AFLW players fear over potential ‘gimmicky’ fixture
One of the AFLW's biggest stars has hit out at the possibility of fewer games for players due to a "gimmicky tournament" fixture next year.
The women's league will be expanded from eight to 10 teams next year and unless the season length is expanded, players will be guaranteed only six matches before the finals fortnight in an eight-week fixture.
External Link: Melbourne player Lily Mithen's Tweet
Melbourne captain Daisy Pearce told Melbourne sports radio station SEN the prospect was concerning players.
"It doesn't sit well with me, or a lot of the players," Pearce said.
"This is presented as the female, elite, professional offering by the AFL, and it has been lauded as that, when in reality this is a gimmicky tournament.
"Everyone within the sport: us players, coaches, we wear that expectation, that this is going to be a professional, elite competition.
External Link: GWS player Alicia Eva tweets
"I get that there's a commercial reality, that they want to keep this competition within the little free space, eight-week timeslot where there's no sport."
But she said she had hoped the addition of two new teams would mark an expansion in the league's season length.
AFL boss working towards 'the right outcome'
AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan told 3AW Radio he did not accept that a shorter fixture would turn the women's league into a gimmick.
"The World Cup goes for four weeks, I don't think anyone calls that Mickey Mouse," he said.
"I think it's balancing all of those issues up.
"In an ideal world Daisy is saying that everyone would play each other once, and I understand that, but I'm outlaying all the things that everyone is working through to try to get the right outcome."
An AFL spokesperson said no decision had been made about the length of the 2019 season, and the fixture would be released in late October.
The league's competition committee will meet next week where it is expected the issues around the fixture length will be discussed.
Player backlash grows
External Link: Geelong player Erin Hoare tweet
Fellow Melbourne player Meg Downie said the idea that the fixture would not be expanded was "detrimental" to the league.
"I think it limits the potential for the supporter base to grow," she said.
"Plus the players want nothing more than the same opportunity as the men.
"This is a step backward, not forward in achieving this."
Other players expressed concern over an eight-week fixture, including Erin Hoare, who will play for Geelong when the team joins the league for the first time next year.
"We cannot commit as athletes without expectation that the league's commtiment [sic] to growth is genuine," she wrote on Twitter.
"The draw of my day job has never been stronger."
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