Went last night. Took the wife who is not massively into footy, not like myself anyways.
Was a great game. Love the one on one match ups.
What was lacking was not once did they have any players names on the scoreboard. After a goal kicked, any stats. Nothing.
Would have been a good opportunity for those like me coming in totally fresh to AFLW. I spent plenty of time on the app trying to figure out who everyone was. Some in game info wouldn’t have gone astray.
I get it was a semi last minute venue change, but if the venue can do it, should have jumped on that in my view.
Overall though, great night. Was there for our first win and my wife is keen to go watch more which is another plus.
Anecdotal , but talking to people who know some of those AFLW draftees, they remarked how a few ( some with post year 12 qualifications) are able to keep their outside jobs full or part time If the jobs have flexible working hours that can be adjusted to AFLW times.
There was a reference to someone holding down a full time retail job with Athletes Foot, another to a qualified physio or masseuse working part time in hours not locked in for the AFLW job.
The $46k provides the base for a liveable wage which can be supplemented with outside work. Maybe more flexible than AFLM who get drafted without any previous qualifications or work other than as occasional casuals.
It is notable that in professional cycling, the number of women who have tertiary professional qualifications.
Don’t forget the women are currently playing a shortened season which will get longer as it evolves.
The men have a season that runs most of the year and train a lot more during the week so it makes it harder these days to have a decent job outside of football.
Minimum wage is about $90k base plus $5k per game so decent money for a kid if they play a few games. They do get free housing and some living expenses such as meals etc.
In time the AFLW season will expand and the wages will move with that
It’s another reason why it was a nasty move to run two seasons in a year without notice – lots had used up all their leave/favours for the year, and then had to explicitly make a choice (e.g. Chiocci as a teacher).
I thought the housing and living expense subsidy was limited to those needing to relocate (outside salary cap) , but this from a base of close to no knowledge or research…
Clubs trying to work out the budget line allocation for car hiring or leasing when a recruit needs a decent car to travel to and from AFL job and immediate bank balance won’t cut it for purchase or lease.
