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!