The Season 9 AFLW fixture was released last week, a month earlier than usual, and with some important differences. But it raises more questions that yet can't be answered.
Compared to Season 8, each team will play 11 games instead of 10, but all games are set to be played in the same time frame. The competition also again avoids Friday night clashes during men's finals, something which was a pain point for players and fans last season. So how does that all work this year?
The AFL has decided to schedule a number of mid-week fixtures for teams to play their 11th game -- meaning most teams will at some point have at least one four-day break. For instance, the GWS Giants will play on Sunday, then on the following Thursday, to then back up their third game on a Tuesday; meaning they play three of their 11 matches in a quick, nine day timeframe. It's an incredibly high workload for a such a short amount of time.
Not to mention every year the AFLW and serious injuries are a key talking point across the competition. The grounds and training conditions are constantly questioned, so squeezing in another game with short turnarounds is bound to increase the prevalence of injuries such as ACL ruptures and stress fractures.
Is fitting in midweek games the best thing for the competition? Considering the appointment of new AFLW boss Emma Moore, and how she hopes to attract bigger crowds and greater fan engagement, the fixturing certainly raises some questions. Sure, school holidays are on, but player welfare probably wasn't at the forefront of such a decision. And will people turn up for Tuesday, or Wednesday night footy?
At the 2019 AFLW Grand Final, 53,034 people gathered to watch the Adelaide Crows defeat Carlton. From AFLW's 'golden era' in 2019 and 2018, a year in which crowds averaged 6,349, numbers have since declined. In Season 8 (2023) the average attendance had dropped to 2,868 people.
In the past year, interest in female sport has lifted off in Australia on the back of the FIFA Women's World Cup. Women's Origin will be sold out this week. The A-League Women's competition broke crowd records this season with 11,471 people attending an opening round clash, and the Matildas got 75,798 people to a friendly match against China at Stadium Australia earlier this week. So will the AFL's gamble with midweek prime time women's footy work? It's an interesting question.
Last season AFLW crowds were not big enough to trigger a 12th game for this season, but the AFL didn't help this by playing a top four clash at 5pm Friday with a men's final being played at the MCG at 8pm. This year, some of those Friday remain.
Obviously, the AFL is between a rock and a hard place, fixturing and trying to promote the women's game during the men's finals is a hard task, but is the competition set up for failure before it even begins?
In order for the game to grow, more games will have to follow. Josh Bowler, AFL's head of scheduling, stated the league was desperate for the season "to start and finish in a cooling period", but that can't happen if the season is to keep expanding. Will this continue to be an excuse for why games will not be added more consistently?
It's bemusing that the men's competition was able to start earlier to add more games (for revenue purposes, no doubt), so seamlessly, but couldn't the AFL have been able to work around this with the AFLW for an 11th week?
Everyone wants the AFLW to succeed and grow. Season 9 should by no means be labelled a write-off, and there are some smart people in charge at AFL House, so why does quirky fixturing and scheduling already give AFLW players and fans more hoops to jump through?