Pay deal drama hots up

A DISSIDENT group of AFLW players have called for independent scrutiny of the vote on their next pay deal.

Voting closed at 5pm yesterday for the league’s new three-year deal, from 2020-22.

It’s expected the results will be known next week, with 75 per cent of player approval needed for the new argeement to go through.

Carlton star Darcy Vescio and Geelong All-Australian defender Meg McDonald are in the group, which has engaged a law firm to represent them. Some players have called on their association to use independent scrutineers for the non-compulsory vote.

They also want assurances around the confidentiality of player responses.

Earlier, AFLW star Daisy Pearce said she thought a majority of AFLW players supported the deal.

“Yes, this deal isn’t the absolute utopia and it doesn’t have everything I could have hoped and dreamed of as a football player within it in terms of season length and salaries,” the Melbourne star told SEN. “But is it fair and reasonable and does it set the competition up for a sustainable period of growth over the next few years and laid a great foundation for the future of this competition?

“I feel like it does. A lot of players feel like it does.”

Pearce said she thought the number of players most unhappy with the proposed deal numbered “a lot less than 50”.

Lawyers from Maurice Blackburn, who are representing the disgruntled AFLW players, have urged their clients to reject the new collective bargaining agreement put forward by the AFL Players’ Association and the AFL.

It follows women’s football trailblazer Susan Alberti’s call for AFLW players to break away from the AFLPA and form their own union.

This year’s expanded 10team AFLW season was run over seven home-and-away round with a preliminary final weekend followed by the grand final, won by Adelaide.

Gold Coast, St Kilda, West Coast and Richmond join the competition in 2020.