TOPIC:

I can’t stand by any longer and listen to the ongoing crap and the usual suspect on this site espousing arguments about the skill levels, standard of the contest and quality of the participants in AFLW any longer.

As far as I’m concerned the comments are just stupid and uninformed.

Comments like “let’s see what happens when they stop charging a $2 entrance fee” are ignorant to say the least and led by the old guards of the WAFL who think that if it wasn’t for the AFL we would still have a competition that attracted in excess of 10,000 people to each of the games. That is abject nonsense.

I loved West Perth and watching my club participate for twenty years but the carnival is over.

With a population of 22 million people, spectators ONLY want to watch the cream of talent on the field. The other competitions will only be side issues.

To say that the AFL support of the AFLW is a waste of money when it could be spent on grassroots State Competition footy is ignorant to say the least. If you want true grass roots footy then go back and support the local amateur team because 2nd level professional sport does not exist at ant sustainable level in any other country either. Name one bona fide 2nd level professional competition in the USA!

The 2nd level in the USA is Collegiate Football because each University has an ever expanding ALUMNI who have graduated from a school or university and therefore have a reason for their support. The same does not and never will apply to State Football League’s.

When if ever has any sensible person ever tried to “re-think” the supporter base of our WAFL teams…NEVER!

I watched two games of AFLW this week-end and whilst they weren’t extraordinary in terms of their skills I enjoyed it because I can see the level of improvement from a dedicated group of girls already from last year.

We are introducing tens of thousands of new participants into our great game all around the country and the game is growing in leaps and bounds.

How good is it that young girls obsessed with Facebook and other types of social media actually think there is more to life than just talking about themselves and trying to look pretty? It has to be one of the best initiatives in female society and community developments for years.

If women and girls now make up 30% of the footy playing community, how can you blokes seriously believe this is not good for Footy in general! As said by one other correspondent, not with-standing that only a fraction of those playing the game will ever don an AFLW jumper, then SO WHAT! The real point is that females are playing the game because they want to; spaces have finally opened up to exercise their agency.

Skills will improve, the game will lift, and new stars will emerge. And the numbers of girls and women playing the game at community levels will grow and keep growing!

Dempsey wrote: because 2nd level professional sport does not exist at ant sustainable level in any other country either. Name one bona fide 2nd level professional competition in the USA

Basketball-NBA G-League.
Baseball- Minor League Baseball Triple A etc

Soccer- there would be at least 100 countries around the world with divisions below their own Premier League.

Q-Yes we dont have a college system set up like the USA but where do you think the AFL get a lot of their players from?
A- WAFL, SANFL, VFL, NEAFL, TFL, NTFL etc all State Football Leagues!

Dempsey wrote: I can’t stand by any longer and listen to the ongoing crap and the usual suspect on this site espousing arguments about the skill levels, standard of the contest and quality of the participants in AFLW any longer.

As far as I’m concerned the comments are just stupid and uninformed.

Comments like “let’s see what happens when they stop charging a $2 entrance fee” are ignorant to say the least and led by the old guards of the WAFL who think that if it wasn’t for the AFL we would still have a competition that attracted in excess of 10,000 people to each of the games. That is abject nonsense.

I loved West Perth and watching my club participate for twenty years but the carnival is over.

With a population of 22 million people, spectators ONLY want to watch the cream of talent on the field. The other competitions will only be side issues.

To say that the AFL support of the AFLW is a waste of money when it could be spent on grassroots State Competition footy is ignorant to say the least. If you want true grass roots footy then go back and support the local amateur team because 2nd level professional sport does not exist at ant sustainable level in any other country either. Name one bona fide 2nd level professional competition in the USA!

The 2nd level in the USA is Collegiate Football because each University has an ever expanding ALUMNI who have graduated from a school or university and therefore have a reason for their support. The same does not and never will apply to State Football League’s.

When if ever has any sensible person ever tried to “re-think” the supporter base of our WAFL teams…NEVER!

I watched two games of AFLW this week-end and whilst they weren’t extraordinary in terms of their skills I enjoyed it because I can see the level of improvement from a dedicated group of girls already from last year.

We are introducing tens of thousands of new participants into our great game all around the country and the game is growing in leaps and bounds.

How good is it that young girls obsessed with Facebook and other types of social media actually think there is more to life than just talking about themselves and trying to look pretty? It has to be one of the best initiatives in female society and community developments for years.

If women and girls now make up 30% of the footy playing community, how can you blokes seriously believe this is not good for Footy in general! As said by one other correspondent, not with-standing that only a fraction of those playing the game will ever don an AFLW jumper, then SO WHAT! The real point is that females are playing the game because they want to; spaces have finally opened up to exercise their agency.

Skills will improve, the game will lift, and new stars will emerge. And the numbers of girls and women playing the game at community levels will grow and keep growing!

Quite a hissy fit there Dempsey...answer this for me...why do you think the AFL is pumping so much money into the AFLW? the goodness of their collective hearts? so they can empower women to achieve? for PC reasons because if its good enough for men then it should be likewise for women? the answer is none of the above. The AFL is a business and they believe that engaging women by creating a league just for them is going to make money. Whether it does or not time will tell but the fact only 3,000 attended Freo Oval with free entry suggests to me it'll have a limited life span. The AFL won't burn $ forever and the fact Hocking called AFLW coaches and sent them orders to score more in games and make it more free flowing after round 1 indicates they're starting to get anxious already.

Dempsey wrote: I can’t stand by any longer and listen to the ongoing crap and the usual suspect on this site espousing arguments about the skill levels, standard of the contest and quality of the participants in AFLW any longer.

As far as I’m concerned the comments are just stupid and uninformed.

Comments like “let’s see what happens when they stop charging a $2 entrance fee” are ignorant to say the least and led by the old guards of the WAFL who think that if it wasn’t for the AFL we would still have a competition that attracted in excess of 10,000 people to each of the games. That is abject nonsense.

I loved West Perth and watching my club participate for twenty years but the carnival is over.

With a population of 22 million people, spectators ONLY want to watch the cream of talent on the field. The other competitions will only be side issues.

To say that the AFL support of the AFLW is a waste of money when it could be spent on grassroots State Competition footy is ignorant to say the least. If you want true grass roots footy then go back and support the local amateur team because 2nd level professional sport does not exist at ant sustainable level in any other country either. Name one bona fide 2nd level professional competition in the USA!

The 2nd level in the USA is Collegiate Football because each University has an ever expanding ALUMNI who have graduated from a school or university and therefore have a reason for their support. The same does not and never will apply to State Football League’s.

When if ever has any sensible person ever tried to “re-think” the supporter base of our WAFL teams…NEVER!

I watched two games of AFLW this week-end and whilst they weren’t extraordinary in terms of their skills I enjoyed it because I can see the level of improvement from a dedicated group of girls already from last year.

We are introducing tens of thousands of new participants into our great game all around the country and the game is growing in leaps and bounds.

How good is it that young girls obsessed with Facebook and other types of social media actually think there is more to life than just talking about themselves and trying to look pretty? It has to be one of the best initiatives in female society and community developments for years.

If women and girls now make up 30% of the footy playing community, how can you blokes seriously believe this is not good for Footy in general! As said by one other correspondent, not with-standing that only a fraction of those playing the game will ever don an AFLW jumper, then SO WHAT! The real point is that females are playing the game because they want to; spaces have finally opened up to exercise their agency.

Skills will improve, the game will lift, and new stars will emerge. And the numbers of girls and women playing the game at community levels will grow and keep growing!

Cry me a river.
Dish up a crappy product, dont expect people to pay for it. Pretty simple business model.
Im sure plenty of people will happily support it so as to not be seen as sexist in the eyes of the PC brigade and media
Right up until they actually have spend money on it. Then the truth comes out.

Like it or not AFLW is here to STAY. Look beyond the current "crappy product" of the AFLW and try to think how the established competitions will benefit from rather than compete with the AFLW.
To keep the WAFL relevant it must evolve. I think that instead of fighting the AFLW we need to find a way to leverage the WAFL off it.
We all know the WAFL has really only 2 functions- the primary one is the development of football talent to supply the AFL (as the Boston Report put it - the consumer of football talent is the AFL) and the secondary function is to provide the next level competition for "second tier" players.

Factor...how long do you think the AFL will fund flying women's teams around the country when only 3,000 people attend and they're generating zero revenue? Sure there's a business plan where additional teams will be joining over the next few years but I predict it will be scaled down significantly once people see it for what it is and start voting with their feet not unlike the women's national soccer and basketball comps....they exist, but only just and with very little hype or exposure.

Well BC, I think that the "economics" of the AFLW do not depend on gate receipts. TV rights, social media content and advertising, point in time video (including free to air TV) views, advertising/sponsorship etc are far more important than the tiny amounts made on the gate.
Also the AFL must see the AFLW as enhancing the revenue achievable from the "real" AFL product (eg overcoming competition from Soccer's A League; BBL and any other "entertainment" available while AFL is in Off seasons and increasing audience and markets).
So, I don't think that the question you pose is the right one really.
The AFLW is not going to die off even if the "paying" crowd falls to WAFL levels (or below).
I maintain that the real questions are, how does the WAFL make itself relevant in that landscape and how can the WAFC leverage off the AFLW to maintain revenues that can be used in game development etc?

I hear what you're saying FO but to my mind if crowds are down, tv ratings aren't great and interest across the board is limited then surely advertising, sponsorship and revenue streams in general will all be affected. In response to your last question, I don't think the WAFL and AFLW sit comfortably together. You're not going to get more bums on seats by having the women's games immediately before the WAFL league matches as is planned at the moment for 2019 and conversely, I don't think current WAFL supporters will rock up to games early to watch the women.

I agree with your last point BC (especially if its WAWFL that is the pre-League game). That's why there needs to be some outside the square thinking on this.
I ask the question again, what can be done to leverage off the AFLW?
Let's get quickly past bagging the AFLW and look to the future. I don't think that living in the 70s is going to help the WAFL

I'm not sure anything can be done to leverage off the AFLW given their short season before the WAFL even starts. You could try moving the AFLW to coincide with the start of the WAFL and play games one after the either to try and get AFLW supporters at WAFL games but I'm not sure that would even work.