Given the AFL are hell bent on sabotaging their own competition, it is hardly surprising that we remain at 12 rounds for 2026.

I've said it before, the competition should start on the Kings Birthday weekend, when there are numerous byes in the men's comp, and run for 17 rounds with finals commencing in the first week of October.

That leaves a GF in the last week of October when it has reasonably clear air before the Melbourne Cup and serious cricket.

It also allows for double headers with the men's comp between June and August, which seems a clear way of giving AFLW more exposure.

I am glad that that they have given the players more notice of the season dates this year.

afl.com.au/aflw

AFLW confirms number of rounds, start date for 2026 season

The 2026 AFLW season will begin in August again with finals to start in November

2 hours ago, poita said:

Given the AFL are hell bent on sabotaging their own competition, it is hardly surprising that we remain at 12 rounds for 2026.

I've said it before, the competition should start on the Kings Birthday weekend, when there are numerous byes in the men's comp, and run for 17 rounds with finals commencing in the first week of October.

That leaves a GF in the last week of October when it has reasonably clear air before the Melbourne Cup and serious cricket.

It also allows for double headers with the men's comp between June and August, which seems a clear way of giving AFLW more exposure.

I am glad that that they have given the players more notice of the season dates this year.

afl.com.au/aflw

AFLW confirms number of rounds, start date for 2026 season

The 2026 AFLW season will begin in August again with finals to start in November

Would also allow non selected and returning from injury players to get game time in the VFLW.

This is easily the earliest we've known when the season will be, ever. A step in the right direction. I'm calling that a win, despite the season length remaining the same.

The next thing is to release the fixture itself ASAP in 2026. Even locking in the first few rounds would be good for long-term marketing. And have the AFL men's grand final weekend as a floating round so that the corresponding teams to the ones competing can also play in Melbourne. Or just make it AFLW Gather Round in Melbourne (perhaps a stretch of resources?).

I do also hope that they try to equalise the fixture better. One suggestion I've heard is to take into account a team's performance over two or three seasons, rather than just the previous year's result. That would have gotten us a harder fixture this season, true, but I think we can all agree that would be fairer from a bigger picture perspective!

4 minutes ago, GM11 said:

Would also allow non selected and returning from injury players to get game time in the VFLW.

This would be so good for both competitions. It hasn't exactly been a problem for us this year, but a lot of other teams have 9 players trying to develop or find form in the cobbled together scratch matches, which is a tough ask.