AFL Womens players set for a fresh pay deal at season’s end as overtime bites

THE AFL Women’s pay deal is set to be renegotiated at season’s end with players committing to far more contact hours than originally thought.

Daisy Pearce in action against Brisbane in Round 1.

THE AFL Women’s pay deal is set to be renegotiated at season’s end.

A belief players are committing more than their contracted nine training hours a week — and 20 hours of appearances over the season — is expected to lead to a fresh deal.

The AFL’s original offer of $5000 for the majority of players in the inaugural season was rejected by the AFL Players Association and a two-year deal struck, with the base wage set at $8500.

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The $8500 base wage was calculated pro-rata on an AFL male rookie wage of $29.32 an hour.

Players are in reality spending between 12 and 17 hours training each week. On the current pay scale, those extra hours are valued at between $1495 and $3987 for the 17 weeks of official training of the 24-week contract.

The base wage on the current deal will increase from $8500 to $9276 for next season, priority selections will increase from $12,000 to $12,846 and a marquee playing contract from $17,000 to $17,946.

Darcy Vescio kicks a goal against Collingwood.

The AFL has started a series of meetings with AFLW clubs to review “all aspects” of the competition, but declared discussions about a pay rise as “premature”.

“We also remain in regular contact with the AFLPA, and have conducted a survey of the entire playing group to gain a better understanding of their views on a number of matters,” an AFL spokesperson said

“We are only one round in to the first NAB AFLW season and the AFL and AFLPA have a two-year arrangement in place in relation to player payments.

“It is premature to speculate on whether the terms of the arrangement will be reconsidered as it is our intention to allow the competition to run its course and review all aspects of it thereafter.”

More than 50,000 fans attended the opening round of AFLW with a lockout crowd of 24,500 at Ikon Park on Friday night setting the scene for a buoyant weekend.