The 2025 season might well be petering out for our AFL Men but it all starts again for the AFLW competition.

We are enthusiastic about the forthcoming season for Mick Stinear's Demons, who are among the highly favoured contenders for this year's accolades, following a challenging fixture last year and a notable incidence of injuries.

Demonland is again fortunate to have Meggs writing for us on all things MFC AFLW. Meggs’ season preview will appear shortly on this thread to give exposure to the team on our home page and then will be moved to the AFLW Melbourne Demons Board.

We also hope to get enough support from Demonlanders to have a Player of the Year Award for our AFLW team.

Melbourne’s first game for 2025 is against the Western Bulldogs at Mission Whitten Oval Footscray on Saturday 16 August 2025 at 7.30.

MEGGS’ 2025 AFLW SEASON PREVIEW

TEN-HUT!

Ten seasons. Eighteen teams. With the young talent pathway finally fully connected, Women’s Australian Rules football is building momentum and Season 2025 promises to be the best yet.

In advance of Season 10, the AFL leadership has engaged in candid discussions with all clubs regarding strategies to boost attendance and expand fan bases. Concerningly, average attendances in 2024 were 2,660 fans per match, with the women’s game incurring an annual loss of approximately $50 million.

The AFL is looking for improvements such as:

• scheduling more fan-friendly timeslots, consolidated at selected suburban venues.

• holding the Grand Final every year in the last weekend of November.

• enhancing the ‘on-field’ product with clubs instructed to transition the defensive tackle-fest and focus on fast-flowing outside game plans.

A handful of teams are already primed for this, including the Mighty Demons.

Season Format & Fixture Shake-Up

• 12 rounds over 12 weeks, followed by 4 weeks of finals.

• Season kicks off Thursday, August 14 with Carlton vs Collingwood at Ikon Park—a throwback to the inaugural lockout game.

• The AFLW opening rounds overlap with rounds 23 and 24 of the AFL men’s season, with fixtures staggered to avoid clashes.

Five Key Things to Monitor in 2025

1. Melbourne vs Western Bulldogs – R1 Hampson–Hardeman Cup under lights

2. Razor Ray returns to AFLW umpiring bringing his trademark flair and quirkiness

3. Fremantle vs North Melbourne – R3 will the Kangaroos make it 15 wins on the trot to break Melbourne’s existing 14 game winning streak (R5 2022-R5 2023)?

4. 50 Game Milestoners – #24 Megan Fitzsimon (45 games) #22 Eliza McNamara (44) will hopefully join the 50-game club in rounds 5 and 6 respectively.

5. Geelong vs Melbourne – R12 two top teams tuning up for finals at GMHBA Stadium

Team Spotlight: Melbourne FC Demons

Fixture Highlights:

After last year’s ‘fixed-ya’ fixture and finishing 9th, the AFL has given Melbourne an easier draw.

The Demons have not been drawn to play home and away games against three of the leading contenders:

• reigning premiers North Melbourne,

• heavyweight Adelaide, and

• 2024 finalists Hawthorn.

We play our first ever games for premiership points against Port (R5) and Sydney (R10) and travel interstate for the Port Adelaide, Fremantle and Brisbane matches. With five games at Casey Fields (the Field of Dreams) and one game at Ikon, it is a friendly fixture and won’t harm our prospects for a top 4 finish.

List Changes

• Outs: Lily Mithen (Gold Coast), Delany Madigan (delisted), Grace Hill (delisted).

• Ins: Molly O’Hehir (speedy tall halfback), Maggie Mahony (competitive small mid), Milly Dethridge (promising hockey cross-coder), Laela Ebert (skillful defender).

Injury Watch

• Tahlia ‘Jules’ Gillard (MCL) – out for half the season and will be sorely missed. Given our early-season opponents, we may hopefully be able to cover her absence.

• Grace Beasley (ACL) - recovering well and expected to return during 2025

• Gaby Colvin (MCL) - out for the beginning of the season.

• Jacinta Hose (back) - out for the season (replacement: Laela Ebert)

• Aimee Mackin (ACL) - out for the season (replacement: Denby Taylor)

Meggs’ Season 10 Predictions

• Premiers: North Melbourne – the first team to go back-to-back.

• Top 4: North Melbourne, Brisbane, Melbourne, Geelong.

• Leading Goal Kicker: Kate Hore (again), closing in on 100 career goals (currently 78).

• League B&F: Jasmine Garner (finally the year?)

• Smokey: Sydney – stars return and bounce back to finals.

• Flopper: Despite the best efforts of boom recruit Lily Mithen, the Suns to struggle in 2025.

• Dees_In_October to change her name to Dees_In_November

Meggs’ Final Word

Having watched a bit of VFLW and the AFLW practice matches this year, you can see that our core group of best players are set for a great season. While we have several injured and recovering players, our team list is deep and strong so there should be no excuses from our inspirational coach Mick Stinear.

Mick has coached 87 career games (with an impressive 71% win-rate). With 12 home and away games, just one finals match would see him reach the ton. Wouldn’t we all love to see that!

Meggs will be back with a preview of Melbourne’s Round 1 clash under lights at Mission Whitten Oval. Until then—get excited as the Dees are primed and ready to deliver in 2025 and keep the #demonspirit alive.

It’s good to see the women’s game get some traction and by the look of it, the Demons will be in the thick of things at the pointy end of the season.

Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central

2025 AFLW Team Preview: Melbourne

Melbourne had a rare down year in missing the AFLW finals series in 2024, but look set to return to the post-season with injection of youth.

After the disappointing men’s season I’m really looking forward to the women’s comp.

And for once it looks like we haven’t been shafted by the fixture

Go dees

Good luck to our AFLW team in 2025. The fixture looks better organized than it did last year but there’s still an issue with the opening round next Saturday night.

Our men are playing Hawthorn at the MCG at 4.15pm and the women take on the Western Bulldogs at Mission Whitten Oval Footscray at 7.30.

Can we organize a chopper to get to MWO on time?

Also, they’re expecting rain on Saturday night so I’m not too confident about getting a crowd along to support our women for the game.

How did the Bulldogs go last year?

Nice!

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1859249/10-seasons-strong-game-on?videoId=1859249&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1754902495001

Any update on Tayla Harris' ankle? She's a joy to watch when she's in full flight. Been absolutely cruelled with injury over the past couple of years.

As an aside, it was great to see our AFLW girls pairing off and helping out with the auskick games at half time on the weekend.

Kids seemed to love it.

15 minutes ago, Chook said:

Any update on Tayla Harris' ankle? She's a joy to watch when she's in full flight. Been absolutely cruelled with injury over the past couple of years.

Harris was in the game right in front of us and seemed to be moving ok.

9 hours ago, Chook said:

Any update on Tayla Harris' ankle? She's a joy to watch when she's in full flight. Been absolutely cruelled with injury over the past couple of years.

At the time it looked way worse than it actually was. It swelled up to three times its normal size. It’s fine now.

15 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Good luck to our AFLW team in 2025. The fixture looks better organized than it did last year but there’s still an issue with the opening round next Saturday night.

Our men are playing Hawthorn at the MCG at 4.15pm and the women take on the Western Bulldogs at Mission Whitten Oval Footscray at 7.30.

Can we organize a chopper to get to MWO on time?

Also, they’re expecting rain on Saturday night so I’m not too confident about getting a crowd along to support our women for the game.

It’s actually not just rain they’re predicting, it’s hail, and the temperature will plummet. Idk if many will attend but one thing’s for sure: our cheer squad will be representing complete with banner and guard of honour and very loud voices. ❤️💙

Our “chopper” will be the 5:40 Williamstown train to West Footscray. We leave the AFL match at halftime. I’ll be watching the second half on my phone and good luck to other passengers on the train if it’s a close match 😅

17 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

It’s actually not just rain they’re predicting, it’s hail, and the temperature will plummet. Idk if many will attend but one thing’s for sure: our cheer squad will be representing complete with banner and guard of honour and very loud voices. ❤️💙

Our “chopper” will be the 5:40 Williamstown train to West Footscray. We leave the AFL match at halftime. I’ll be watching the second half on my phone and good luck to other passengers on the train if it’s a close match 😅

Gosh. An interesting prioritisation. The 'G will become a very different place for the boys in their second half...

13 hours ago, Freddy Fuschia said:

How did the Bulldogs go last year?

Cliff.

%age 30 after 4 rounds! Recovered to 12th with 4 wins against teams below/equal.

A similar start for them would be nice!

29 minutes ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Gosh. An interesting prioritisation. The 'G will become a very different place for the boys in their second half...

It won’t be a full exodus. Many will stay for the second half. I’m guessing if we’re getting trounced it won’t look great seeing a bunch of us pack up and leave at halftime. No doubt we’ll be seen off by the lovely Hawks supporters striking up a rousing rendition of Nah nah nah hey hey hey goodbye. 😅

On 11/08/2025 at 20:03, Freddy Fuschia said:

How did the Bulldogs go last year?

12th. 4 wins, 7 losses, all wins to bottom 8 sides.

On 11/08/2025 at 16:36, Demonland said:

After last year’s ‘fixed-ya’ fixture

Very apt! And great write-up, Meggs.

On 11/08/2025 at 16:36, Demonland said:

Mick has coached 87 career games (with an impressive 71% win-rate). With 12 home and away games, just one finals match would see him reach the ton. Wouldn’t we all love to see that!

I think Mick Stinear is technically on 86 games, as he did miss one game somewhere along the way, for the birth of his child. Not sure if the records will actually reflect that though! It's going to be a great milestone either way.

On 11/08/2025 at 16:36, Demonland said:

• Dees_In_October to change her name to Dees_In_November

Haha we’ll see. As far as I can remember, the reason for my name (years before AFLW) was that I wanted to still be talking about the “Dees in October”, rather than getting to the end of the season and wanting to move on to the next year in the never-ending hope of a brighter horizon. Well, I was definitely still talking about the Dees in October in 2021, and October in 2022 on the AFLW side of things was certainly much discussed by me as well. Taking both into account, maybe it should be “Dees_in_December”? “Dees_Year-Round?”

10 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

It won’t be a full exodus. Many will stay for the second half. I’m guessing if we’re getting trounced it won’t look great seeing a bunch of us pack up and leave at halftime. No doubt we’ll be seen off by the lovely Hawks supporters striking up a rousing rendition of Nah nah nah hey hey hey goodbye. 😅

If the Hawks fans give you any lip, just remind yourself that we’ve supported women’s footy from the beginning, unlike those Johnny-come-latelies who had to beg for an AFLW licence because they dragged their feet...

I have an intricate plan to try to get to both games, but it's going to be tight and the weather makes the prospect less appealing given the wracking cough I currently have.

Might have to wait for what I’m calling “The Helicopter Game” at Casey in Round 2, which has some real "elephant at Arden Street" and "batmobile at the Grand Final" energy.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1851810/aflw-round-2-details

melbournefc.com.au

Injury Report | Triple test as sights set on Round 1

Check out Melbourne’s latest AFLW injury news

Injury list (12/8)

Tayla Harris (ankle) – available

S.Taylor (calf) – available

B.Mackin (hamstring) – available

Rigoni (knee soreness) – available

Campbell (concussion) – available

 

Hore (knee soreness) – test

Chaplin (hamstring awareness) – test

 

Goldrick (dealing with being a champ, round to oval ball transition, jet lag) – “slow approach”

Gall (ankle) – 1 week

D.Taylor (foot) – 4-5 weeks

Colvin (MCL) – mid-season

Beasley (ACL) – mid-season

Gillard (MCL) – TBA

1 hour ago, Dees_In_October said:

Might have to wait for what I’m calling “The Helicopter Game” at Casey in Round 2, which has some real "elephant at Arden Street" and "batmobile at the Grand Final" energy.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1851810/aflw-round-2-details

Memories. 🤣

11 hours ago, Dees_In_October said:

melbournefc.com.au

Injury Report | Triple test as sights set on Round 1

Check out Melbourne’s latest AFLW injury news

Injury list (12/8)

Tayla Harris (ankle) – available

S.Taylor (calf) – available

B.Mackin (hamstring) – available

Rigoni (knee soreness) – available

Campbell (concussion) – available

 

Hore (knee soreness) – test

Chaplin (hamstring awareness) – test

 

Goldrick (dealing with being a champ, round to oval ball transition, jet lag) – “slow approach”

Gall (ankle) – 1 week

D.Taylor (foot) – 4-5 weeks

Colvin (MCL) – mid-season

Beasley (ACL) – mid-season

Gillard (MCL) – TBA

Whoa. The injury list is lot worse than I realised.

That Grace Beasley knee seems like it's going to take more than 12 months.

I expect several debutants. Looking forward to seeing how they go.

I'm hoping we will see list sizes expanded soon. Only 30 players for a season isn't enough and needing top-up players in round 1 isn't a great look for the game. Guessing it's currently a financial decision by the aflw to keep it at 30?

3 hours ago, Random Task said:

I'm hoping we will see list sizes expanded soon. Only 30 players for a season isn't enough and needing top-up players in round 1 isn't a great look for the game. Guessing it's currently a financial decision by the aflw to keep it at 30?

I think one of the problems is that there is no secondary competition to keep players active if they are not playing (once the local leagues finish in September). With only 21 playing each week, there will be plenty of clubs with 5 or 6 players twiddling their thumbs on the sidelines.

That said, it is hugely disruptive to teams from the VFL and other state leagues if Melbourne start raiding them for players with finals starting in the next few weeks. I don't know what the solution is, other than playing AFLW from March - September like every other competition in the country.

starting the year with a long injury is far from ideal

hopefully most of the girls can be available for selection soon

Exciting to see O'Hehir, Mahony and Ebert debut. Annoyed I won't be there due to the ridiculous men/women overlap. Atrocious scheduling.

On 11/08/2025 at 16:27, Demonland said:

The 2025 season might well be petering out for our AFL Men but it all starts again for the AFLW competition.

We are enthusiastic about the forthcoming season for Mick Stinear's Demons, who are among the highly favoured contenders for this year's accolades, following a challenging fixture last year and a notable incidence of injuries.

Demonland is again fortunate to have Meggs writing for us on all things MFC AFLW. Meggs’ season preview will appear shortly on this thread to give exposure to the team on our home page and then will be moved to the AFLW Melbourne Demons Board.

We also hope to get enough support from Demonlanders to have a Player of the Year Award for our AFLW team.

Melbourne’s first game for 2025 is against the Western Bulldogs at Mission Whitten Oval Footscray on Saturday 16 August 2025 at 7.30.

Fair dinkum, for all manner of reasons I'm so over the AFL.

They are supposed to be the stewards of the game.

They are ruining the men's game, for example refusing to address the appalling standard od umpiring and the joke they call the fix ture.

And their management of the AFLW is even worse. It's a bloody joke.

I live in the West and was super keen to go to this game, one of the few ill be able to make, because it's at Whitten Oval. Twenty minute drive from my place, watch a great game of footy then back home in 20 minutes. Perfect.

But I'm not sure if it's feasible given the men start at 4:15 meaning it won't finish until 7pm.

I'll be on PT so no chance of getting to Whitten Oval from the G By 7:30, and even if I could it's a big ask to expect fans to go to both games - for me it would mean leaving home at 3pm and nor getting home till near midnight (Whitten Oval is in a tricky spot for me PR wise and buses are replacing trains on my line after dark).

It's just flat out pathetic. Do they wNtbthe AFLW to succeed or not?

From @binman's post, it's clear what most people will choose - as the people who are mainly men's fans wouldn't forgo the men's to support the women, even in the situation where the women's is much more convenient to home, and even in a situation where the men aren't in finals contention. That isn't a dig at you, binman, it's just illustrative of something the AFL STILL somehow fails to understand when scheduling the W Demons - that many won't go to Casey, so Away fixtures at other Melbourne venues should be scheduled with an eye to picking up that audience. Rather than the approach taken in this case, which I think is, "It's a Bulldogs home game, so the timing with the Dees men's game doesn't matter" as long as it doesn't overlap for TV. It just boils to the same old lack of foresight that has been consistent for 10 seasons now.

Hopefully when the men's is over, aside from Casey games, people will look to these more conveniently located matches:

Round 3 v Collingwood at Vic Park

Round 8 v Essendon at Ikon Park

Back to the positives: