The guarantees and the great unknowns: How to approach inaugural AFLW season

WHILE some things are guaranteed, plenty are not as AFLW season No. 1 kicks off. This is how the AFL community should approach the inaugural season.

Carlton are one of eight clubs to field an AFLW team. Picture: David Caird

WOMEN’S footy has arrived.

It may have come a year earlier than the AFL anticipated, but for many women — who have been waiting a lifetime to play on the national stage — it hasn’t come too soon.

The interest in the competition has been enormous.

Mostly, the feedback has been positive. But a minority aren’t so keen on the thought of an all-women’s competition.

The times, however, are a changing.

For the most part we know what to expect: Big hits, magical skills, unearthed heroes and the belting out of team songs.

Those are the football familiars.

Yet there’s a certain cloud of unknowns hovering over the competition on the eve of its first season.

Melbourne has been one of the pioneering clubs. Picture: David Crosling

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WHAT TO EXPECT

First of all, there are only eight clubs. Four from Victoria — Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Collingwood and Carlton — as well as Fremantle, Adelaide, GWS and Brisbane.

Each club plays every other club once, meaning there are seven rounds of footy.

The top two finishing teams will play off in the grand final, which will be staged in a stand-alone timeslot on the first Saturday of the AFL season.

Entry to all matches is free.

The players

Every team had access to two marquee players, as well as a handful of priority signings, before lists were filled via state-based drafts.

While many predict the Victorian clubs to dominate, talent has been diluted between four clubs, as opposed to the interstate teams, where one club has had access to every state league player.

As the last exhibition match between Melbourne and Western Bulldogs highlighted, the talent and characters the league craves are already well established.

Players such as Moana Hope, Daisy Pearce and Katie Brennan are dynamic, tough, highly-skilled and great ambassadors for the game.

The rules

A few rules have been tinkered to help the flow of matches.

This is less of a slight on the women than it is on the old laws of the game. It’s probable if the AFL was starting from scratch that some rules would be changed or scrapped altogether.

Each team will field 16-a-side to lessen congestion, but will have six on the bench to accommodate for the heat. The ball size is also slightly smaller.

THE GREAT UNKNOWN

With very little footy to go off apart from the smattering of practice matches over the past fortnight, it’s difficult to anticipate every intricacy of the league.

While the opening match has been relocated from Olympic Park Oval to Ikon Park to accommodate for the predicted crowd, there could be a drop off in attendances thereafter.

Matches such as the Round 3 encounter between GWS and Fremantle are unlikely to attract a big following, when the equivalent men’s fixture only housed 9,556 supporters last year.

The general interest in the competition may also wane, particularly as the AFL season becomes closer and closer and the coverage of the women becomes less substantial.

Expect big hits. Photo: Stuart Walmsley

WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND

These eight teams have been conceived from scratch.

Even the Bulldogs and Melbourne, who have previously had teams and systems in place, have started from ground zero, with new coaches and a plethora of new players.

Adelaide has barely trained as a full team, with several players living in the Northern Territory.

The standard, therefore, won’t be the same as the men’s. But how could it be?

Even at junior level, the amount of money spent on boy’s footy as opposed to women’s footy has been astronomical.

What’s more, while these women aspire to be full-time athletes, they’re all either studying or working to support themselves. Football isn’t paying the bills.

HOW TO APPROACH THE SEASON

Regardless of what you think of sport or AFL, it’s darn cool that young girls now have female footballers to look up to.

Footy has been a part of Australian culture for more than 100 years.

In Victoria, it shapes the fabric of society and plays a major role in many rural communities.

In Melbourne, the MCG is perhaps the most recognisable feature of the city’s skyline.

Footy is more than just a sport. And for the first time ever, women will become a part of the narrative at a national and elite level.

It’s something to get behind.

Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

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Originally published as The guarantees and the great unknowns: How to approach inaugural AFLW season