not related to any of the players, i'm a friend of such and such.... So I'd politely say well what are you doing in a changeroom with little girls that aren't your daughters then whilst watching their eyes like a hawk, knowing full well what those perverted @#$%'s were up to. Now lo and behold the committee had no problems giving me a please explain. So lo and behold my duties done, never to return.

Majority of the rest chucked it in as got other interests, school, boys, too soft, would rather watch AFL, friends left you name it.
When i was there we had U12's, U15's, U16's and U18's fast forward a few years and there's barely an U12's and U15's so the growth is negative and that's across the entire league. Hey my old club can thank the local council for blowing $1,000,000. on upgrading the facilities on behalf of the girls league forming (could've been done for $150,000 but hey it's a councilor's mates building company) they never spent $50 on a can of paint in the previous 10 years so some positive came out of it.

 

[Bojangles17]

HAWTHORN has completed a cross-code coup ahead of its second season in the AFLW, with Melbourne Victory star and capped Matildas goalkeeper Casey Dumont accepting an offer to switch to footy.

This is a perfect example of how the AFLW is run poorly. Bragging that you've poached a player from another code only ends in failure same as Israel Folau and Carmichael Hunt. She's basically been offered more money to play footy than soccer so the AFLW can thumb their noses and beat their chest about being a superior pathway to women's professional sport. The thing is she's a Goalie so would never have been required to sprint in a game before and maybe had to jog 10m a few times a game. At least the rugby boys had to run in their previous sport. Sabrina Frederick was at Punt Rd and I've never seen a lazier player in any form of footy EVER. U9's would be dragged if they stopped and stood still while the balls contested 5m away cos they're gasping after jogging 10m. Might as well poach shotputters and darts players next.

Yep lavey has been a successful cross coder but few materialize to anything at all

 

[Bojangles17]

Since we're in the fact stating business.... to go along with yours here are some for you:

• a large part of the Non-Alphabet army are completely put off by the Rainbow flag and all its connotations rammed down their throats in the W.
• maybe if the AFLW players acted like "PROFESSIONALS" and stopped hooking up with their teammates, they wouldn't have to keep changing teams to avoid dealing with their ex's at work everyday. Thus, creating some continuity in the playing lists, so little girls favorite players aren't gone every other year.
• the AFL overinflate the ratings and crowd attendance to not look bad.
• lastly, the aforementioned players couldn't run out of sight in a week. Unless Macca's was giving out free hamburgers.... but only then.

I haven't expressed any opinion, just stated facts.

save it man , plenty of us support it and bagging the s**t out of it is just coming off the long run , I’m looking forward to next season, reckon we will be primed with both lions and pies being decimated by poaching

 

[Bojangles17]

Hey I coached my daughter's U12's team for 2 years and assisted the U15's a year. A few of the girls barely touched the ball/ were too busy doing fortnight/ tictoc dances & cartwheels. Now that they're older they confessed had zero interest in being there only wanted to hang out with their friends. The best player who won a league best and fairest is lost to the game because 2 seasons ago she was smexually harassed/ assaulted on the field every other week by rainbow flag waving opponents. She's a good looking girl, great kid was completely disgraceful to have to put up with that, endless complaints went nowhere. Her Dad told me this led to self-harming, so she now hates playing and will never go back. (Dermie voiced concerns about things like that years ago and was torn to shreds, you've only got to look at the cess pit that's the Matilda's team to see it's rife, that also was hushed up btw).

We had all these unrelated women with their customary Rainbow flags loitering in the changerooms, prior to games, when the girls should be able to get changed in privacy, without being eyed off by wtf know's who they are and wtf they're even doing there in the first place since they weren't a female relative of any of the player's. After repeated complaints and being sick of getting told not to make a fuss: cos how dare anyone want their kids to have some privacy. I made it my weekly mission to front a few and try to give them jobs like scoreboard, umpires escort but i'd always get the response oh i'm not related to any of the players, i'm a friend of such and such.... So I'd politely say well what are you doing in a changeroom with little girls that aren't your daughters then whilst watching their eyes like a hawk, knowing full well what those perverted @#$%'s were up to. Now lo and behold the committee had no problems giving me a please explain. So lo and behold my duties done, never to return.

Majority of the rest chucked it in as got other interests, school, boys, too soft, would rather watch AFL, friends left you name it.
When i was there we had U12's, U15's, U16's and U18's fast forward a few years and there's barely an U12's and U15's so the growth is negative and that's across the entire league. Hey my old club can thank the local council for blowing $1,000,000. on upgrading the facilities on behalf of the girls league forming (could've been done for $150,000 but hey it's a councilor's mates building company) they never spent $50 on a can of paint in the previous 10 years so some positive came out of it.

Quite interesting , no surprises really that most of the coaching ranks are male , it’s req to break things up

 

[Cdog71]

Hey I coached my daughter's U12's team for 2 years and assisted the U15's a year. A few of the girls barely touched the ball/ were too busy doing fortnight/ tictoc dances & cartwheels. Now that they're older they confessed had zero interest in being there only wanted to hang out with their friends. The best player who won a league best and fairest is lost to the game because 2 seasons ago she was smexually harassed/ assaulted on the field every other week by rainbow flag waving opponents. She's a good looking girl, great kid was completely disgraceful to have to put up with that, endless complaints went nowhere. Her Dad told me this led to self-harming, so she now hates playing and will never go back. (Dermie voiced concerns about things like that years ago and was torn to shreds, you've only got to look at the cess pit that's the Matilda's team to see it's rife, that also was hushed up btw).

We had all these unrelated women with their customary Rainbow flags loitering in the changerooms, prior to games, when the girls should be able to get changed in privacy, without being eyed off by wtf know's who they are and wtf they're even doing there in the first place since they weren't a female relative of any of the player's. After repeated complaints and being sick of getting told not to make a fuss: cos how dare anyone want their kids to have some privacy. I made it my weekly mission to front a few and try to give them jobs like scoreboard, umpires escort but i'd always get the response oh i'm not related to any of the players, i'm a friend of such and such.... So I'd politely say well what are you doing in a changeroom with little girls that aren't your daughters then whilst watching their eyes like a hawk, knowing full well what those perverted @#$%'s were up to. Now lo and behold the committee had no problems giving me a please explain. So lo and behold my duties done, never to return.

Majority of the rest chucked it in as got other interests, school, boys, too soft, would rather watch AFL, friends left you name it.
When i was there we had U12's, U15's, U16's and U18's fast forward a few years and there's barely an U12's and U15's so the growth is negative and that's across the entire league. Hey my old club can thank the local council for blowing $1,000,000. on upgrading the facilities on behalf of the girls league forming (could've been done for $150,000 but hey it's a councilor's mates building company) they never spent $50 on a can of paint in the previous 10 years so some positive came out of it.

Ok, I haven’t seen alotve that.
But that’s club culture too.
I agree there’s probably an amount of degenerates who aren’t heterosexual and they should be fronted if they show themselves to be creepy or whatever.
But some girls love it mate, there’s not many sports where girls get to be brave and you do need to be brave to play Aussie Rules.
I’m sorry to hear you you had that sorta crap to deal with.
And I’ve seen the self harm stuff…Covid was sh.t for that.
But footy clubs are a great place for kids to learn and grow up.
There’s not that many places anymore where kids are surrounded by other Adults who can tell em not to worry about online crap that they’re appreciated or pull em up with a word or two if they don’t mind their manners or start acting like ratbags.

My club has 5 junior girls teams, 15 over all
8 years ago they had 127 juniors overall and where looking down the barrel of closing the juniors before girls footy came in.

It’s made them strong again.

Girls footy has the highest attrition rate of all sports for 14-16 year olds, for lots of reasons.
And they don’t come back.

 

[richoplzbreed]

Think the Collingwood netball club folding should be a warning for the AFLW. Sooner rather than later clubs are gonna be hit with ever increasing salary demands from the players. They're not even close to turning a profit and right now all the financials are jumbled up with the men's so it's hidden.

How many years til struggling teams expose the true costs and what they're forced to lose by fielding a team. Because the standards poor as there's not remotely enough quality to go round and they struggle to get a chain of more than 2 somewhat effective disposals meaning they struggle to score. A solution could be the AFLW play AFLX where they're only required to have 9 players so the talent increases and the duds are discarded and scores will be higher because the grounds shorter.

 

[Bojangles17]

Fairly cynical and short sighted view , with the number of girls coming through under age ranks the standard will continue to improve , expanding the competition was successful in broadening the interest from all of the teams and will continue to help drive interest amongst under age girl’s participation
The W teams are attracting own sponsors , name players endorsements , crowds will be a challenge for a while until suitable grounds like PRO development is complete
progressive clubs will be richer for taking the W comp seriously I’m glad we’re one of those

 

[Tackle Bag]

This talk of striking should be a red flag for the AFL, a sign of the trouble to come and the monster they have created.

The women want an 17 game season.
The current 10 game season runs at a loss that will only blow out further if they add more games.

The AFL have also committed to AFLW pay increases that they expected to come from money currently allocated to the mens player payments. They committed to these AFLW pay rises without confirming with the men that they would agree to include the AFLW payments in their slice of the pie. The men have said no.

So now the AFL face a PR disaster with the prospect of an AFLW strike which will only be avoided by extending the season, incurring greater losses as a result and having to pay the women more to play in these games when they have no funding allocated for the extra expense.

Why did they think the men would accept the added salary costs for the women from their funding allocation? Crazy

Perhaps if they released clearer financial info showing the true costs involved, the AFLW wouldn’t be pushing so hard for more money and the decision to keep a shorter season would make more sense. Without that justification a 10 game season with 18 teams is ridiculous.

 

[Teen Wolf]

This talk of striking should be a red flag for the AFL, a sign of the trouble to come and the monster they have created.

The women want an 17 game season.
The current 10 game season runs at a loss that will only blow out further if they add more games.

The AFL have also committed to AFLW pay increases that they expected to come from money currently allocated to the mens player payments. They committed to these AFLW pay rises without confirming with the men that they would agree to include the AFLW payments in their slice of the pie. The men have said no.

So now the AFL face a PR disaster with the prospect of an AFLW strike which will only be avoided by extending the season, incurring greater losses as a result and having to pay the women more to play in these games when they have no funding allocated for the extra expense.

Why did they think the men would accept the added salary costs for the women from their funding allocation? Crazy

Perhaps if they released clearer financial info showing the true costs involved, the AFLW wouldn’t be pushing so hard for more money and the decision to keep a shorter season would make more sense. Without that justification a 10 game season with 18 teams is ridiculous.

Nathan Burke does not speak for the players, that's Paul Marsh's job. There is no talk of a strike. Nor is there a monster. Incendiary rhetoric, nothing more.

There is no clearer financial information because the two competitions are co-dependent. For example: already hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for facilities used by men's football which wouldn't have been generated without women's football.

The AFL didn't think the men would accept a dilution of their share, nor did they think the women would accept a 10-game season in perpetuity. It's called a starting point. Remember what the B in CBA stands for.

 

[Tackle Bag]

Nathan Burke does not speak for the players, that's Paul Marsh's job. There is no talk of a strike. Nor is there a monster. Incendiary rhetoric, nothing more.

There is no clearer financial information because the two competitions are co-dependent. For example: already hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for facilities used by men's football which wouldn't have been generated without women's football.

The AFL didn't think the men would accept a dilution of their share, nor did they think the women would accept a 10-game season in perpetuity. It's called a starting point. Remember what the B in CBA stands for.

Never said the strike talk came from Paul Marsh. I said it should be a warning on the radar of head office of what may come. It is a snapshot of the feeling among many of the players.

The womens salary wants/needs are a problem that the AFL can’t play hardball with given their public stance on providing improved conditions. This is a problem given the AFLW will likely never run at a profit (looking at women’s professional leagues across globe) and the men’s competition is not willing to pick up the rising tab with their paycheque.

The afl did ask the men to accept the womens pay rise from their funding allocation and have not moved away from that position.

If you think they don’t have firm figures on running costs for the competition that aren’t publicly available then you’re kidding yourself. And if they were strong figures the AFL would be screaming the results from the rooftops as it would be a huge boost for women’s sport.

I’m all for a longer season, the current season length weakens the comps credibility but there are significant financial impacts making the extension difficult that have not been addressed.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Never said the strike talk came from Paul Marsh. I said it should be a warning on the radar of head office of what may come. It is a snapshot of the feeling among many of the players.

The womens salary wants/needs are a problem that the AFL can’t play hardball with given their public stance on providing improved conditions. This is a problem given the AFLW will likely never run at a profit (looking at women’s professional leagues across globe) and the men’s competition is not willing to pick up the rising tab with their paycheque.

The afl did ask the men to accept the womens pay rise from their funding allocation and have not moved away from that position.

If you think they don’t have firm figures on running costs for the competition that aren’t publicly available then you’re kidding yourself. And if they were strong figures the AFL would be screaming the results from the rooftops as it would be a huge boost for women’s sport.

I’m all for a longer season, the current season length weakens the comps credibility but there are significant financial impacts making the extension difficult that have not been addressed.

Running costs aren't being disputed. The money women's football generates is what often gets overlooked.

Plenty of pro women's sports are profitable. There is no basis to say AFLW will never be profitable since all the key factors (membership, sponsorship, viewership) are increasing by the year.

Nathan Burke does not represent the views of the players, silly to pretend otherwise. Again, throwing scary words around like "warning" and "hardball" have no relevance to ongoing negotiations.

 

[Bojangles17]

I thought their claim is for a 12 game season not 17. That may be the long game

 

[Phar Ace]

I thought their claim is for a 12 game season not 17. That may be the long game

Yep, there is a bargaining process going on - 17 is what's wanted, AFL to come back with their offering, etc...... be interesting to see where this lands.

 

[TheTassieHawk]

Good to see

 

[Stars align]

Think the Collingwood netball club folding should be a warning for the AFLW. Sooner rather than later clubs are gonna be hit with ever increasing salary demands from the players. They're not even close to turning a profit and right now all the financials are jumbled up with the men's so it's hidden.

How many years til struggling teams expose the true costs and what they're forced to lose by fielding a team. Because the standards poor as there's not remotely enough quality to go round and they struggle to get a chain of more than 2 somewhat effective disposals meaning they struggle to score. A solution could be the AFLW play AFLX where they're only required to have 9 players so the talent increases and the duds are discarded and scores will be higher because the grounds shorter.

The league will never turn a profit just have a look at the WNBA and the standard of that competition is light years ahead of AFLW.The competition has been going for a very long time and never once made any money
The outlier maybe women’s soccer but unaware of how it stacks up financially

 

[richoplzbreed]

The league will never turn a profit just have a look at the WNBA and the standard of that competition is light years ahead of AFLW.The competition has been going for a very long time and never once made any money
The outlier maybe women’s soccer but unaware of how it stacks up financially

The big point of difference is the NBA and WNBA are run by smart businesspeople who are Billionaires. The AFL is basically communist run. The NBA shrewdly separated the mens and womens products, even going so far as to give the teams different names. As a result, they can deal in facts and say you sell x amount of merchandise, tickets and tv rights. The pie is this big we will give you this much of a slice (with added syphoning from the men's kitty as a means of pumping their salaries up as they don't make a profit and basically should be folded)

The woke AFL however blend it all together, resulting in lazy, greedy AFLW players demanding decent salaries, they haven't earnt nor truly deserve. From what i've heard a big part of the issue atm is Gil the Dil promised they'd be the highest paid female players in the land without doing the basic maths. 18 teams x 30 players = 540 players. From what I've heard the Men rightfully said we've given enough to the W. I personally think the soft cap needs to be returned as it's a disgrace that assistant coaches are earning pitiful amounts. The W league generates minimal revenue and with all the overhead costs of running the W teams, most likely runs at huge losses.

The need for 540 players in a matter of 7 years has meant they've been poached from other sports or a large number can't even really play the game. The grounds are too big as they cant go coast to coast as they're incapable of successfully completing a chain of a few possessions without turning it over. It's basically human ping pong with poor skills, low scores and is inferior to u14 boys.

If it stayed at an amateur level on reduced grounds and say 10-12 players on a team it may've organically grown in another 10-20 years, but the urgency to rush the product has meant the general standard is horrible to watch. And between the clubs poaching the better players and the breakups of the in-team relationships, (means most don't want to see their ex gf at training with their new gf) they change clubs as often as the men change their jocks.

 

[pattymalone00]

Looks like dingley and the box hill city oval redevelopment can’t come soon enough for Hawthorn

 

[Bojangles17]

The league will never turn a profit just have a look at the WNBA and the standard of that competition is light years ahead of AFLW.The competition has been going for a very long time and never once made any money
The outlier maybe women’s soccer but unaware of how it stacks up financially

Gee I wasnt even aware of the W soccer domestic comp so can’t imagine it at any great scale. The growing popularity of W footy provides hope , it will never be at a scale of any significance, more niche . Get the grounds and amenities right , hopefully achieved with punt rd development and I’m certain we will attract a consistent few thousand to our games
im looking forward to what this squad can do this year , have recruited well

 

[Stars align]

Gee I wasnt even aware of the W soccer domestic comp so can’t imagine it at any great scale. The growing popularity of W footy provides hope , it will never be at a scale of any significance, more niche . Get the grounds and amenities right , hopefully achieved with punt rd development and I’m certain we will attract a consistent few thousand to our games
im looking forward to what this squad can do this year , have recruited well

Was only referencing soccer at an international level more specifically the EPL women’s equivalent.Crowds seem pretty big but that might just be for cup finals etc.Not sure what the game contributeson a financial basis overall

 

[Bojangles17]

Was only referencing soccer at an international level more specifically the EPL women’s equivalent.Crowds seem pretty big but that might just be for cup finals etc.Not sure what the game contributeson a financial basis overall

In terms of financial contribution, I feel it will always be unders as W sport in general regardless what it is just isn’t followed in huge numbers ,,,at best finds a niche which I’m confident W footy will . I think they should do more to leverage from popularity of men’s ,,, if there’s an open training ,,, be there too .

 

[Stars align]

In terms of financial contribution, I feel it will always be unders as W sport in general regardless what it is just isn’t followed in huge numbers ,,,at best finds a niche which I’m confident W footy will . I think they should do more to leverage from popularity of men’s ,,, if there’s an open training ,,, be there too .

To me and I may be being somewhat critical there is one player in the entire AFLW that looks like a footballer. By this I mean by the way they move with and without the ball and how natural the game looks to them and that is Ellie McKenzie.I’m not sure of her junior sports background but from an outsider it looks like she was the kid who had a football in her hands 24/7
As good as conti is she is more athlete and competitor than out and out footballer
I just think we are going to be waiting a long time before we see teams comprising largely players of Mackenzie’s ilk and are we prepared to wait that long

 

[Phar Ace]

To me and I may be being somewhat critical there is one player in the entire AFLW that looks like a footballer. By this I mean by the way they move with and without the ball and how natural the game looks to them and that is Ellie McKenzie.I’m not sure of her junior sports background but from an outsider it looks like she was the kid who had a football in her hands 24/7
As good as conti is she is more athlete and competitor than out and out footballer
I just think we are going to be waiting a long time before we see teams comprising largely players of Mackenzie’s ilk and are we prepared to wait that long

Yep, if you check out the VFLW you'll see exactly how long it will take - ages. It's through the advancement of the elite junior competition that AFLW will reach some sort of genuine comparative to other multi-gender sports.

 

[Profop]

To me and I may be being somewhat critical there is one player in the entire AFLW that looks like a footballer. By this I mean by the way they move with and without the ball and how natural the game looks to them and that is Ellie McKenzie.I’m not sure of her junior sports background but from an outsider it looks like she was the kid who had a football in her hands 24/7
As good as conti is she is more athlete and competitor than out and out footballer
I just think we are going to be waiting a long time before we see teams comprising largely players of Mackenzie’s ilk and are we prepared to wait that long

I mean there’s always going to be tiers of talent amongst the players

You could look at Dusty and say he looks like he’s playing a different sport compared to others in the AFL

Can’t wait for Ellie with a full preseason

 

[Cdog71]

The level is going up.
There’s no real new kids coming thru for the season coming but we’ll see em for following season and then there’ll be a steady stream coming through.

Gil said by 2030 they’d be the highest paid comparatively.
It’ll happen, the TV revenue is only going in one direction and the fact is the interest in Womens footy shows in participation at community level and that’s what is making the local clubs and pathways stronger.

 

[Bojangles17]

To me and I may be being somewhat critical there is one player in the entire AFLW that looks like a footballer. By this I mean by the way they move with and without the ball and how natural the game looks to them and that is Ellie McKenzie.I’m not sure of her junior sports background but from an outsider it looks like she was the kid who had a football in her hands 24/7
As good as conti is she is more athlete and competitor than out and out footballer
I just think we are going to be waiting a long time before we see teams comprising largely players of Mackenzie’s ilk and are we prepared to wait that long

I think you’re being a bit cynical , yes Ellie Mc is on her way to being amongst very best players in the comp but there are several others and conti is one , like elite afl players they all have their quirks