AFL’s edict to women players: make the game more entertaining

The AFL has issued an extraordinary edict instructing the coaches and footballers in its women’s competition to be more entertaining.

The AFLW match between Carlton and Collingwood was low-scoring and defensive

The AFL has issued an extraordinary edict telling the coaches and footballers in its women’s competition to be more entertaining.

A day after the AFL contacted clubs to express its frustration after a series of low-scoring or defensive matches in the opening round of the AFLW, the league escalated the issue.

A letter from the league’s football operations manager, Steve Hocking, was sent to the eight competing clubs ahead of this weekend’s round, urging more free-flowing play.

The letter proposes initiatives to dictate team structures, ­designed to eliminate flooding.

It followed a meeting between AFLW boss Nicole Livingstone, the former champion swimmer, Hocking and club coaches.

But there is angst among clubs that the move has come after just one round of football, which coincided with a drastic drop in television ratings compared with the inaugural round a year ago.

They are concerned it will compromise the integrity of the competition, which is in its second year. Players and coaches voiced their displeasure and disbelief that the directions were issued with the competition already under way.

Despite concerns around the quality of football, attendances were strong for the opening week of the competition.

AFLW officials hope to draw up to 50,000 fans to Perth Stadium when Fremantle host Collingwood on Saturday night.

Daniel Harford, the assistant coach of Collingwood who also hosts a morning sports breakfast show in Melbourne, said before the memo was sent to clubs that the league needed to be cautious.

He said Collingwood’s struggle to score against Carlton in the ­season opener came in part because they played “garbage” football, but he believes the other three matches were of a decent standard. “Philosophically, though … I think the AFL need to be very careful about the message they send to the AFLW competition, the clubs and the players, as to what they want the competition to be,” he said.

Nicole Livingstone, the head of the AFLW. Picture: Nicole Cleary

“Do they want it to be a serious, competitive environment? Or do they want it to be a showcase of free-flowing entertainment (or) football? I think that is the philosophical conversation on the back of what has happened over the past 24 hours.

“The danger from the AFL’s perspective is that if you start to encourage entertainment as ­opposed to winning, you haven’t got much of a competition, a lot of substance to the competition.

“The clubs are quite annoyed about that.”

The league wants clubs to play a more formal structure at every centre bounce, comprising five ­defenders, five forwards and six footballers around the centre.

It hopes this will alleviate issues such as flooding, where teams ­deploy extra numbers to defence. The memo states play will not begin until this occurs. Livingstone last night said this was not a new rule, rather an initiative.

The AFLW also wants to ­reduce the number of players around ball-ups, with forwards to retain position inside the forward 50m arc, as opposed to pushing up the ground to bolster stocks through the midfield.

The league is also instructing umpires to ensure there is a 15m area without players directly in front of stops in play such as ­ball-ups or marks. It hopes these ­measures will help boost scoring.

AFL officials were particularly concerned about the game ­between the Magpies and the Blues, in which only five goals were kicked in total.

There is some suggestion ­Brisbane’s tactics are also under scrutiny, which seems remarkable given the Lions are yet to lose a regular season game in two ­seasons.

And while four of the eight clubs went goalless through a half last weekend, scoring was actually up on the same round last year.

Livingstone last night said there had been in-depth discussions in November on the direction the AFLW hoped to take the game, bearing in mind that it needed to become commercially viable.

Carlton captain Bri Davey ­defended the Blues’ approach to football at the launch of a Pride Game to be played against the Western Bulldogs in the fourth round.

“We’ll do our best to try and work with the AFL and at this point, we understand from a spectacle point of view we want people to enjoy watching the game,” she said.

“But at the same time, it’s a competitive game and we’re here to win games and at this point we’ll do whatever we need to get over the line for that particular game.”