Simon Lethlean details how the AFL will select two new clubs for the 2019 AFLW season

THE AFL has kickstarted the bidding process for 2019 AFL Women’s team licences. But what is the league actually looking for?

THE AFL has kickstarted the bidding process for 2019 AFL Women’s team licences.

The league last week shut down immediate expansion of the eight-team league in 2018 but left the door open for a minimum of two clubs to join the following year.

Ten AFL clubs are without a licence and they were on Tuesday issued a document outlining requirements.

AFL football operations boss Simon Lethlean said he expects clubs to submit within a month before a decision is made by the AFL Commission by about July.

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“We’ll send out a document to the 10 AFL clubs without a licence that sets out what we want to see in their submissions which will be due in a month,” he said.

“We’ll then sit down internally and assess those and put a recommendation to the commission for their assessment, hopefully in July to get a decision so there’s 18 months of planning for new clubs, however many there might be.

AFLW players at the season launch. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

“It’s a big decision to make and 10 clubs will work hard on putting their best foot forward as they see fit.”

Lethlean said elements such as commercial sustainability, team structure and what a women’s team would mean to “the fabric of a club” are some of the areas the AFL is looking for when teams are bidding.

“All the things that our current eight clubs have shown have meant a big deal to their clubs, and also what could these clubs bring to the AFL by way of engagement with fans, new fans, crowds, new facilities — all the things we want to grow and evolve as part of AFLW,” Lethlean said.

“It’s a big piece of work but we think clubs can submit within a month and we’ll assess it then.”

Carlton coach Damien Keeping backed the league’s call to put expansion plans on ice for another season.

“What it does is just gives us the opportunity to really consolidate all the great work that was done and the building that was done in that first season,” he said.

“It gives us that breathing space to make sure that we understand what we got right, work on the things that we can absolutely get better at — I think there’s plenty of those — but it gives us that breathing space and we’ll be in a position that we’re really ready in a broad sense from a competition point of view for the expansion when it does come.”

Originally published as Simon Lethlean details how the AFL will select two new clubs for the 2019 AFLW season