By Libby Birch
If you have ever spoken to an AFLW player, they’ll always say, “It has gone so quick.” The 10-game home-and-away season starts and ends in a heartbeat.
For 10 teams, it’s time to face the music of the season’s end. Instead of building up for a finals campaign, players are sitting in exit interviews, with some reviewing a season that could have been. Four months of very structured weeks have ended, and now it’s back to living a normal life again – which at times can be very hard to adjust to.
Essendon’s AFLW season is over, and for the players of the 10 clubs who missed the finals, uncertainty lies ahead.Credit:AFL Photos
The uncertainty that AFLW players face makes this time of year harder than it needs to be. With the rushed connection between seasons six and seven, there was no time to formulate long-term strategies.
This has left us in a position we are all too familiar with. Our contracts wind up at the end of the year, but there have been no decisions on list numbers for 2023, and no dates have been set for delisting and resigning periods. The competition had a sign and trade period after season six but does that mean we have another one post season seven? If so, that will be two player movement periods in the same year – which is a lot. Seventy-six players moved between the 2022 seasons. If that’s the case again, that’s 76 players who have no idea which club they will be at next season.
The other question on everyone’s lips is when will the next season begin? As a competition and organisation, the AFLW needs to get better at this. The AFL can’t continue to ask players to change their lives around at the drop of a hat. This year we did that, but now it’s time to find consistency in our scheduling and overall year.
After the finals there will be a substantial off-season – the perfect time to get this all sorted. It still grinds my bones that the men’s competition dates are released firmly in advance and the women’s game is always just left to make it up on the run.
The position we are now in is the reality of completing a one-year collective bargaining agreement. It has left AFLW players waiting for the AFL Players Association and AFL to come to a new deal that hopefully sees AFLW and AFL men’s players on a joint deal for the first time in football history. The only news we have heard is the league is expected to hold a one-off national draft in the coming months as a stop-gap between the shortened seasons. But again, there is no date set.
It’s understood the next AFLW draft – expected to fall in February or March next year – will only consider players 19 years of age or older. This will hopefully ease the strain on new draftees coming into the elite league having to complete VCE exams at the same time as their first AFLW season.
All of the above is a lot to handle. However, for the teams who had successful home-and-away seasons, this harsh reality is a little further away. For them, excitement and anticipation is building, and the noise is getting louder –finals footy is well and truly here.
The first cab off the rank is the qualifying final between my Dees and the mighty Crows. We got the better of them in round one; however, this is likely to be another ruthless encounter. The Crows love speed on the ball with their surge kicks from stoppage, and we will expect nothing less on Friday night.
Melbourne’s Libby Birch and Adelaide’s Ailish Considine. Their teams kick off the 2022 AFLW finals series.Credit:AFL Photos
The next qualifying final will be fought out by the Brisbane Lions and Richmond. Richmond, the dark horse all year, sneaked into the top four late with a draw against North Melbourne. The Tigers are the only team that premiership favourites Brisbane lost to all season. They were able to get on top of the Lions’ run and carry, clogging up their forward 50 with some epic defence.
Geelong and North Melbourne face off Saturday night – the loser heads for exit interviews in this do-or-die clash. Geelong have a sturdy defence and this year have formulated some methodical scoring chains through their young, and flourishing, midfield. North Melbourne have been cursed by their own fixture and finished well below where they should be in the home-and-away season. If Geelong can take care of North Melbourne’s tall forward duo, this game will be a cracker.
