Summer nights for the AFLW
League’s plan to dominate sports
THE AFLW will go head-tohead with cricket and tennis this summer in a bold plan which will see football further spread its tentacles across the 12-month sporting calendar.
Having long wanted to avoid clashing with January’s Australian Open tennis and the major fixtures across the summer of cricket, the league will bring forward the AFLW’s sixth season to start in December this year.
The competition is expected to observe a one-week break over the Christmas period before culminating with a Grand Final in mid-March – before the AFL’s 2022 men’s season kicks off.
The league acknowledges it will need to make a strong start to the season in December and build momentum before the cricket and tennis begin, but is confident that giving AFLW its “own window” outside of the men’s season will pay off.
“Supporters that were following the men’s program are now following the women’s program,” AFLW boss Nicole Livingstone said.
“We had tremendous TV ratings and attendances during the season, but they did drop away once the men’s season started because fans of AFL did need to make a choice.
“We’d like to give them the opportunity to fully get behind AFLW and we think the new window gives them that opportunity.”
The 2021 AFLW season began on January 28, with the Grand Final being completed on April 17 – during Round 5 of the men’s season. The new window for AFLW comes as the league announced the 14team competition would expand to 18 teams by season eight, which will begin in late 2023 or early 2024.
However, there will be no expansion of the 14-team competition this year and Hawthorn, Essendon, Port Adelaide and Sydney have not been guaranteed a spot in 2022.
Hawthorn claims it was told it would be included in the competition at the end of next season, but now fears a review process could see it sidelined for another two years.
“I think this is just a disgrace,” Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett said.
“It shows that the AFL is not capable of making decisions.”
The next AFLW season will be the longest yet, with a 10game season to be followed by three weeks of finals.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, pictured, said discussions over player pay and the length of the season beyond the next campaign were continuing.