AFLW to feature 18 teams for 2023 with expansion date confirmed
Port Adelaide will make a case for its own AFLW team, to join the season of 2022.
AFLW
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The Port Adelaide Football Club will push to field a women’s side in the AFLW as soon as next year.
The AFL on Thursday announced it would call for submissions from the four clubs still without an AFLW side – Port, Essendon, Hawthorn and Sydney – to join the league in its seventh season, to be run over the summer of 2022-23.
By season eight, all clubs will have a women’s team.
Port chief executive Matthew Richardson said the club would present a compelling submission – required by July 9 – and would know their entry date by August.
It’s likely Port’s inaugural women’s team will play its first AFLW game in late 2022; the seventh season of the AFLW.
Richardson described the ruling as an “exciting day for Port Adelaide”.
“We’ve made our ambition really clear for some time now, of the importance for us entering the AFLW competition and we’re pleased the AFL have given us clarity about what that process looks like,” he said.
Richardson would not be drawn on inevitable speculation about whether Port will be able to lure Crows superstar – and one-time devoted Magpie fan – Erin Phillips.
Crows chief executive Tim Silvers welcomed the AFLW expansion and chance to play a women's Showdown: “Having two teams in SA will give more girls and women the opportunity to fulfil their football ambitions in their home state.”
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said: “We don’t feel that the competition is whole without all 18 clubs and we know from the clubs that they don’t feel whole now without an AFLW team.”
Season six of the competition has been given its “own window” and will begin in December this year, culminating in a Grand Final in March before the AFL men’s season begins.
The competition will likely observe a seven-day break over the Christmas period.
CLUB OFFICIALS URGE CHANGE TO AFLW FIXTURE
The AFL has been urged to adopt a proposal to start its women’s season as early as November to avoid clashing with the men’s competition by two leading club officials.
Adelaide women’s footy boss Phil Harper and Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett have backed the women’s competition being given its own “clean air” time.
The AFL Commission is meeting in Melbourne on Wednesday and will discuss a proposal to bring forward the start date for a 2022-2023 AFLW season.
The Commission will also discuss introducing more AFLW teams and the future of the league.
Harper, who has overseen Adelaide’s women’s footy program since the 2017 inaugural season, has long been an advocate of the AFLW kicking off in October or November.
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He said the success and growth of the competition proved it deserved its own timeslot to avoid the distractions of the men’s season.
He also believed the competition was strong enough to go up against the packed summer of sports, which includes Australian cricket tours and the Australian Open.
Kennett, who is calling for his club to be granted a licence for a women’s team, described changing the season times as a “good move”.
“More and more people are clearly interested in AFLW and if it’s not up against the men, then the television and the crowds and the audience will grow,” he said.
“There’s no doubt, also, that the code of AFL football is the most successful code in Australia and we’ve seen how people have, as best they can, rushed back to the recommencement of the competition even though it’s been somewhat limited (through COVID).
“So I’m sure, if they do that, it will work well and it will get coverage independently of the men’s competition.”
The Hawks are currently one of four AFL clubs who do not have a women’s team in the top tier competition, alongside Port Adelaide, Sydney and Essendon.
Kennett said it was high time for Hawthorn to be granted entry into the AFLW.
“No one can ever predict, confidently, what the AFL Commission is going to do, but certainly, Hawthorn and at least one other club has been very interested in arguing that we want to be included in the AFLW,” he said.
“It is the fastest growing aspect of the AFL at the moment and it denies our girls, who are playing in VFLW, and it denies our sponsors and our female members the opportunity of being seen as participants in this competition.
“My wish would be that tomorrow the AFL Commission admits those clubs that want to be admitted because I think it’s clear discrimination that we’re not in it.”
Kennett said his understanding was that the likely outcome from Wednesday’s meeting would be the Hawks – and the other expectant expansion clubs – would be denied entry into the competition for the 2022 season and instead permitted entry for the following season that would likely start in November or December.
“We’ve served our time, we’ve won a premiership in the VFLW, so we’ve proved our worth,” he said.
“We are one of the non-assisted clubs, so we have the capacity to field a team, but we will wait with bated breath (on Wednesday).”
HOW SHOWDOWN CAN TAKE AFLW TO NEXT LEVEL
“Show me a better rivalry in the AFL.” So tweeted former electric Crow-turned Brisbane small forward Charlie Cameron this week ahead of Showdown 49.
And he’d know a thing or two about Showdowns, having played in five of those games that are filled with an undying rivalry between Port Adelaide and Adelaide.
Whether player or supporter, these are games filled with an all-encompassing want – no, need – to beat the opposition. A game that means so much more because of its rivalry, long-seeded in the SANFL, now thriving in the AFL.
So, what will be it like when that same rivalry, steeped in South Australian football history, moves into the AFLW?
Showdown is the best rivarly game in the AFL. Don’t @ me.
— Charles Cameron (@CharlesRanger23) May 6, 2021
AFLW Showdown I is no a pipedream. Rather, an inevitability, a game that will likely be played in less than two years’ time.
As the AFL Commission meets next week to discuss further expanding the 14-team AFLW competition, Port Adelaide – along with Essendon, Hawthorn and Sydney – is waiting to learn if it will be permitted to enter a team.
While entry in 2022 is not an impossibility, it is unlikely. So the Power has its eyes firmly on the 2023 season as its inaugural year.
In recent years Port Adelaide has not only vocally stated its desire to establish a women’s team, but has symbolically committed to it, through the formation of an AFLW Working Group that has been meeting regularly for well over six months; the identification of future draft talent through their Next Generation Academy; and a planned $23 million redevelopment of the club’s Alberton headquarters that will accommodate upgraded female change room facilities.
Retired two-time premiership winning Crow and SA women’s footy veteran, Courtney Cramey, can’t wait for the first AFLW Showdown, and not just because of that traditional Port/Crows rivalry of which she loves.
“My mind turns to the fact that the Port Adelaide team will potentially be made up of a number of previous Adelaide Crows players, so there will be a bit of spite in that before the rivalry itself actually creates its own history that will probably be the start of it,” she says.
In the history of men’s Showdowns, only two players have ever played in the heated clashes for both clubs: Brett Chalmers (1997-98) and Matthew Bode (1999-2006).
But the women’s game will be vastly different. There’s a possibility that in Showdown I, close to a third of Port’s inaugural 30-player list will be made up of current Crows players.
Here’s why: in 2020, four new teams joined the AFLW – St Kilda, West Coast, Gold Coast and Richmond. Ahead of their first seasons, the AFL set guidelines that Brisbane and Fremantle could lose eight players each to the expansion clubs in their state.
If those same rules apply to Port’s expansion, then eight Crows players from the 2022 season could well suit up for the Power the season after.
“The AFL might also give an expansion club a bit more of a budget,” Cramey muses.
“So there might be a few offers on the table that the Crows won’t be able to match … it will be interesting.”
Overall, it’s nothing but good for the health of women’s footy.
“We’ve seen in men’s footy those genuine rivals for a long time, but player movement creates a bit more spice to it as well,” Cramey says.
Port chief executive officer Matthew Richardson wants to see that first Showdown played at Adelaide Oval.
“I imagine we will be pitching to the AFL that Port Adelaide’s first game in AFLW should be a Showdown against the Crows. And that it should be at Adelaide Oval,” he says.
“If you think about the (Crows/Port) rivalry in the men’s game … to be able to bring that rivalry to AFLW, we’re really excited by that opportunity.”
Cramey, who played in front of a record 53,034 crowd at the 2019 AFLW grand final at Adelaide Oval, says: “You know those moments in history? That first Showdown’s going to be one of them.
“Just thinking about that game, the history that it will create, I can confidently say we will have 53,000 people at Adelaide Oval for that first-ever Showdown.”
Port captain Tom Jonas says he can’t wait to watch a women’s Showdown.
“I think it would be a nice touch if we could be the curtain-raiser for them,” he says.
“It would be a massive event … we’ve obviously given Adelaide a headstart with the women’s team and we can’t wait to get our own team in the competition.”
Richardson says the planned redevelopment of the club’s headquarters is an important piece in their AFLW puzzle, because it includes an expanded gym and wet areas so the AFLW athletes can be co-located with the men and the old change rooms under the historic Williams Stand will be upgraded to provide AFLW-compliant match-day facilities at Alberton Oval, which is where the team will propose its home games be played.
Richardson says the club is now ramping up preparations, including finalising coaching and support structures and business models.
Recruiters have their eyes on the talent and speculation is that 15-year-old West Adelaide product Lauren Young could well be the club’s first No. 1 draft pick. Teenager Marlie Fiegert – daughter of Nigel – has been identified as a possible father-daughter pick.
“We’re starting to prepare a plan of all the people we’re going to need in order to give ourselves the best chance of being successful and being successful early,” Richardson says.
“The benefit we have is there are 14 other clubs who have been through the integration of AFLW into their club and we’ve spoken to a lot of the clubs, we’ve spoken to the AFL … the reality is, we’ve had nine to 12 months already in terms of active preparation, so by the time we come into the competition, it will be 18 months to two years of planning.
“The added complexity is the COVID-altered state of clubs’ structures with reduced soft caps and the impact that’s had, so we’re really mindful of making sure we’re not just dropping AFLW on top of our club, we’re actually setting it up for success from the start.”
Richardson says there are no regrets about not coming into the AFLW sooner, but says the club can’t wait for the off-field benefits that added diversity will bring.
And he says the Crows’ entry into AFLW in 2017 has helped to grow women’s footy to a point where undoubtedly there’s enough local talent to now fill two teams.
“Credit to everyone involved that the growth of the game has been so rapid and that’s through the vision and hard work of a lot of people,” he says.
AFL EXPANSION FATE TO SOON BE REVEALED
AFL clubs desperate to enter the women’s competition could find out their fate as soon as next week as the AFL Commission prepares to make a ruling on further expansion.
Port Adelaide, Sydney, Hawthorn and Essendon are the only AFL clubs left without an AFLW side.
While Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett is on the record as saying it would be “discrimination of the worst kind” if the Hawks weren’t granted a team for the 2022 season, it’s understood that the likelihood of new teams being added into the competition for next season is slim at best.
Instead, the chances of those clubs joining the AFLW from 2023 – if they are willing and able – is significant.
The AFLW’s Competition Committee met on Tuesday to canvass the opinions of club and league officials on a range of topics including future expansion.
The sticking point for many committee members around bringing more clubs into the league is when would be the most appropriate time and whether there is the depth of women’s football talent to cover the new sides, which each need 30 players on their list.
The 2021 season saw a glaring disparity between the established sides and those that have joined the competition through expansion.
Inaugural clubs from the 2017 season Adelaide, Brisbane, Collingwood and Melbourne finished Top 4, with the Lions eventual premiers, while teams that joined the competition in 2020 languished, with Gold Coast going winless in 2021 and West Coast registering only two wins from nine games.
Geelong entered the AFLW in the 2019 season, but won only one game in 2021.
It’s understood that there isn’t a single, unanimous opinion from committee members on the topic of future expansion, except that care must be taken with it.
Ultimately the decision as to when the remaining clubs will be granted permission to enter will rest with the AFL.
Brisbane’s premiership-winning coach Craig Starcevich has made his feelings known on the subject, saying after his side’s Grand Final triumph in April: “I reckon the next phase of the (expansion) should just calm the farm for a little while … Let’s wait for a few years”.
The AFLW competition committee met on Tuesday, where club expansion and lengthening the overall season were discussed.
Among other proposals on the table are bringing forward the start of the women’s season from it’s current January/February date to early December to allow the competition more clean air from the men’s competition.
Opinions were also sought on other topics including laws of the game, the tribunal, list management, player movement, the competition structure, fixturing and talent programs.
The 13-person AFLW competition committee includes representatives from nine of the AFLW’s 14 clubs, with Collingwood’s list manager Jessica Burger joining the committee for the first time.
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