Round One of the AFLW had these former footy stars worried

A CONCERNING start to the AFL women’s competition has two big names worried about the future of the summer game.

We’re one round in and there are already calls for coaches to change their tunes.

A SUCCESSFUL inaugural season for the AFLW in early 2017 saw fans flock to the emerging league as the Adelaide Crows, led by trailblazing co-captain Erin Phillips, took out the first-ever women’s premiership.

But just four games into its second season, AFLW faces a dilemma in its fight to keep the turnstiles ticking despite a blockbuster turnout for 2018’s season opener.

Some 20,000 fans packed Melbourne’s Princes Park to watch Carrlton and Collingwood, silencing any thought of the competition losing public interest in its off-season.

But the result, and the scores following in later first-round matches, are what has AFL expert David King deeply concerned with the future of the seven-round summer comp.

Only half of the eight teams managed to score a goal in their first two quarters of the season, leading the former North Melbourne star to suggest the league’s coaches are getting in the way.

Four out of eight sides failed to reach 25 points in the opening round of the AFLW.

And four out of eight sides failed to score a goal in the first half.

“I just hope we don’t end up with something that is over-coached and loses that true identity of what our competition should look like,” he told Gerard Whateley on SEN Tuesday morning.

“I don’t want to see loose players down back and I don’t want to see players trying to use the ball laterally down back and trying to get to the open side.

“We’re seeing a lot of structure and strategy already in the first four games of the year.”

While the appeal of a more professional league with advanced strategies and gameplans is undeniable, the desire for coaches to emulate traditional Aussie rules plans may do the league more harm than good.

Former AFL star Terry Wallace questioned the level of defensive play in the AFLW’s first round of 2018, calling for less structure and more free-flowing action to compensate for the players’ marking skills.

With the competition still taking its baby steps as the league’s top players bring in $20,000 (up from $17,000 last year), the AFLW is hardly at the professional level of the men’s version of the game where stars are paid on average $371,000 a season.

“Why at this level of football are they playing a plus-one in the defensive area of the ground?” Wallace told SEN.

“It is difficult enough for them to score at the moment. There’s not a lot of girls that can take contested marks in the game.

“If I was the AFLW, I’d be getting on the phone to the coaches and say ‘can we play this as pure as what we possibly can?’”