Over-promoting the AFLW has created the problems we see now

DID the AFL go too hard in its promotion of AFLW? MARK ROBINSON likes the women’s game, but writes the product is out of whack in regards to performance and its coverage.

The Western Bulldogs celebrate their premiership win over the Brisbane Lions in March, but the women’s game is full of anger and frustration as a third season looms. Picture: Getty Images

CAN we have a discussion about women’s footy, the positives and negatives, without being accused of being misogynist, sexist or dismissive?

Good.

The goodwill produced two years ago, when the AFLW competition burst on to the football calendar and into the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of girls and young women, is under siege from multiple angles.

It was over-hyped from the start, arguably underfunded, the product was poor and the AFL is largely to blame because it bit off more than it could chew.

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Now the AFL wants restraint and the players want progression.

It is a mess. Spotfires are now bushfires.

Just 2½ years after that glorious night in Carlton to launch the women’s game, the AFL is being accused of insulting the players and running a “mickey mouse’’ and “gimmicky’’ competition.

This is not a “be grateful’’ moment, but the lashing by the players of the AFL is over the top.

Wise people say the league made big mistakes from the start. It opened with an eight-team competition when there wasn’t enough talent and soon enough other clubs wanted in for fear of missing the wave and missing the money.

Two more teams are arriving in 2019 and four more in 2020.

All games were televised, which exposed the game too quickly.

They marketed too hard and created personalities and expectation when the lack of talent was soon obvious.

In reality it was an exhibition tournament, not a football competition.

“They sold it too hard,’’ one club official said.
“I understand you have to create heroes, but you can’t put them on a pedestal so high without any body of work … it just doesn’t make sense.’’

The Western Bulldogs celebrate their premiership win over the Brisbane Lions in March, but the women’s game is full of anger and frustration as a third season looms. Picture: Getty Images

Dreams were built and believed and now they are shattered, the players say.

The messy fight centres on the players wanting to play nine home-and-away rounds and two weeks of finals next year and the AFL initially wanting six rounds and two weeks of finals. It will likely end up at seven.

Finding a window in which to compete that satisfies all parties in terms of commercial reality (it costs $10 million-plus to run the competition) and a fair competition (play each other once) is proving elusive and divisive.

The AFLW standard is only average. It’s played in slow motion on full-sized grounds with 16 players a side. Skills are poor. Fitness is improving, scoring is low — which upsets the main broadcaster — and most of half of the population won’t give it a second thought.

I watch it. I like the contest, the close games, the moments of brilliance and the players I’ve met. As a product, it’s quaint, perhaps suburban in essence, which is a good thing.

But the product is out of whack in regards to performance and its coverage.

The players like to call themselves elite, professional part-timers — and, yes, they sacrifice plenty to play — but with that has come a sense of entitlement.

That comes partly on the back of the AFL’s initial enthusiasm. Players were treated like rock stars.

Some were recruited from other sports. They were told they were the pioneers and their dreams would be real and realised. There were TV appearances, radio and newspaper interviews and media gigs.

“The AFL created this beast,’’ another club official said.

A full house watches the first ever AFLW match between Collingwood and Carlton. Picture: Rob Leeson

The women’s game all the way to the grassroots is thriving. There are talent pathways and investment has improved facilities at numerous footy grounds. This year there are 500,000 females playing the game.

In many respects, the AFL has done a brilliant job.

Yet, the players are angry with the AFL for what they say is a lack of planning and support for expansion.

Fox Sports’ Anna Harrington wrote on Thursday: “Unfortunately, its ambition to take over the female sporting landscape appears to be at odds with its willingness to back in its own product.’’

There’s the battleground. The players want an 11-week season. That means possibly starting in early January up against tennis, Big Bash and Test cricket, and the A-League.

There’s a suggestion to play the grand final as a curtain-raiser to Carlton-Richmond in Round 1 of the men’s competition and work back from there.

But the AFL wants it to stay an early February to mid-March event.

The TV component is intriguing.

Melbourne star Daisy Pearce has been a vocal critic over the length of the season. Pic: Michael Klein

There is no deal in place yet with Fox Footy or Channel 7. There will be a deal, but just how many games will be televised is the issue.

Do the networks really want more games when viewing numbers, outside of the first two rounds of season one, have been only modest and they have to pay production costs?

Maybe it’s two games a weekend and the rest streamed online, but would the players sacrifice television for more games?

“I reckon if you ask the players, they’d prefer to play nine games and have two or three on telly on the weekend as opposed to having every game broadcast with seven games,’’ one club official said.

Another disagreed.

“I think the players want to be on TV. They want it because they’re getting some spotlight and they love it and they want more games to have the spotlight longer. That said, the players would be better by playing more football and that’s where the AFL is shooting themselves in the foot. They want the product better, but they are reducing the number of games.’’

Another proposal is to play all nine rounds in the AFL’s preferred window with shorter breaks between rounds.

Clearly, the elephant in the room is the lack of talent and poor spectacle.

“You had the novelty in the first year, then people were going to be more discerning about the standard in the second year, and there was a drop off in people watching, but they keep putting new teams in and the standard will only get worse,’’ a club executive said.

It’s a mish-mash of money, exposure, talent, development and support and finding the right solution.

Maybe the AFL has to admit its expectation has cooled and, just maybe, the players have to chill out.

Unfortunately, you can’t always get what you want when you want it.

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