AFLW all but rules out Marvel Stadium for AFLW GF, despite calls from a premiership captain
There have been calls for years to move the AFLW grand final to Marvel Stadium should a Victorian team qualify, but the league isn’t keen — at least not yet.
The AFL has all but ruled out a Marvel Stadium showpiece for the women’s competition despite calls from a premiership captain to consider taking the chance on some grand final grandeur.
North Melbourne star and 2024 premiership captain Emma Kearney said she would “definitely” be in favour of a Marvel Stadium grand final should the Kangaroos – who sit firmly atop the AFL Women’s ladder – or another Victorian team earn the right to host.
As it stands, three of the competition’s top four teams are Victorian with powerhouse outfit Brisbane also in the top echelon.
“The last two grand finals that have been at Ikon, they’ve sold out within the first couple of hours,” Kearney said on The W Debrief.
“So there’s definitely the want for more fans to come to these games. We know that the grounds that we play at are so weather-impacted. So we’d hate to have a grand final that was played in really blustery conditions or rain.
“If we could have it at Marvel Stadium, it’d be a great spectacle. We know that the boys when they play on it, it’s a really fast deck. It’d be no different in the women’s. We’d have a really fast game, which is what we want. We want to see the skills on show.”
Ikon Park has been earmarked by the league as the grand final location should it be played in Victoria, with the top-ranked team earning the right to host the game, with league general manager of AFLW Emma Moore saying there were currently no plans to change that.
“One of the things that we said in the strategy (for the competition) … is being really consistent in how we deliver that,” Moore said on Monday.
“What we want to do is absolutely blast out our attendance at every single game and stadium that we’re playing in. That is crucial to the strategy.
“We know from overseas that doing one-offs is not what drives consistent growth. We have to really stay focused on that.
“We want to be able to sell out Marvel. We want to be able to create a huge moment around the grand final at Marvel. And when we have that as our problem, that will be the best problem that we can possibly have.
“We’re pretty clear that Ikon Park is where we’d have the grand final, should it be held in Melbourne. And we want to absolutely sell it out and create the best spectacle we can around a sold-out stadium experience for our players and our clubs and our fans.”
When pressed on if a sell-out within hours would change any plan and that whether a Marvel Stadium game could sell out given the chance, Moore maintained that Ikon Park “makes sense” as the host ground.
“It’s a really big step from an Ikon Park to a sell-out at Marvel,” she said.
“And we want to make sure that when people turn up to a grand final for W, it is the absolutely best experience of a grand final that they will experience. Ikon is a premier stadium to hold it at, and it makes sense as a place to hold it with where we’re at now with the growth.”
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Originally published as AFLW all but rules out Marvel Stadium for AFLW GF, despite calls from a premiership captain
