The crowd was very very poor. Extremely disappointing
The crowd was a bit disappointing given the Adelaide Oval capacity had been reduced to around 40,000 under the current COVID-19 restrictions in South Australia.
The 2021 W Awards were held tonight at five major cities across Australia.
Melbourne’s Tyla Hanks (who featured in the Bunnings ad shown during the AFLW grand final - Hanks is a Bunnings employee) was named the NAB Rising Star.
Adelaide’s Danielle Ponter won the Mark of the Year for her grab against Western Bulldogs in Round 8, while Brisbane’s Courtney Hodder won the Goal of the Year for her effort against Melbourne in Round 9.
The 2021 All-Australian team was also revealed. North Melbourne captain Emma Kearney and Melbourne midfielder Karen Paxman were named in the All-Australian squad for the fifth straight year - the only two players to accomplish the feat in league history.
And for the first time ever, the AFLW best and fairest has a joint winner: Collingwood captain Brianna Davey and Fremantle’s Kiara Bowers (who was named AFL Coaches Asssociation champion player of the year at the end of March).
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Yeah Bowers also should’ve been suspended for a sling tackle…
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Newly crowned AFLW Premiers Brisbane Lions were presented with Keys to the City during a ceremony at the city’s Queen Street Mall yesterday.
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The next AFLW season will begin in December this year to give the 10-round competition clear air and prevent an overlap with the AFL competition, with the Grand Final to be held in mid-March, 2022.
It means however the next AFLW season will clash with Seven’s coverage of the Ashes and the BBL (if it still has the rights with Cricket Australia).
Welcome to the world of multi-channels, online streaming and a Fox Sports AFL channel. It’ll cope.
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Extreme heat in December and January will become an issue with the early start to the AFLW season. We could see concurrent matches at night to ensure all 18 teams taking part in a weekend (Friday-Sunday).
The December start means multi-sport athletes may have to choose between AFLW and other sports (for example, Jess Duffin plays for North Melbourne in AFLW and for Melbourne Renegades in WBBL) because of the AFLW pre-season training period.
Can someone with an interest in AFL explain to me why the AFL doesn’t want the women’s and men’s seasons to overlap?
I think that’s part of the decision. Making it more like AFL.
I think that the AFL having AFLW run from December to March will cause viewer fatigue.
The great thing about footy is that because it’s only on for 6-7 months of the year, the build up to the new season is huge and makes it all the more special when a new season gets underway. It’s also nice to have a few months away from the footy to focus on summer sports such as cricket and tennis.
Now there’ll only be two months without footy (October and November).
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It’s called clear air. It’s why the WBBL starts and finishes before the BBL does.
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The NBL and WNBL have never had an issue playing games during the same season. And the women’s NRL starts before the NRL season is finished.
They can do double headers in those sports. AFL not so much, at least in their minds.
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From a media attention
There’s been some interesting reasons given to far but the number one reason is no they have enough players available without destroying the feeder leagues any more than they already have. By playing in the “off season”, it gives the local women’s leagues the access to AFLW players if they choose to play and clean air for coverage, sponsors, supporters etc.
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Tayla Harris is joining Melbourne in a mega trade involving five clubs, seven players and nearly a dozen draft picks.
St Kilda coach Peta Searle has stepped away from her coaching position.
Today is the deadline for the four remaining AFL clubs (Hawthorn, Essendon, Port Adelaide and Sydney) to submit their bids for an AFLW licence. All for clubs confirmed this afternoon they had sent the proposal to the AFL.
The league is expected to inform clubs of its decision around August 4-5 following a Commission meeting. If successful, the next AFLW teams are expected to join the competition in the 2022/23 season.
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There won’t be any new teams next season. They will join in 2023.