The Long Run: Suggestions of cutting the AFLW to save money amid the coronavirus pandemic are tone deaf

I have a score to settle.

I have a score to settle.

Let me begin by saying that just like everyone else in the sporting world, I am utterly devoted and committed to ensuring that the code of Aussie Rules survives the global coronavirus pandemic.

As a passionate fan, player and journalist who covers the sport, I can’t imagine a world without a league at the highest level.

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AFL is an essential nucleotide in the chain of DNA that is Australian sport and I accept that we will have to get creative in order to save it.

But trimming back the AFLW isn’t the answer.

AFLW Season Launch. AFLW Captains with the premiership cup, at Melbourne University. Picture: Time Carrafa

I was astounded last week to read a column in my local Perth masthead which suggested we should consider a “reduction in teams for the next few years.”

These AFLW teams won’t become extinct but rather they’d just go into to “hibernation” until the league recovered and could financially support a full competition.

I scanned the remainder of the article furiously.

But alas, this suggestion purely and simply applied to the AFLW – why should we suggest stripping back the men’s competition which already operates with four additional teams to the women’s.

So often has the AFLW been an afterthought of decision makers, you’d hate to think what the league could look like now with the same TLC as the ‘main event.’

That’s not to say that the AFLW isn’t a joy to watch either, it just always seems to take its place on the periphery.

Take for example when AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan announced that the league would play Round 1 amid the coronavirus crisis.

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The man was exhausted and his leadership has been exemplary throughout this whole crisis, but when it came to announcing the fate of the AFLW, he briefly mentioned as the curtains closed that the league would head straight to finals without any indication of how many teams or weeks such a series would involve.

It sparked a league wide frenzy as teams scrambled to find out whether they’d qualified after Collingwood sought clarification and were told that only four teams would qualify.

Miscommunication, confusion and yet another afterthought for the league that could be the AFL’s golden egg.

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Back to the proposal of trimming the league.

Each AFLW list consists of 30 players, 30 girls who have each worked extremely hard and walked vastly different paths to earn an AFLW contract.

Sarah Hosking of the Blues kicks at goal during the AFLW Semi Final match between the Carlton Blues and the Brisbane Lions at Ikon Park on March 22, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/Getty Images)

But heck lets tear them up because we need to inject more money where it ‘counts’.

That’s 30 livelihoods destroyed, that’s clubs left without a crucial focal piece of their fibre, stories to tell and new fans to connect with.

When AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder announced a net profit of $50 million after the 2019 season, he credited it largely to the 586,422 women and girls playing footy across the country, an 11 per cent growth on the year before.

All because of the AFLW.

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I don’t know the entire solution to saving our game.

But I do have one suggestion.

Start making people pay to go to the AFLW.

It’s a small change which could have huge implications in restoring the financial health of the league.

People will pay to go, just ask the 86,174 patrons who forked out to head to the women’s world cup final.

The quality of the league has improved dramatically and any of the 14 teams could win on any given day.

At the crux of it all, I’d like to leave you with Reilly’s golden rule.

If you’re not proposing it universally, should you be proposing it at all?