Geelong women’s, men’s double-header looms
A DOUBLE-HEADER featuring the men’s and women’s teams of GWS and Geelong is one of several innovations featured in the 2020 AFLW season fixture schedule.
The Giants will host the Cats at Giants Stadium on Saturday, March 21, with the women up first in a twilight fixture before the men play at night.
It will be the opening round of the AFL men’s season and Round 7 of the AFLW campaign, and will be the first time an AFL and AFLW game will be played on the same fixture.
The AFLW season kicks off with Richmond taking on Carlton at Ikon Park on Friday, February 7.
“To have all four teams there (men and women) will be a really great experience,” said AFLW chief Nicole Livingstone, after the fixture list was released yesterday.
“It also gives us an opportunity to get to more fans . . . we saw a lot more AFL fans last season come across to AFLW.
“The feedback from clubs was they would like to see their teams playing on the same day, not only for an opportunity to build their audience but also from a resource and staffing point of view.”
Collingwood’s AFLW team will also battle the Western Bulldogs in Morwell and the first AFLW derby between Gold Coast and Brisbane Lions at Metricon Stadium takes place on the same day the men’s teams play a pre-season competition match.
Livingstone hinted there could be more double-headers when the men’s fixture list was released tomorrow.
While AFLW games are free to attend, supporters will have to pay to go to the double-headers.
Months of tense negotiations over an AFLW collective bargaining agreement ended when details of the new deal were announced on Monday.
With the Tigers one of four new teams added to the competition, the season will expand to eight home-andaway rounds with three weeks of finals, with the grand final to be held on Saturday, April 18.
The 2019 season was run across seven rounds with two weeks of finals.
Livingstone reaffirmed the league’s strong position on retaining the contentious twoconference system for 2020 and beyond.
New teams Gold Coast and West Coast were allocated to the same conference as their local rivals Brisbane and Fremantle, with Richmond placed in conference A and St Kilda into conference B.