Not every AFLW team will play each other next season as the growing competition moves to a two-conference format.
With Geelong and North Melbourne entering the women’s league in 2019, the 10-team competition will be split into two groups of five to play across a seven-match regular season with a longer finals series.
The schedule appears to be a compromise after AFL boss Gillon McLachlan revealed a reduced six-match regular season with two rounds of finals was under consideration to satisfy broadcast obligations.
Melbourne captain Daisy Pearce said the competition risked becoming “gimmicky” if the length of the season didn’t allow for each team to play each other at least once.
That view was widely shared among other women’s players.
The new two-week finals system will feature each conference’s top two teams, with the winners meeting in the grand final in late March.
Head of women’s football Nicole Livingstone said the players’ plea for a finals series among other factors meant a nine-game regular season was not feasible.
“There is also a commercial and financial considerations. It’s very expensive to run AFLW,” she told SEN.
“It’s only season number three. We really need to be careful with the way that we do expand.”
Officials may need to explore potentially moving AFLW away from Australian sports’ “busy” February-March timeslot in future to reach full expansion, she added.
Under the dual conference arrangement yet to be formally ticked off, clubs will not be limited to playing within their predetermined conferences.
They will play four games within their group – the makeup of which is still unconfirmed – with the remaining three inter-conference clashes.
The elongated finals will mean the women’s league wraps up a week later, during round two of the AFL season.