I am enjoying it. The skill range is so diverse. Felt like I could have had a run in the Geelong vs Collingwood game but the Doggies vs Adelaide is a cracker
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It still stinks
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So what you’re saying is that there are too many teams (and/or the team creation has been botched).
In fact, there are more teams than they have rounds, which is not exactly a signifier of a legit competition.
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I think I just miss watching footy. It is 10 years away from being legit
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The newest Collingwood netball convert agrees with you.
I find it incredibly frustrating to watch.
There’ll be a passage of play where a few of the ladies who can play link up well only for the ball to end up in the hands of some panic merchant who kicks it 15m directly to the opposition who then plays on and indiscriminately kicks it to a 4 on 1.
Its hard to tackle this argument, can argue for a systematic approach to womens football starting from juniors with proper coaching programs, leagues etc to have natural progression to a competent league.
or start it at the top by having heroes and idols for young girls to look up to and demand their local clubs have leagues and programs for them, so they can start playing.
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I think it is the second of Barnz’s scenarios all the way, without role models to look up to you won’t see girls choosing to play football. Some girls admired their male heros for years and played for as long as they could in junior leagues, but many more didn’t even realise it was an option for them. The AFLW is creating a pathway and will get better with time as more skilled players come through, but the league has to exist for this to happen.
The negativity towards AFLW misses the point, it’s not supposed to be equivalent to the mens AFL, it’s about equality and setting a pathway for women to play. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. There are a lot of people out there, especially kids, who do enjoy it. Not even just for girls to be inspired but also for boys to know that girls have equal opportunities.
When you look at how the Australian womens cricket and soccer teams are going, why wouldn’t you let womens AFL players have the same opportunity to develop their thing?
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On the two games tonight, there’s still a way to go, but you can see substantial improvement in the standard. The ball handling and game style of the Crows v Dogs game was easy on the eye, except for thefinishing skills. The Cats/Pies game was a bit more scrappy, but still some good play.
I enjoyed watching, though I would’ve liked more goals to reward the effort for the players.
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They need to shorten the length of the field for starts to get more goals. The fact that many want to watch 4 goal games is amazing.
I think smaller grounds would help a lot. In the mens game it’s 2 kicks from the middle to score a goal, or 4 kicks end to end. In the women’s it’s more like 3/6, so it takes a lot more clean possession to score. Add in the lower skill level and its a lot harder to score.
Edit: Crazy_Bomber types faster than me!
Completely agree with the shorter ground
In the men’s game, we have a problem with goal-kicking.
Maybe if we made the goal area wider, we could solve this problem.
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Joe would need a very wide goal.
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I think it’s great that we have tis league and really hope it kicks on, watching the game seriously reminds me of playing under 14s circa 1994
In all seriousness, the oval size is interesting, though. I wonder if the improved standards as the next generations of women players who have played footy all their lives, and have proper coaching, the oval size will not be an issue.
That said, the boundaries are brought in for women’s cricket, with good effect, though not for women’s soccer, rugby, hockey.
I’d like to hear what the players and coaches think about it.
Not sure anyone thinks a shorter ground and correspondingly fewer players would be a bad thing for the standard of play.
It’s just not very practical.
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I was impressed with how much they have improved their kicking distance.
Still the issue is tactics being so more superior than their ability. Especially their ability to take a pack mark.
It will be pretty good in a few years time.
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IMHO has to have some money at the end of the road, if they want girls to dedicate themselves to it properly.
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This is the key. The standard has to improve to a point where people will pay to watch it or sponsors/broadcasters will inject significant funds.
I would hope the AFLW can stand on its own 2 feet within 10 years and attract enough support that the women get a decent pay.
I’m fine if it takes a while.
AFLW is achieving something in its own marketplace which is worth doing, even if the dollars aren’t quite there yet.
And as for everything the AFL do needing to be profitable, there’s apparently money enough for first class junkets to the superbowl every year.
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