Leaked AFL email "asking" the women teams to score more after some low scores in the first round.

www.theage.com.au/afl/womens-afl/aflw-clubs-asked-to-use-zones-to-open-up-play-20180207-h0vk6j.html

 

Some of the things were to restrict forwards/backs to their respective zones etc.

 

 

 

The real story will be when entry is not free to the games. Then we'll see how popular the women's game is.

Isn't it $2 to attend this year, but the money goes to charity?

Probably won't help for the first 100 years, as they learn how to kick properly.

More mums out in the backyard teaching their little girls, on the opposite foot, for two or three hours every night.

Equality is a pain...........

 

I mentioned on her before last season that it will be terrible to watch because the talent pool is too thin and there are too many teams. Of course I was hounded for being a negative nancy. 

When it was just Melbourne v Bulldogs, the matches were exciting and intense. All of the best players across 2 teams. They added the Lions. It started to thin out. Now they've gone hardcore and added a bunch of teams filled with women who are unfit and have never competed at a professional level, competing a pro competition. Melbourne and the Bulldogs, who invested in this more than anyone, lose out because now their past players are "Marquee players" signed by other teams.

It should have stayed as an annual exhibition match to build the culture and following. Establish the culture, build the foundations, and work from there.

Where the league is now team wise probably should have taken 10 years. Way too hard, too fast. Terrible oversight by the league. It's ruined.

How ridiculous by the AFL to ask the teams to play a certain way. Amateur hour stuff.

The answer is fairly simple, shorten the length of the field.

The average AFL men's player kicks 50m. The average woman probably kicks 30m. 

The MCG is 160m long. If you kick directly down the middle it should take 3 kicks for the men to score, however it will take the women 5-6 kicks.

Reduce the field size by 30 metres and there will be a lot more goals.

1 hour ago, Is Dom Is Good said:

How ridiculous by the AFL to ask the teams to play a certain way. Amateur hour stuff.

The answer is fairly simple, shorten the length of the field.

The average AFL men's player kicks 50m. The average woman probably kicks 30m. 

The MCG is 160m long. If you kick directly down the middle it should take 3 kicks for the men to score, however it will take the women 5-6 kicks.

Reduce the field size by 30 metres and there will be a lot more goals.

I agree, it’s a no brainer to shorten the playing field. Its like the men playing on a field over 200 metres long. Ball movement has improved and the contest is feisty from what I have seen but it’s a big  ask to consistently expect more goals with mostly 30 metre kicks and short handpasses. Rules and game design needs more tweaking. I guess the AFL find it too much of a chore to shorten grounds just for the odd women’s game. The women may need their own dedicated playing field. 

Money/exposure talks. If the AFL wants Carlton and Collingwood to play a more open brand all they need to do is threaten to give the opening game of the season to us and the dogs - as it should have been in the first place! We would get just as many people to the game (most of the people I know who went were neutrals anyway). 

Also reducing the length of the field is a good idea

Insane by the AFL to do this now, but having said that I'm all for rules which mean that a certain number of players need to be in each part of the ground at a centre bounce for men and women.

2 hours ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Insane by the AFL to do this now, but having said that I'm all for rules which mean that a certain number of players need to be in each part of the ground at a centre bounce for men and women.

Inclined to agree that the timing was bad. Should have been fixed in the pre -season. The opening game, Carlton v Collingwood was painful to watch though. It's one thing for players to say 'we just want to win' but it wasn't a showpiece for all the young girls considering playing the sport, of which there are many.

The coaches only have themselves to blame. I didn't see the debacle on Friday, but 5 goals in a game of football is rubbish and helps nobody. Even on Saturday it took Melbourne until the second half to play a style of football that gave them a decent chance of scoring. 

Clearly playing on AFL size grounds is not helping the scoring levels or the standard of the games so, aside from playing smaller grounds with less crowd capacity, something else has to give. If that means the use of zones so be it.

I think the AFL realise that they only get one chance to get this right, or they set the women's game back a couple of generations. They need to have a product that, in time, people will pay to see. Attendances and TV viewing numbers were significantly down on the corresponding matches last year, and that is largely because the product isn't right yet.

 

It sounds counter intuitive but they need to play 18 a side on the ground.

That will in effect make it a little bit smaller ie less distance to kick to the next link up player.

In womens footy to me having less players in creating more congestion. They can't reach targets and a lot more ball is played on the ground with packs of players running on to the loose ball.

If they could hit up more 30 metre targets then the game would flow better.

Zones on a full size ground in a 16 a side game where most can't kick much over 30 metres is going to slow the game down more.

It's an incredibly condescending 'request' by the AFL.  Coaches are given the rules by which to abide over the preseason, then develop a gameplan within those rules that will allow their team to win footy matches.  This is the same attitude that is taken up by all levels of football.  If Melbourne played an attacking, free-flowing style, but got belted every week, how would our attendances look then?  It's a professional league, they play to win.

Some guys obviously want to be banned so keep up the sexist posts and you'll find you can no longer post on Demonland.

Criticism of the women's game is a bit rich.

Most of us were blown away by the competition last season and the skills displayed by the women.

So far we are one round into the new season and most of the comments came from the Collingwood-Carlton game. 

Enjoy the game for what it is and accept there are differences between the men and women's game.  There may be skill differences and less scoring opportunities but that does not mean the game is less  enjoyable to watch. 

I have watched a lot of footy including the amateurs and country footy and despite the skill differences, those matches have for the most part been very enjoyable to watch. Low scoring games can be more exciting and interesting than goal feasts.   

We should celebrate the women's game as women have been a significant part of the game since its inception, both as spectators and later as players. 

Leave it alone and let it grow organically without interference from the AFL or TV bosses calling the tune.  Can you imagine the reaction of coaches and the footy world if the AFL had issued an edict to the men's teams as they did to the women. 

The men of the AFL want to reap the financial rewards of the women's game but at the same time, tell the women how to play the game.

They should direct their attention to the men's game, and clean up the ugly game that it has become. 

If you leave the management of the women's game to women, the game will be much better off. Men will never understand women's sport. 

I actually think that if the teams our womens team plays adopt the "suggestions" from head office we'll win the flag in a canter. Defensive set ups help weak teams slow and even up the play, we're not a weak team.

8 hours ago, Is Dom Is Good said:

How ridiculous by the AFL to ask the teams to play a certain way. Amateur hour stuff.

The answer is fairly simple, shorten the length of the field.

The average AFL men's player kicks 50m. The average woman probably kicks 30m. 

The MCG is 160m long. If you kick directly down the middle it should take 3 kicks for the men to score, however it will take the women 5-6 kicks.

Reduce the field size by 30 metres and there will be a lot more goals.

Yeah shorten the field size? Just like the good old days of backyard footy with my mates playing 5 a side.

Lets face it 

1 Women's footy is a novelty where skill level apart from a very few exceptions is poor.

2 Any Average grade men's suburban side would beat any AFLX women's team Easily IMO

And its not sexist to observe different standards of skill between mens and womens footy

No censorship of truth please

37 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Yeah shorten the field size? Just like the good old days of backyard footy with my mates playing 5 a side.

Lets face it 

1 Women's footy is a novelty where skill level apart from a very few exceptions is poor.

2 Any Average grade men's suburban side would beat any AFLX women's team Easily IMO

I agree with your points, however I don't believe that is a reason to quit running the competition. 

I think it is great that hey are building the game and promoting women's sport, while acknowledging the level of play is far superior to men's AFL.

But if they want it to succeed long term they have to make changes and the field size I think is on of them.

37 minutes ago, dino rover said:

And its not sexist to observe different standards of skill between mens and womens footy

No censorship of truth please

That's was not the sexist content that's been deleted.

Thanks

Why do you think Gill and the AFL are pushing this so hard? $$$$ No goals scored = less ad breaks the sponsors of these companies would have been livid with the output from the 1st round bar melb v gws.

There is alot riding on theses games /competition plus the AFLX because the AFL are in such a hurry to package this all up with the AFL proper for the TV rights renewal at the end if this year. 

Thats why Gill has given them a wack the greedy bastard. 

It will take 10 years for AFLW to be any good the young girls need to come through the correct training systems and fitness.

I hope the AFLW Dees coaching and playing staff ignore the paternalism from Steve Hocking and the AFL and are prepared to win ugly when required. 

The skill level and physical condition has pretty obviously improved from season 1 to season 2.  The depth of talent will improve each year as girls who have played footy from Auskick on through TAC Cup pathway  get drafted. Already some of the stars of the old state women's league are struggling to compete with the athletic and skillful players either emerging from development pathways or swapping to AFLW from other sports.

Yep. The Blues v Pies game was crap but there are crap AFLM games most weeks.

Steve Hocking and the AFL sure do know how to trash the AFLW brand. Mindless incompetence.

The same memo was sent to Ross Lyon a couple of seasons ago.