Netball tried it and it didn’t work, so why have a conference system in women’s football?

The AFLW should scrap their controversial conference system: and the sooner the better, writes Natalie Von Bertouch.

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NETBALL Australia tossed around the idea of a conference system about five years ago when the ANZ Championship was still running, before SuperNetball came in.

Then they implemented it. And then came the backlash.

In those days, the ANZ Championship consisted of 10 teams — five from Australia, including the Adelaide Thunderbirds, and five from New Zealand — and the leagues ended up endorsing the conference system, in part as a cost-saving measure to combat the travel between the two countries.

In the end, it was short-lived and is no longer a part of our elite-level netball and not just because we no longer have any NZ teams in our competition: it largely disadvantaged the stronger Australian teams and just didn’t seem fair.

I’m glad that Netball Australia got rid of conferences, but now, here we are five years on and a different women’s sport is coming under attack for having established one.

And rightly so; the AFLW’s two conferences are seriously lopsided. Conference A — made up of Adelaide, North Melbourne, Fremantle, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs — is far superior to Conference B — Geelong, Carlton, Brisbane Lions, Greater Western Sydney and Collingwood.

After six rounds of football, Conference A teams have a combined 21 wins and Conference B? Only nine.

The Crows AFLW side has only lost one game this season and yet due to the conference system is no certainty to play finals. Picture Sarah Reed.

The best four teams of AFLW03 are all stacked in Conference A and it’s such a shame for football supporters that these teams will be denied the opportunity to face off in finals.

Instead, the top two teams in Conference B will qualify.

Conference systems are largely unknown in Australian sport: but the Americans — possibly the biggest sports fans in the world — are more than used to them.

But even in America, debates rages there about abolishing them, particularly in the NBA, because there is always one conference that is stronger than another.

Why did the AFL decide to implement the system for the women’s game?

While some say it’s to test drive it before bringing it into the men’s game, I can’t imagine that.

I think they brought it in for the same reason netball considered it: money. The AFL couldn’t put more rounds into the season, and so it couldn’t accommodate expansion clubs (two this year and a massive four next year still to come), without splitting the teams in two groups.

What I’d like to see is more patience from the AFL: what’s the rush in expanding the competition before it’s ready? Before the audience has been built, before the depth of talent is greater, before there is more time and money to lengthen the season and avoid a conference system altogether?

This season, we’ve enjoyed great games — more goals have been scored than ever before and the skills have increased out of sight. AFLW is becoming a real, exciting spectacle. But its conference system is a blight.

Ultimately, if you’re good enough to win the premiership then you will. But will the quality of next weekend’s preliminary finals be the standard that the fans deserve?

The answer to that, simply, is no.

And if that’s the case, then the AFL should scrap the system, go back to the single ladder and give the teams more games to play.

Originally published as Netball tried it and it didn’t work, so why have a conference system in women’s football?