AFLW 2023: Gillon McLachlan says comp must grow at ‘sustainable level’

A “nuanced” cocktail of crowd and broadcast numbers will determine how quickly the AFLW season expands under a new agreement.

The AFLW season could expand to 14 rounds in 2027 under the new CBA, but only if ‘key metrics’ are met. Picture: Jason McCawley / Getty Images

The AFLW will need to meet a series of targets including an average television audience of 100,000 per game for the season to lengthen to 14 rounds under the new collective bargaining agreement.

In what AFL boss Gillon McLachlan called the “greatest point of debate” in the negotiations for the historic joint CBA between men’s and women’s players, a gradual expansion of the AFLW season will occur instead of the jump to 17 games pushed for by players.

Women’s players were successful in securing 12-month contracts, with multi-year deals introduced and a 29 per cent pay rise to be effective immediately.

The average AFLW player will earn $82,000 by 2027, up from $46,000 last year and $60,000 for the current season.

The season will lengthen by one week to 11 rounds in 2024, before moving to 12 rounds for at least two seasons with the possibility of an increase to 14 in 2027.

Outgoing AFL boss Gillon McLachlan wants the AFLW to expand cautiously over the next five years. Picture: Michael Willson / Getty Images

McLachlan said expansion of the season was “broadly a given” but had to occur at a sustainable speed, revealing the AFL wanted to hold off lengthening the season beyond 12 rounds until crowd and TV audience numbers were back the levels of its second season in 2018.

“There’s some nuance in it, but broadly speaking it’s 6,000 people at a game and 100,000 people watching per game,” McLachlan said.

“Now, there’s some stuff around venue sizes and other stuff, but it’s broadly where we were in year two and we’ve expanded aggressively, and now we’re confident we can get back there.

“It was certainly weighed up over about 400 hours of negotiation. We want to expand at the right speed … it’s not about expansion, it’s about the timing.”

McLachlan and AFL Players’ Association boss Paul Marsh said there would be negotiation over the metrics due to the use of smaller venues, which has become the focus of the current season as the AFL spruiks a push to “heartland grounds”.

The average attendance in round 1, which was the highest attended of any round this season, was 4,819, below the target to expand to 14 rounds.

Marsh said the season could be lengthened ahead of schedule if the targets were met early, but agreed the focus had to shift to lifting audience numbers before expanding again.

Melbourne star Kate Hore says the competition can reach the metrics demanded for expansion by the AFL despite difficulties of the fixture. Picture: Dylan Burns / Getty Images

“This was a big push, we’d like to see further growth in the AFLW games, we believe in the competition, but there’s an element here of we have got growth in games, we’ve had this big discussion around (how) we need to increase the number of people who are watching and coming to the games,” Marsh said.

“We do think the metrics are achievable, we’ve been there before, and so the work is to get together with the AFL, the clubs, the players and really align.

“We think we’ve landed on something that is workable for us, and now we push forward.

All-time AFLW leading goalkicker and Melbourne captain Kate Hore said she was confident the competition could reach the metrics needed to expand despite non-fan friendly scheduling, including Melbourne’s clash against Hawthorn at Frankston on Friday night, which begins at 5.05pm.

“As players, we always want to play more games … I think the important thing is that there’s growth,” she said.

“I’m sure a lot of those finer details are going to be worked out, and hopefully the AFL is going to work with clubs and players to be able to maximise and hopefully reach those metrics.

Hore praised the introduction of what the league called a “world-leading” pregnancy policy, which will take effect immediately and run for a 12-month period beginning six weeks before the player is due to give birth.

“I think in any workforce it’s really important to have a maternity policy … I think the AFL has done a great job at supporting those players that do want to become mothers,” she said.

“And for me personally, I’m 28, getting close to the end of my career … to be able to look forward to having that as part of our playing contract is really exciting.”

Originally published as AFLW 2023: Gillon McLachlan says comp must grow at ‘sustainable level’