AFL Women’s chief and players committed to full season and premiership glory

Summer football is set to kick-off with a bang in Melbourne next week, as the AFL Women’s league charges forward despite Covid-19 and a disappointing end to 2020.

Richmond’s Ellie McKenzie, Western Bulldogs’ Gabby Newton and Collingwood’s Tarni Brown ahead of the start of the AFLW season next week. Picture: Aaron Francis

Come hell, high water or even a COVID-19 outbreak, the wom­en’s AFL competition will kick off on Thursday, and a premiership cup will be awarded at season’s end, the league’s chief has vowed.

As great rivals Carlton and Collingwood prepare for the season opener, AFLW chief Nicole Livingstone said the league would move to a hub if necessary, after the first coronavirus outbreak last year forced the competition to be cut short in March without a pre­miership cup being awarded.

“We are prepared to do what we need to do to protect the AFLW season and to see it complete,” Ms Livingstone said.

“One of the things that we have been having as a core principle is (we want) minimal disruption to clubs, players and staff, so we would only do that (move to a hub) if it was absolutely necessary, and it may look a little different to what the men did in 2020.”

There were concerns about the start of the season after Greater Western Sydney were forced to relocate a second time to Adelaide last Friday from Albury after a COVID-19 outbreak in NSW before Christmas.

To ensure the start of their season with a game on January 31 in Western Australia against Fremantle, GWS spent two weeks in Albury in regional NSW to satisfy border requirements before they moved to South Australia.

Collingwood’s first ever ­father-daughter pick, Tarni Brown, said her team was prepared to move to a hub if COVID-19 outbreaks threatened the season. “The coaches are saying take every step as it comes, we don’t know what is going to happen but let’s just get round one out of the way — and if we have to do something like go into a hub, then that’s what we will do,” the 18-year-old said.

The daughter of Collingwood great Gavin Brown, she said she felt “nervous” ahead of the first game on Thursday night at Icon Park in Melbourne and hoped to get a shot on the field.

“It’s just been good so far to be able to train at the highest level … I’m just hoping I get my opportunity,” she said.

Western Bulldogs’ Gabby Newton, 19, was the No 1 pick in the 2019 AFLW draft. One of the game’s biggest rising stars, she said the high expectations helped her to perform at her best.

“It puts an expectation on myself to rise to that level … which I think is a healthy amount and it makes me perform,” she said.

Richmond’s Ellie McKenzie was selected as pick one in the 2020 draft. She said training was difficult during the pandemic but she had remained motivated.

“The mindset is we are going to try and get the season completed. I think us girls are prepared to do whatever it takes (to finish the season),” the 18-year-old said.