AFL Commission must find clear space for AFLW grand final, perhaps the “last Saturday in November”

AFLW grand final day at Adelaide Oval is “lost” amid a busy football calendar of AFL Sunday matches. The AFL Commission must change this, says Michelangelo Rucci.

Each AFLW grand final — from the start in 2017 with the Crows-Lions finale being the “curtain-raiser” to the men’s Q-Clash derby on the Gold Coast — the women’s league premiership play-off has had to fit around the AFL calendar.

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AFL House is losing its touch, as again highlighted by the placement of the AFLW grand final this season in a crowded football calendar.

First it was AFLX. The AFL’s masters of maximising opportunity failed by not making the four “franchise” teams for the bite-sized footy on a rectangular field have State-of-Origin labels. Even the legendary Leigh Matthews shook his head on that fail.

Now it is AFLW.

The timing with Sunday’s AFLW grand final — Adelaide v Carlton at Adelaide Oval at 12.30pm — is far from ideal. Sunday lunchtime is not a popular timeslot for fans. But the game has to fall in television needs — and now clashes with a full line-up of three Sunday AFL games.

Western Bulldogs player Ellie Blackburn and injured Katie Brennan lift the 2018 AFLW cup. Picture: Mark Stewart

The Saturday afternoon timeslot dedicated to the AFLW grand final was lost as soon as there was the need to give Adelaide, the best team from the preliminaries, a seven-day break for its second premiership play-off in three years.

Also, it was impossible to have the Crows women on Adelaide Oval just before the Port Adelaide AFL season-opener on Saturday — in a repeat of 2017 when Adelaide went to the Gold Coast to play the grand final against Brisbane before the Suns’ AFL season-opener.

Port Adelaide will spend this week dressing up the Oval for its members with special gifts. The Power cannot do this while Crows and Blues fans are filing out of an AFLW grand final party.

What a mess.

The AFLW grand final deserves its own moment, free of AFL distractions. The Crows-Blues AFLW grand final also will go head-to-head with the AFL Round 2 clash between North Melbourne and Brisbane at Melbourne’s Docklands.

The AFL has made this mistake from the start of the national women’s league three years ago.

The AFLW should have closed before the AFL began with the women’s grand final in the free weekend between the AFL’s JLT Community pre-season series and the men’s home-and-away season.

And the growth of the AFLW — both for the quality of the football being played and the respect being gained from former AFL players eagerly taking on W coaching roles — leaves the AFL Commission to rethink where to put the AFL on its crowded calendar, in particular the grand final.

The league is to expand — from 10 to 14 teams next year and will ultimately get to 20 sides with Tasmania and NT with the 18 AFL clubs.

These “growing pains” have to be resolved with the AFL Commission deciding how to expand the AFLW calendar — and where to place it against AFL games. Pre-season will not work with summer heat making it impractical to play in December.

Post-season with AFLW games in September-October-November with a grand final in late November has merit.

And it ensures the AFLW grand final has its own special date, say “last Saturday in November” as we know the AFL grand final is “last Saturday in September”.

The women deserve it. And they are certainly not getting that on Sunday as the AFLW grand final becomes “lost” in a busy AFL day.

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Originally published as AFL Commission must find clear space for AFLW grand final, perhaps the “last Saturday in November”