Mark Robinson reveals why he preferred to watch the AFLW over the men’s pre-season competition
For the second week the Marsh Series and AFLW clashed on TV, and it was the women’s game that appealed more. It might be time for the men’s pre-season competition to take a back seat or be scrapped altogether, writes Mark Robinson.
Mark Robinson
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Carlton coach Daniel Harford reckons women’s footy is good for the soul.
Any rational football person would agree.
On Saturday, Fox Footy carried Richmond’s clash with Geelong in the AFLW while Sydney played GWS in the men’s pre-season (with five minutes set aside for Alligator Blood at Flemington).
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The women’s game clearly had more attraction.
On Sunday, the Blues played the Crows in AFLW before Richmond tackled Collingwood in Wangaratta in a pre-season clash and, again, the women’s game was more entertaining to watch.
Yes, I chose to watch the women over the men.
It’s because of the contest.
It’s because the women have two months to play the game they love and two months to express themselves physically like they have never done before.
Every game is played with a life-and-death attitude. Every game delivers the most amazing mistakes.
They can’t run as fast as the men, or kick the ball as precise or with the same penetration, they play 16-a-side on a big ground with a smaller ball and they play for 40 fewer minutes than the men.
But the women play with the same maniacal attitude. They crack in. They try to score. They laugh. They cry. They sing.
They play Australian rules exactly how Australian rules should be played.
The men’s pre-season competition just doesn’t grab the attention like it used to.
That is why it’s time for the AFL to give the AFLW free rein through February and March and remove all men’s pre-season games.
Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas has long campaigned to scrap the pre-season games.
Send every team into Round 1 sight unseen.
Just imagine the build up to Richmond and Carlton on the Thursday of Round 1.
Or any of the other Round 1 matches.
This year, more than any other, AFLW has earned the pre-season space.
There were 17 goals kicked in the Tigers-Cats game at the jewel of Bendigo — The Queen Elizabeth Oval — on Saturday.
The men’s game between the Tigers and the Magpies game on Sunday had 19 goals scored.
The women’s game was superior to watch because of the unfettered contest after contest, and because Monique Conti was simply outstanding for the Tigers who were gunning for their first win of the season.
In February/March, the AFLW means far more than men’s warm-up matches.
Of course, the men’s home-and-away will be a much better product.
But as we sit here right now, the women carry the torch.
On Sunday, the Blues beat the Crows for the first time.
Their plan was to spread the Crows — change lanes is the modern terminology — and they did it superbly, led by Darcy Vescio’s best game of the season, alongside little Diesel, Maddy Prespakis, and their star forward Tayla Harris.
In the same clash, Erin Phillips returned for the Crows and was a star after halftime.
There was a crowd of 7281 at that game.
In Wangaratta, the men’s crowd was 7164.
Maybe the interest in that game waned because many of the major stars didn’t play — Collingwood was without Brodie Grundy, Scott Pendlebury, Darcy Moore, Steele Sidebottom and Jeremy Howe, while Richmond did not have Dustin Martin, Jack Riewoldt, Trent Cotchin, Tom Lynch and Shane Edwards.
Just maybe it was because the pre-season games are not fair-dinkum contests
Harford is invested and biased. He also sees how much is invested by his players.
They want to win, he says, and they want to have fun.
Either side of his final pre-match speech to his players on Sunday, the Blues rooms were filled with music.
Dancing Queen and an array of ABBA songs on one side, and then Nutbush City Limits on the other.
He said at least 14 of his players were doing the Nutbush dance 25 minutes before the team ran on to the ground.
He also noted three of his players were sitting on the ground playing Yahtzee.
“It’s good for the football soul,’’ he told the Herald Sun.
“Give this competition all the space it can get. It’s the right thing to do for the women’s game and the right thing to do for the men’s pre-season competition.
“Let’s play AFL without having played a pre-season game.’’
Harford’s right because the women play for keeps and the men play to be fit for Round 1.
One’s a fierce contest lacking men’s skill, the other is a so-so contest of keepings off.
I know which matches I’d rather watch.
Originally published as Mark Robinson reveals why he preferred to watch the AFLW over the men’s pre-season competition