To echo the sentiment being widely used online -- thank God the condensed fixture is over. Let's never, ever do that again.
At the beginning of the month-long AFLW fixture that saw games played on every single day except for a Monday and AFL Grand Final day, I wrote a piece on the pros and cons of this approach.
I'd like to formally adjust this, and add ninety-nine more lines to the latter list now that it has concluded.
The condensed schedule is the league's solution to adding an extra game to the fixture (11 in total plus four weeks of finals) without extending the calendar length of the season.
In essence, the league is doing what they promised in the most recent CBA, to extend the AFLW season by one extra game, but in practice, they've done so by cannibalising their own game in almost every other way to make this happen.
I write this as tempers swirl around the disappointing game last Friday that saw the Western Bulldogs fail to score a goal and lose to the Bombers 26-3.
While honest and critical opinions are vital for the AFL to be held to account and the game to advance, on the other hand, these teams had been handed the impossible task of playing four games in just over two weeks.
When you step back and understand that both players and most other coaching staff are part-time, the teams must travel interstate in this time and players are being rested just to ensure they can get through it, the case against those in charge of fixturing adds up.
Former All-Australian player Kate McCarthy aired her disappointment at the way the game was being played so defensively, also taking to X to say "please AFL just come out and say we will never have a fixture like this again..."
Please AFL just come out and say we will never have a fixture like this again...#AFLW
— Kate McCarthy (@kateemac9) October 11, 2024
And she wasn't alone.
Former Bulldogs coach Nathan Burke also wrote on the platform: "We wondered what four games in 14 days would do for the game and the players. Well now we know. So don't do it again." Followed by: "Put people who know football in charge."
We wondered what 4 games in 14 days would do for the game and the players. Well now we know. So don't do it again.
— Nathan Burke (@Nathan3Burke) October 11, 2024
CODE Sports' Eliza Reilly said: "AFLW diehards and prospective fans want to see the players at their best. 2/3 goals in a game from fifty metre penalties ain't it. Condensed fixture, defensive tactics, or a combination of both, that was a hard watch."
Another renowned AFLW journalist, Lauren Wood of the Herald Sun said: "Both teams off the back of their condensed fixture period but now we're officially at the end of it, let's not do it again please and thanks.
"Four games in 14ish [sic] days equals this in prime time. Extras behind, players exhausted. Big no thanks."
In all of this, one thing is bleedingly obvious in the media landscape, the AFL will not comment.
In a time of trial and error for the league, with a cohort of strong advocates and fans who will stand by it no matter what, the lack of response from the decision makers, even a simple acknowledgement that things can be done differently in the future is deeply frustrating.
As an avid fan of the league since day one, one thing that fills me with sadness is that last round was pride round, a celebration of the diversity and inclusion that AFLW offers in leaps and bounds above any other sporting league in Australia -- yet the conversations are being dominated by how much the fixture has decimated the advancement of the league instead.
Of the 2023 All-Australian side, five have seen multiple games on the sideline or season-ending injuries, exacerbated by the frantic nature of just getting through the condensed fixture whether it's with the best side or not.c
Where is the time for rehab assisted by high performance and medical staff, when they must be at three games in 10 days? Where is the game analysis, the match simulations, the recovery, or heaven forbid, a day off?
Having had this conversation non-stop for the past month, it is clear there's two schools of thought here.
The first -- be grateful you got an 11th game, it's what you asked for.
The second -- it's not worth one extra game if it ruins all that we have worked hard for over nine years.
The one school of thought missing though is that of those who implemented this, and the silence is deafening.