Redraft the AFLW

[Demonland 72,161]

[BDA 22,743]

Quality is definitely down this year. There have not been many great games (Crows v doggies on the weekend was excellent but few and far between)

Don;t think a re-draft is the answer. Players have developed loyalties to their club and teammates and won't want to switch

The comp has expanded too quickly. We need less teams not more

[drdrake 3,163]

5 minutes ago, BDA said:

Quality is definitely down this year. There have not been many great games (Crows v doggies on the weekend was excellent but few and far between)

Don;t think a re-draft is the answer. Players have developed loyalties to their club and teammates and won't want to switch

The comp has expanded too quickly. We need less teams not more

Agree and will only get worse.  Don't know the exact percentage of females v males playing football I would say about 10% yet we will have the same size comp in 2023 18 sides each.  You are going to have roughly the same about of girls draft as boys yet junior boys are about 90% of players on the community.

 

[Meggs 595]

Back to 2 conferences of 9 teams together with EPL relegation/promotion??  🤔 Maybe a chance for Casey hehe…it’s been too rushed by HQ helped alongside plenty of AFL club fomo…

[george_on_the_outer 7,590]

The problem is of the AFL's making.  Giving Brisbane, Adelaide (still) and Fremantle complete access solely to their state has created 3 of the top 5 sides in the competition. 

And it means WCE, the Suns and next year Port are scraping the barrel for players. 

With the pay rates, no-one wants the expense of leaving their home state for 10 games a year.

North and Melbourne shouldn't be penalised for providing the environment and structures for success, when there are 8 Victorian based sides, who all have the same pool to select from.  

 

[DistrACTION Jackson 8,724]

2 hours ago, BDA said:

Quality is definitely down this year. There have not been many great games (Crows v doggies on the weekend was excellent but few and far between)

Don;t think a re-draft is the answer. Players have developed loyalties to their club and teammates and won't want to switch

The comp has expanded too quickly. We need less teams not more

100% agree. Gil is an [censored] expanding at such a rapid rate, when the pool of quality women footy players has not increased at that rate yet.

[binman 42,902]

The change i would make is to the timing of the season. 

I know the timing of this season is a function of COVID, and I know the AFL don't want to run the AFLW head to head with the AFL, but starting the season in the heat of summer is stupid. 

They should start the AFLW season in say early Feb and play the grand Final in the first week of the AFL bye rounds, which this year starts 3 June.

Yes that would mean the AFLW would go head  to head with the AFL for three months or so, but they would get two months of clear air until the AFL season proper starts and then the opportunity for stand alone Grand Final at a time when the AFL season gets a bit stale. 

That set up would affect the state women's comps i suppose but if the finals started early May half the players (ie the ones not in final's teams) would be available by mid may for their local teams.

And in any case the current set up impacts the local teams in so far as the women have to train for their local teams and then kick of training for the AFLW almost immediately those seasons finish. Which can't be helpful for either comp.

The other change i'd make is that all games should be played in AFL venues or on grounds with proper grandstands and AFL standard surfaces.

To support this they should advance plans to make Princess park (or Arden street perhaps) into the Victorian AFLW hub (but with Geelong could continue to use Kardinia Park) and replicate that model in the other states as far as possible. Play all games at these hubs. 

They need to create a playing environment where the effects of the wind are minimised, because if there is a strong wind the game becomes really scrappy and crap to watch because they use smaller balls and obviously they are not as powerful as men so the ball doesn't penetrate. it often becomes a territory game and poor skills get exacerbated. 

 So of course that would mean no games at Casey. Or Punt road oval

The other problem for the AFLW is that each team has adopted AFL defensive systems and the mantra of pressure being fundamental. Which is all well and good, and it is incredible the ferocity the women crack in, but the defensive systems and pressure impact the skills too much and as a result many games are devolving into scrappy combat with huge numbers of players around the ball and crazy numbers of tackles. 

We can't change that part of the game, its here to stay, but uniform AFL standard grounds that offer some protection from the weather will go a long way to help as more kicks will hit targets, skills will be better and kicks for goal will be more accurate. 

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by binman

[rjay 24,917]

57 minutes ago, binman said:

The other change i'd make is that all games should be played in AFL venues or on grounds with proper grandstands and AFL standard surfaces.

I've heard this argument but don't agree...the surfaces are fine.

Yes there are windy days but it hasn't effected VFA/VFL too much in over a century. You play to the conditions, unfortunately the skill level gets found out and that's where the problem is.

If they played in AFL stadiums there would be no atmosphere, at least you get a bit of local footy atmosphere with the current grounds. Also the cost of opening a big stadium would be too great to be absorbed financially.

The biggest problem is the standard and that is the AFL's fault for expanding too quickly, there is not enough talent to go around. Also as  'George' pointed out above the AFL have effectively created some super state teams.

Now that horse has bolted I guess we have to see if we can put up with poor footy until the influx of quality players improves. Some are saying around 10 years for that to happen...can the competition limp though until then.

The only thing that would make the game interesting at the moment is a close contest and these are few and far between.

Well done Gill, well done AFL...

[drdrake 3,163]

3 hours ago, rjay said:

I've heard this argument but don't agree...the surfaces are fine.

Yes there are windy days but it hasn't effected VFA/VFL too much in over a century. You play to the conditions, unfortunately the skill level gets found out and that's where the problem is.

If they played in AFL stadiums there would be no atmosphere, at least you get a bit of local footy atmosphere with the current grounds. Also the cost of opening a big stadium would be too great to be absorbed financially.

The biggest problem is the standard and that is the AFL's fault for expanding too quickly, there is not enough talent to go around. Also as  'George' pointed out above the AFL have effectively created some super state teams.

Now that horse has bolted I guess we have to see if we can put up with poor footy until the influx of quality players improves. Some are saying around 10 years for that to happen...can the competition limp though until then.

The only thing that would make the game interesting at the moment is a close contest and these are few and far between.

Well done Gill, well done AFL...

The AFL will put a spin onto this saying something like the average losing margin is the closest it has even been, yeh that's because no one is scoring.  It is almost like the first year of AFLW all over again, high tackle counts low scoring.  It needs to be in this slot as the game would get zero TV spots and media coverage if played same time as the men.

The expansion is all about PR and government money, you need female participation to get the government money.

[Lucifers Hero 39,739]

Teams in the AFL go thru long periods of being in the bottom part of the ladder and not being competitive with the top sides.  We know only too well in the men's game.

The new AFLW teams get enormous draft benefits and it takes time to build a winning team/culture/game plan to get towards the top.  Again as we know only to well in the men's game.

I don't think re-drafting is a good idea.  It will bring the top teams down with no guarantee the bottom/new teams will lift.  That would not be good for the competition given that the initial teams are just becoming to play good football.

[Axis of Bob 11,790]

Redrafting isn't the answer. The AFLW has expanded too quickly which has impacted the quality of the teams. It wasn't a problem that couldn't be foreseen. It's like Cricket Australia killing the successful Big Bash by getting too greedy too quickly. 

You can't put the genie back in the bottle. They're just going to have to grit their teeth and wait for the next decade until it sorts itself out. 

[poita 3,902]

Redrafting will never happen, but there is no doubt that the AFL is doing everything in its power to destroy the AFLW as a serious, elite competition.

• It took more than 100 years for VFL/AFL to get to 18 teams, and even then there are issues with the viability of several. The AFLW will get there in 7. Where do another 120 players come from for next season, when at least a third of the competition is already is barely competitive?
• Little or no support is provided to community clubs who were for so long the strongholds of women's football (Darebin, St Albans, Melb Uni, etc). What is the cost of allowing these clubs to die?
• Part time athletes, who are undoubtedly incredibly fit and dedicated, are being asked to play games in the full heat of summer to meet broadcaster demands and with horrible facilities and conditions. How does this help the spectacle?
• We now have midweek games and shortened breaks to squeeze the season in a ridiculously short period of time, irrespective of the fact that many players have jobs that they need to attend to make a living. At some point players will decide it is all too hard.
• The gap between the best and the rest is bigger than ever, and there is little prospect of the rest improving with new teams monopolising draft picks over the next few years. Scoring has dried up, and I find it impossible to watch any game that doesn't involve Melbourne.
• We ask the women to play on full size grounds when they kick roughly 70% of the distance of the men. There is no doubt in my mind that they need to play on smaller grounds (and ideally ones that are not prone to high winds). The idea of AFLW hub is a good one, but it needs to be way smaller than Princes Park.

[BDA 22,743]

I watched the first quarter of the Lions and Suns. Thought it might be close, the Suns were 7^th on the ladder going into the game, and wanted to see how the Lions were travelling seeing as we play them on Monday. It was 20 points to 2 at quarter time. One-way traffic. Decided to go for walk rather than keep watching. 

Lions are currently leading 61-2 at 3 qtr time. I’m glad I went for a walk

[Demon Disciple 12,119]

The talent is too thin, spread across 14 teams. Redrafting players will not fix the issue.

AFLW expanded way too quickly.

[Meggs 595]

Night games at Carrara are dewy and Gold Coast backs couldn’t hold their marks.  Lions have tons of talent, speed and pressure.  
To win next Monday we will have to be at our best and play to the conditions.  The premiers are firing after their big round one loss to the Crows.  Anyway tonight’s result was:

Bris 12.13.85 to GC 2.4.16, a shellacking…

[Lampers 563]

On 2/16/2022 at 7:00 AM, drdrake said:

Agree and will only get worse.  Don't know the exact percentage of females v males playing football I would say about 10% yet we will have the same size comp in 2023 18 sides each.  You are going to have roughly the same about of girls draft as boys yet junior boys are about 90% of players on the community.

 

The percentages of junior female participation would be higher than 10% these days. At the junior footy club I’m involved with three of the 12 teams are female and there will be some females in younger mixed teams too.

But your point is still valid. The number of AFLW age (18-35) players is small compared with AFL aged players, and although it’s growing at that <14 years of age range it’s still only ~20% of all players at a guess.

So proportionately there will be four “gun” male players for every “gun” female even in a decade’s time, yet we are trying to fill 18 teams in both competitions.

To have high quality games consistently AFLW should probably be a four team competition.

But then hardly anyone would take interest if it was four made up teams, or four aligned to AFL club teams, so trying to leverage existing loyalties to the men’s teams is probably the lesser of two evils.

Perhaps in hindsight they could have had one WA, one SA, two Vic, one QLD and one NSW team. I think that would’ve got a level of interest from the public, and been more realistic for the talent pool.

[Supermercado 2,797]

Any suggestion of divisions in the men's game is laughable because it would drive second rate teams to the wall, but given that AFLW teams are subsidised and they're hell bent on expanding to 18 teams despite having the available depth of a fish pond, there must be an argument for two divisions of nine.

* Teams get competition at their own level
* Added promotion/relegation excitement instead of dead rubbers galore
* Semi-pro players perhaps less likely to run straight towards a top flight team the moment their first contract expires
* Bye weeks offer a break to players who are often putting their real lives on hold to participate

Adding four new teams is laughable. If anything they should have less, the best players in the comp are very good but there are some dreadful/nowhere near ready players being gifted games at the bottom end just to make up the numbers.

On the topic of changing the season dates, what about playing it straight after the men finish - then you can season new draftees in the state league for a year before they play AFLW. Even if the first couple of rounds lack buzz due to people being burnt out after the men's comp, it would land the end of the season and finals right around the point where people are getting jittery to watch footy again.

Realistically - nothing will change, the AFL don't really care. If they knew it was going to get them good publicity they'd expand to Fitzroy, University, South Melbourne and the Brisbane Bears as well.

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Supermercado