Port Melbourne VFLW Head Coach has advised the Board of the Port Melbourne Football Club (PMFC) that he will not be putting his hand up for the head coach role for the 2025 season.
2024 Lambert-Pearce votes:
- Dom Carbone (Western Bulldogs) 17 votes
- El Chaston (Essendon) 14
- Tamara Luke (Box Hill Hawks) 14
- Ange Gogos (Darebin Falcons) 13
- Emily Eaves (Williamstown) 12
- Ava Seton (Port Melbourne) 12
- Alana Barba (North Melbourne) 11
- Monique DeMatteo (Darebin Falcons) 10
- Keeley Hardingham (Western Bulldogs) 10
- Eliza Straford (Williamstown) 10
- Ash Thorneycroft (Williamstown) 10
Willy steal Izzy Khoury from FCFC, after taking Thorneycroft this season.
Wasn’t this also announced a few weeks back?
Hopefully it means they try to have a social media or website presence: both the Saints and Sandy have done very very little in recent years.
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I thought it was, hopefully they are getting to their act together.
They’ve also signed Gabby De Angelis from Sandy.
Well… Norf might have competition next year!
VFLW will start in mid-April and run until August next year. Finals will overlap with the start of the AFLW season.
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The opening round of the 2025 rebel VFLW season will begin the weekend of April 19-20
Radio 3DJR not to miss any practice matches, phew. Now someone do a training report, and identify those who are present!
“The new rebel VFLW season dates will provide great benefits for clubs and players, with more opportunities now available for AFLW-listed players to compete in rebel VFLW matches as they prepare for the upcoming AFLW season.
“This will further elevate the standard of the rebel VFLW and help to continue the development of the women’s football talent pool.
Yuck.
(Apart from MORCS playing in her 10th season for Essendon.)
The competition will consist of a 16-round home-and-away season, where all teams will play 14 matches and have two byes.
Not mentioned: the junior league, and any correspondence or lack thereof. Schedule our byes well, please!
The 2025 rebel VFLW Grand Final is scheduled to be played the weekend of August 30-31.
Tassie getting some exhibition matches this year, including their women versus Port and Norf VFLW.
VFL(W) stats added to the AFL app.
The season team/player stats have NOT been added in the tab in the right, so if they abandon the VFL app it’s a step backwards.
In an exciting development, the best players from the rebel VFLW will represent the ‘Big V’ when they take on the SANFL Women’s State Team at Alberton Oval on Friday, April 11 from 6:30pm ACST.
…
No matches will be played across the Smithy’s VFL and rebel VFLW that weekend to ensure the best players from both competitions are available to represent the ‘Big V’.
LOL, I don’t think the author knows the VFLW doesn’t start till the week afterwards. Selection should be fun – I’m sure they’ll have scouts at all of the practice matches the weeks before to work out who is in form 
I know it was only a token amount previously, but geez.
Only Little Essendon and Essendon are named, but it seems many/most other clubs were already doing similarly.
Port Melbourne VFLW players have been left “frustrated” and “disappointed” after their payments were cut by the club for the 2025 season, including contracted players.
On Monday night, players were brought into a meeting with the club CEO and two board members, who told the group they won’t be getting paid this year after the decision was made to cut the budget for the women’s program.
Players said it’s a reflection of de-prioritisation of women’s football across the VFL landscape.
This week, Essendon VFLW players were also informed by their club they would no longer be receiving match payments for this season, previously a standard $70, according to a club source.
The justification given to Port Melbourne players was two-fold: the women’s team didn’t have a major sponsor for this year, and the money for the program would be better spent creating a professional environment.
Previously the club has used almost all of the salary cap during the year on player payments, including base and match payments, which could range from $25 to $100 a game, a player told ABC Sport.
VFLW standalone clubs have a salary cap of $40,000, which is $30,000 for AFLW-aligned clubs.
Each player is also required to get at least one player sponsor, with that money going directly to the women’s program.
Players told ABC Sport they were told any major sponsor brought on would have to be a club sponsor, rather than exclusive to the women’s program, while the men had their own sponsor following an already-agreed-upon deal.
While one player told ABC the payments weren’t obviously anyone’s main form of income, the pay helped with tax purposes, including claiming boots and travel to and from training.
'Feeling a bit undervalued’
“[We’re] pretty flat, a bit angry and frustrated. A lot of it also came with the fact that, we went in thinking that if we were going to get our whole pay cut, the men would get a bit of a cut, but they said that they weren’t touching the men’s pay… [So, ] just feeling a bit undervalued,” one player* told ABC Sport.
The men’s side recently signed former Essendon captain Dyson Heppell on a two-year contract for the 2025 and 2026 seasons in a dual role as player and community ambassador, former Western Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney as senior coach, and Essendon great James Hird in a director of coaching role.
Furthermore, the Herald Sun reported Channel 7 is set to broadcast VFL games on Saturday night, moving from Sunday afternoon to the prime-time slot of 7pm on 7mate, with Port Melbourne’s North Port Oval the potential singular venue used after the ground had its lights upgraded to broadcast quality three years ago.
“It’s hard when that feels like a juxtaposition with what we’re being provided, and then what’s being said,” the player said, who felt the club overall was very supportive of the women’s program but some board decisions didn’t align with this.
“I guess these kind of situations do remind you that it is a business at the end of the day, and that if the men are the main money makers, then they’re the ones who are prioritised,” she said.
The player added that it was especially “a really hard pill to swallow” and disappointing given the success of the program. The women won the premiership in 2023, whereas Essendon won the previous year.
“It’s really difficult when there are clubs that are supported holistically by AFLW programs. Like Essendon have brilliant grounds and gyms and I do feel that standalone clubs like Willie (Williamstown) and Port and Darebin do find it really difficult — even in the men’s — with a lack of resources. And then obviously, when you switch to women’s landscape, that’s even more difficult,” she said.
Another player* said while the group would be OK with not being paid if it meant money was being poured into resources, they were yet to see progress in this area. She cited having just one physio overseeing all 45 players and having to train at Lagoon Reserve this week, which is a dog park.
“If they could show that they were putting our pay into our program and our resources, I think we would be more okay with it. But yeah, that’s also frustrating. We’re not even seeing any improvements in the program. In fact, it’s gone down from last year, the quality of it,” the player said.
Deserve to be financially rewarded
The player added they loved the club and playing at Port Melbourne but it was "sad to see what was happening across VFLW”.
She said not many clubs pay match payments anymore, as intention of financial compensation has declined across the landscape. This, she said, didn’t reflect the demands of being a VFL player, including time and energy given to clubs.
Hawthorn were the first club to pay VFLW players in the statewide competition, back in 2018, when the club was pushing for an AFLW license.
At the time, then-Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett said at the women’s launch that the players “won’t become millionaires overnight” but that they deserved to be financially rewarded for the time and effort they gave to the club.
“I hope that other clubs will follow so that your competitors and their efforts will also be recognised,” Kennett said.
In 2023, a year after Hawthorn entered the AFLW competition, the club transitioned its VFLW license to the Box Hill Hawks, following the same set-up as the men’s.
In 2021, Port Melbourne became an affiliate team of Richmond after the Tigers cut their VFL women’s program in a move to prioritise the AFLW team in the wake of the COVID-19 soft cap cuts.
That arrangement won’t be renewed for the 2025 season.
Essendon and Port Melbourne were contacted for comment.
*Both players quoted in the story chose to remain anonymous to avoid any potential issues with the club and league.
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That is ■■■■ poor. Pay the players!
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I guess this explains the absence of any increase to the salary cap since at least 2020…
Richmond have just announced they are further re-treating from the VFLW by ending their relationship with Port Melbourne. They haven’t elaborated on what that means – e.g. will none of their AFLW players play in the VFLW, will they be scattered randomly across the league, etc.
“Because of the start date of the 2025 AFLW season being brought forward and the increasing demands of pre-season and the AFLW competition, we will not be having an alignment with Port Melbourne this year.”
Sheahan said the Club was working through its future second tier options.
VFL app just got an update, so not abandoned yet. I thought it might be to add the 2025 fixtures, but alas no.