AFLW 2024: July floated as possible start time for 2025 AFLW season

The AFLW season is set to get longer in 2025, but could the kick-off date change too? For some players, a return to the hotter months would be a welcome idea.

July has been floated as a potential start date for the 2025 AFL Women’s season, with players being canvassed on a range of fixturing options.

The AFLW season – which currently sits at 11 games in 10 weeks, plus finals – is set to be extended to 12 home-and-away games next year.

The increase means a shift from the current start in the AFL pre-finals bye weekend is considered all but certain, with another round of AFLW games to accommodate.

Communication to players in recent weeks has mooted the possibility of beginning the 2025 pre-season in April and starting the season in either round 18 of the men’s competition – in July – or in round 21 in early August.

The AFLW season could start earlier in 2025. Picture: Travis Hayto/AFL Photos via Getty Images

It would bring the competition – which players hope will eventually grow to a full 17-game fixture where every team plays once – further back in the calendar and in line with the men’s game and the state league competitions which currently do not overlap with AFLW or give players an opportunity to feature when not selected or returning from injury.

The AFLW is currently amid the condensed portion of the fixture – which sees teams play as many as four games within 14 days with games every day except for Mondays – that was agreed to in the recent collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

It is understood that midweek games are considered a prime option for AFLW next season and beyond, but that such condensed fixturing is not, with the season spread across more weeks far preferred by both clubs and players.

Staffing arrangements are a key hurdle for clubs that make a push into the AFL finals series, with a number of Brisbane Lions staff members booked on an early flight this Sunday morning back to Queensland as the club prepares to host an AFLW home game on Sunday afternoon – less than 24 hours after the men’s team plays in the grand final against Sydney.

Lions coach Craig Starcevich this week suggested that this week’s fixture of AFLW should have been “floating” to accommodate the two clubs that featured in the men’s decider.

Lions AFLW player Belle Dawes backed such a shift on Tuesday.

Lions head coach Craig Starcevich. Picture: Albert Perez/Getty Images

“I love that idea,” she said. “I think everyone in the club would love that idea. It benefits all of us, whichever team makes it.”

The fixture and its timing remains an ongoing conversation between the AFL, clubs and AFLW players.

The first six seasons of AFLW were played in summer, before a shift to later in the calendar in 2022. Some players have expressed their desire to return to the hotter months to this masthead, though it is currently considered unlikely.

A push from players to headquarters at the start of this season is understood to be a factor in the early scheduling conversations for next year, with a number of captains keen for clarity sooner rather than later after limbo in recent years in the lead-up to the season.