Suburban Adelaide AFL grand final? We’ll try: Norwood Football Club will bid to host women’s league clash
NORWOOD Football Club will bid to host the inaugural AFL women’s league grand final at The Parade.
NORWOOD Football Club will bid to host the inaugural AFL women’s league grand final at The Parade.
Norwood Oval will host its first AFL Women’s match between the Crows and Brisbane on Saturday — a game that could be a dress rehearsal for the grand final.
Redlegs chief executive James Fantasia said the club was excited to host its first AFLW game and believed the ground — with a capacity of 20,000 — was a perfect place for the inaugural grand final.
“We will be speaking to the AFL about the potential of holding it here under lights, but we would obviously be happy to have it any time,” Mr Fantasia said.
“We think we have a unique stadium that can cope with that type of crowd.”
The AFL was yet to make a decision about which ground would showcase the grand final, if it was to be outside of Victoria.
The competition has no minor finals and the top-ranked side at the end of the season will host the second-placed team in the grand final on Saturday, March 25.
The Crows and Adelaide Oval’s Stadium Management Authority refused to speculate on a potential venue for the decider.
However, it was understood Adelaide Oval and Thebarton Oval — which had already hosted two AFL women’s matches — were in the mix of potential venues.
An AFL spokesman said grand final venue discussions were not well advanced.
An SANFL Women’s double-header between North Adelaide and West Adelaide then Norwood and Glenelg will act as curtain-raisers for the Crows’ battle with the Lions on Saturday.
Fantasia expected a crowd 10,000.
Adelaide midfielder Ebony Marinoff was looking forward to playing at The Parade.
“Being our last home game, we hope to get as many supporters there as possible and get the biggest home crowd of the season,” Marinoff said.
“We enjoy every moment of our AFLW journey and home games are just extra special (because) the crowd just give you a real big buzz.”