In today’s AFL Briefing, your daily wrap of footy news:
- Girls and women to benefit but new broadcast deal won’t necessarily lead to full AFLW professionalism.
- Four Blues sign contract extensions.
Check back throughout the day for more updates.
Community football to benefit from broadcast deal, says McLachlan
Jon Pierik
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan says a record $4.5 billion broadcast rights deal will benefit girls and women’s football but stopped short of confirming the AFLW will be fully professional by the end of 2031.
A day after inking the richest sports rights deal in Australian history, the AFL continued to spruik the benefits of its latest contract with Seven West Media and Foxtel, kicking in from 2025 and extending for seven years.
While the deal has obvious major benefits for clubs and men’s AFL players, McLachlan said it would ensure the sport at grassroots level – which has been struggling in many areas financially and for overall help – would benefit.
The addition of many girls teams has been a boon for the sport, but it has put added cost pressures on community clubs, in particular the need for upgraded dressing rooms and overall facilities.
The league last week announced there would be an increased minimum level of annual funding of 10 per cent of the game’s assessable funding in community football, resulting in an immediate injection of $17 million next year. The broadcast deal will ensure that 10 per cent is greater than first expected.
“It means investment in facilities. We need 38 per cent of our facilities to accommodate girls and women. We need to build an oval a week for the next five years just to keep up,” McLachlan said on 3AW on Wednesday.
“The commission signed a decision last week that game development now, the community investment committee, whether it be facilities, programs, state league – 10 per cent of every dollar of AFL turnover is going to go back and that is enshrined. So that’s going to give people at the grassroots across the country, are going to see an uplift, not just with that ruling, but now with this extra money, it will have a second bump. So, it will play out across that.”
The AFL wants its AFLW players to be the best paid across all female sports, this season increasing pay across all tiers by 94 per cent, with total player payments and prizemoney leaping to $25.6 million from $10.4 million. The average AFLW season salary is now $46,280.
The AFL Players Association has a vision to have AFLW players full-time by 2026, but that may still not be possible under the next broadcast deal, with the AFL having several mouths to feed.
Asked about full-time AFLW professionalism, McLachlan replied: “Everyone will benefit now. That’s a journey and I’ve got views about this about making as many women as you can having careers and earning livings out of football but, I have said this to the playing group, it’s in a balanced way.
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan has signed the biggest broadcasting deal in Australian sporting history.Credit:Getty Images
“There’s obviously [being] paid really well and being the best paid female athletes in the country but I also hope they have careers in administration, coaching, in a broader, broader perspective of what that looks like. Obviously, I hope for the same for our men.”
The average men’s wage this season is $389,000, but will leap to $500,000 under the new contract.
“Well, they get 28 per cent of the share of the turnover under the current deal. The average salary at the moment is $380,000 or something, so the big increase will go through but the maths is there for people to do,” McLachlan said.
He added that “clearly, the players will get their share, clubs will get their share”.
In terms of accessibility to AFL games, McLachlan said the league was doing all it can to mitigate the cost-of-living pressures many are experiencing. He pointed to ticket prices for finals in Melbourne this year staying the same as 2019, bar the grand final, which is up 3 per cent.
“So I feel that we had, and I know people have got, affordability issues, and I know it’s difficult. But I feel we’ve been living that for, certainly the last decade, and we have been holding prices pretty consistently,” he said.
Under the new contract, Thursday night games will be televised on Seven and Seven Digital in the first 15 rounds of seasons. The absence of those games from Saturdays will allow Foxtel eight “super Saturdays”, when all games on those days will be exclusive to the pay-TV network without diluting the total number of free-to-air TV games in the season.
McLachlan reiterated that since the pandemic struck, research had found that supporters increasingly wanted Thursday night football.
″We get to Thursdays now, people are looking for a game of football and that’s that is certainly a change from where we were five or six years ago but things have changed out of COVID. Thursday night is a slot that our supporters want, the research says that, I know instinctively, and that’s what we’re going to deliver.”
McLachlan said Saturday had become the lowest audience of the weekend, with Thursday and Friday nights and Sundays enjoying greater viewership. The Sunday afternoon 3.20pm slot this season delivered several blockbusters, including Jamie Elliott’s post-siren goal to sink Essendon, and the round-23 epic between Collingwood and Carlton, with the Blues knocked out of the finals.
Four Blues sign new deals
Jon Pierik
Carlton have quickly turned their attention to 2023, re-signing four players they believe can finally help break a decade-long finals drought.
Small forward Matthew Owies and Matthew Cottrell have inked two-year deals, while Sam Durdin and Josh Honey have been given one-year contracts.
Owies played 17 games this season, Cottrell 18, Durdin one and Honey five.
Blues’ head of list management Nick Austin said all four players had a role to play next season, as the Blues seek to overcome the disappointment of missing September, having dropped their final four games this year.
“As our AFL playing list continues to develop, competition for spots is going to greatly increase. Matt Owies and Matthew Cottrell have been a core part of pushing their way into the side over the last 12 months which is a real credit to them, while Sam and Josh will work hard to do the same heading into next season,” Austin said.
The Blues have handed small forward Matthew Owies a two-year deal.Credit:AFL Photos
“Matt Owies’ commitment that he puts in behind the scenes is certainly translating into his strong on-field results while Matthew Cottrell has shown incredible drive since he was first signed in 2019, and this season we got to see him really settle into his role and find his place in the side.
“Sam’s chance came about due to multiple existing injuries in our backline at the time, but he took the opportunity with both hands and played a solid game until succumbing to his own untimely injury. He returned through the VFL, and we saw enough to know he can progress into a strong key defender.
“Josh stepped up when required at AFL level this year, and we’re excited to continue his development and look to integrate him into an already strong forward line.”
Wingman Lochie O’Brien and Jordan Boyd have also signed two-year contract extensions.
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