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Fixture flaws: AFLW coaches demand better scheduling for crowds and clubs

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As the AFLW's condensed fixture blazes on, so do the robust discussions around it.

With 11 games between last Tuesday and Sunday, players, coaches, and clubs are digging deep to field teams for each game.

I spoke about the pros and cons of this in last week's column, but the most recent criticism the league has faced is not the compressed nature of the season, it's the time and place of where these games are being played.

Two coaches have come out firing at the AFL, whacking the "less than ideal fixturing".

North Melbourne head coach Darren Crocker spoke to media post his side's 36-point win over Port Adelaide last Friday evening, which garnered the lowest spectator attendance of the season so far, just 943 rocking up.

"Friday night game, five o'clock, out at Whitten Oval," he said disapprovingly.

"We regularly pack out Arden Street given the right fixturing of times, so that's an AFL question about fixturing us out at Whitten Oval at five o'clock on Friday night.

"Could be our home game, some time scheduled over the weekend at Arden Street, potentially a time that's more conducive to getting crowds there.

"We'll just try to come and bring our best football ... whenever and whoever we have to play but yeah, I think from a scheduling perspective, it wasn't the ideal fixturing for us."

The AFL scheduled the game to take place before the men's AFL preliminary final beginning at 7:40pm, however, it's a tale as old as the league.

Cynics bash the teams for not garnering enough attendance, the AFL say they'll add extra games if we hit those attendance figures but then schedule games 25 minutes outside the CBD beginning five minutes after a majority of people clock off for the week.

The lack of home games at clubs' actual home grounds is due to broadcast lighting needs, but it also means crowds attached to their local areas are less likely to come down.

Similarly, Lions coach Craig Starcevich said this week he would have preferred a floating fixture for the women's games during this time period, given the men's Grand Final is being played in Melbourne on Saturday.

With the men's Lions side lining up against the Sydney Swans in the 2024 decider, Starcevich questioned why the women's game scheduled for Sunday in Brisbane couldn't be played in Melbourne and fixtured around their men's finals appearance.

"If you really want to do it properly, you probably put us on prior in Victoria and then we could relax afterwards and go and watch the game, regardless of what our result is," he said.

"We all know it's difficult ... but I just think logic says to me keep it floating and just manipulate it according to what works for those clubs.

"It's been sitting there in their face for the last fortnight or so.

"That's something that should have been pretty obvious, that this could eventuate."

In a similar vein, the Swans' women's side will play in Melbourne but the night before the men's, against the Western Bulldogs at Whitten Oval -- another opportunity which could have lent itself to having the AFLW side play before the Grand Final and garner some extra eyeballs and allow the club to operate as one.

Another point Starcevich made was the amount of pressure this puts on clubs in terms of resources. Many club staff work across both the men's and women's programs and, particularly for the Lions, it means those staff will be straight on a plane after the Grand Final win or lose, to be there on Sunday at the women's game.

It's time to take the 'one club' approach seriously and show respect to the clubs that are desperately trying to give what they can to the AFLW sides.