Women's game to be staged during men's Gather Round?

[Teen Wolf]

This comes after news earlier this year which suggested the AFL considered some sort of women's match to coincide with the 2024 Gather Round, but decided it was too hard or whatever.



Some thoughts:

The best chance of maximising interest and spectacle for a one-off women's match, while sticking with the theme of Gather Round, would just be having the home state play Victoria. And play it in a standalone timeslot on Wednesday night to launch the "Festival of Football". SA in SA imo would have a much better chance of being competitive than an All-Stars team playing Vic in Vic.

International rules is at odds with the marketing of Gather Round which impresses a celebration of Aussie rules and South Australia.

An AFLW game between the best Australian and Irish players wouldn't be competitive.

An AFLW game between the best Indigenous and Irish players would be competitive. However, there's still the question of Irish player availability and what sort of support staff they'd have access to. Plus it doesn't scream big viewership. But still possibly worth doing as a companion to SA v VIC.

Don't instantly undermine the match by putting it on 7mate at 11am, as seen with the now discarded attempts made on men's grand final day.

 

[Cdog71]

Suppose I can understand building awareness of the league in Ireland for future prospects , talent recruitment and perhaps growing the fan base.
They had more than 1/2 a mill watch the womens Gaelic final last season.

It’s good to have initiatives, they’ve doubled the marketing (?)budget apparently, whatever that means and to list and lock in a highlight of womens footy is a good start.
The fixture takes too long to come out for families to plan, having the location of a GF up in the air a week out from it like they have in the past doing better in that regard and also piss off the 5pm and 11am games it’s just more roadblocks for fans.
Great that they have big events to build to and advertise around and talk about the sport in the off season but they really need to start building for the season and the games here and make it more locked into the landscape of sport for people to look forward to.
The AFL needs to start building the hype now I reckon.

 

[Cdog71]

The best chance of maximising interest and spectacle for a one-off women's match, while sticking with the theme of Gather Round, would just be having the home state play Victoria. A

100%

And at least you’d know they’d be prepared to present the game to the audience as a decent product.
Not like ESS vs Port last year


That is so far below standard it’s disgraceful.

 

[Perrip]

It'd be interesting to see what the AFLW All Stars vs AFLW Irish teams would hypothetically look like, if that's the route they go.

 

[ibd77]

AFLW state of origin or all star match?

 

[Teen Wolf]

It'd be interesting to see what the AFLW All Stars vs AFLW Irish teams would hypothetically look like, if that's the route they go.

I don't see how that would be interesting in the slightest. The Irish team practically picks itself, and an All-Australian team is already announced every 12 months.

 

[keepswimming]

Irish team would get annihilated I think.
Needs to be something like AA team v all star team. Or Vic v all stars. One thing is, I'm glad there is a discussion at least and some ideas being thrown around.
Can only help the progress of the AFLW

 

[Teen Wolf]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/momentum-builds-for-gather-round-aflw-representative-game/news-story/66c02126dbe51f8ae5a8e7030f1606e3

The AFL would need to overcome a major roadblock to stage a women’s International Rules game during next year’s Gather Round but a different representative game could be held instead.

This year Gather Round was held on the same weekend as the GAA’s women’s national football league final, and the majority of the Irish contingent have tended to remain home until the start of the AFLW pre-season, which began on June 3 ahead of this season.

A state of origin game or a clash between Victoria and an Allies or “Dream Team” side have also been floated as possible ways to showcase women’s football during the Adelaide festival next year.

So the reporting has already changed from "International Rules" to "...or State of Origin", which was likely to happen once somebody at the AFL stopped to think about the logistics.

Other than that, article says nothing new.

 

[Teen Wolf]

If the AFL is super keen on an Irish showcase game (whether it be IR or Aussie rules) and are able to get enough players together, let it instead be played around St. Patrick's Day, which obviously just works better thematically, and would give the AFLW players some exposure around the very start of the men's season.

Pick the Australian team for that based on the best players who won't get to be involved in my proposed SoO Gather Round match between SA and Victoria (which would be between WA and Vic when GR rotates to Perth etc, to be clear).

 

[Teen Wolf]

Can't tell me Erin Phillips wouldn't be mightily tempted to make a temporary return to the field for a SA v Vic game next year, especially after watching old buddy Lauren Jackson this week. Is that reason enough to go ahead with such a concept? I say yes.

Plus, she's already been senselessly deprived (by Port) of the opportunity to wear the prison bars, so at least give her the chance to run out onto Adelaide Oval in the state jumper!

 

[Teen Wolf]

Wasn't expecting an announcement or any concrete details today. But it seems there are no whispers floating around, no questions being posed, and no thought being given to the women again. Feel free to alert me of evidence to the contrary, if you can.

I suppose what we can "gather" from today's fixture release is that, if there is some sort of AFLW rep game to be integrated into "the biggest footy festival in the country", it'll either be on Wednesday night or a Thursday/Friday twilight game.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Probably had bigger things on their mind, but this fantasy of mine remains unfulfilled...

Garner and Marinoff--upon being called to the podium to accept their All-Australian captaincy and vice-captaincy positions at the W Awards--rally for a rep game between their respective states, as well as one between Australia and Ireland (noting 3 Irish made the AA team this year).

There is no good reason for these games to not already be locked into the calendar:

2025 AFL Women's Representative Series

Monday, 17 March (St. Patrick's Day)
International Rules: Australia vs Ireland
Mission Whitten Oval

Wednesday, 9 April (AFL Gather Round)
State of Origin: South Australia vs Victoria
Norwood Oval

Saturday, 23 May (Sir Doug Nicholls Round)
Indigenous All-Stars vs Team World
Optus Stadium

 

[Teen Wolf]

TANTALISING ALLIANCES & MATCHUPS

No hard and fast rules for eligibility here (Girvan is originally WA but I think first played footy in SA, whereas Shierlaw is orignally SA but took up the game in London of all places), I just didn't want it to be all Crows and Port jumpers.



As mentioned previously, I would do both IR and SoO games but feature different players. No double ups in a given year. For instance, next year I'd save Conti and Riddell for Australia rather than have them play for Victoria. But then swap the year after.

Also, these selections are based on who will likely be available (no Molloy due to injury, thus instead picked Privitelli).

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Irish team would get annihilated I think.
Needs to be something like AA team v all star team. Or Vic v all stars. One thing is, I'm glad there is a discussion at least and some ideas being thrown around.
Can only help the progress of the AFLW

If they're playing international rules, the Irish would dominate.
1. Half the team would be made up of AFLW players (so they're accustomed to tackling etc)
2. Their entire team would've grown up with the round ball (which is slightly smaller than a soccer ball)

 

[Teen Wolf]

INTERNATIONAL RULES BUT WE ACTUALLY KNOW THE PLAYERS ON BOTH TEAMS

And, unlike in the 2006 women's series, there will be tackling. But I've still prioritised speed and long legs throughout much of the lineup.



vs



Then for Team World in a Sherrin-based AFLW game vs the Indigenous All-Stars, include a certain number of Irish players based on who is available and what will make for a competitive matchup.

 

[Teen Wolf]

The change in narrative around Irish players is interesting. 5 years ago Marinoff, having typically arrived second to the ball, goes and breaks Brid Stack's neck in a practice match. SA mafia back then was like "shame on GWS for putting an inexperienced foreigner out there!", and now the Crows can't get enough of them.

And they aren't the only ones, as I've heard several paid commentators lazily theorise an Irish team could match it with a full-strength Aus team in an AFLW game.

As previously alluded, I'm quite confident an Irish team would be beaten convincingly by an Indigenous All-Stars team. Yeah the Irish would have a lot of speed, but they'd never get hands on the footy when facing Prespakis x2, Anderson and Mia King at the source.

Or, maybe they would, but why not see if they are up to that challenge first.

 

[Teen Wolf]

The reason South Australians aren't pushing for a women's SA v VIC match to kick off their precious Festival of Footy is they are afraid of having their heads bashed in by Rowbottom, Garner and co.

Erin Phillips works in Football Operations for the AFL and was reportedly (6 months ago) driving a rep game... but there hasn't been a peep about it since.

Indigenous All-Stars team

And, to be clear, also not a word from the AFL about organising a women's version of this... but it's full steam ahead for the men.

 

[CURVE]

TANTALISING ALLIANCES & MATCHUPS

No hard and fast rules for eligibility here (Girvan is originally WA but I think first played footy in SA, whereas Shierlaw is orignally SA but took up the game in London of all places), I just didn't want it to be all Crows and Port jumpers.

View attachment 2186176

As mentioned previously, I would do both IR and SoO games but feature different players. No double ups in a given year. For instance, next year I'd save Conti and Riddell for Australia rather than have them play for Victoria. But then swap the year after.

Also, these selections are based on who will likely be available (no Molloy due to injury, thus instead picked Privitelli).

View attachment 2186181

Is it six or seven on the bench?

 

[Teen Wolf]

Is it six or seven on the bench?

It's 6 due to graphic design considerations, for both the SoO and IR lineups, though precedence would dictate 5 and 7.

In reality it may even be 7 on the bench and only 13 or 14 on the field for IR, given the AFL's propensity to have less players for women's games.

 

[CURVE]

It's 6 due to graphic design considerations, for both the SoO and IR lineups, though precedence would dictate 5 and 7.

In reality it may even be 7 on the bench and only 13 or 14 on the field for IR, given the AFL's propensity to have less players for women's games.

The reason I ask is under the state you list the coach and captain, but the captain doesn't appear in the team list. It was a little confusing.

Personally, I'd like to see a North Melbourne v All Australian game. Of course, the three North players who made the AA team will need to be replaced with players who made the squad.

 

[Teen Wolf]

The reason I ask is under the state you list the coach and captain, but the captain doesn't appear in the team list. It was a little confusing.

Yeah I agree it seems weird to give captaincy credit to somebody who isn't playing in the games.