The seventh season of the AFLW will begin with the traditional showdown between Carlton and Collingwood at Princes Park on the night of Thursday 25 August.
Key points:
- Essendon and Hawthorn will meet in the first round, but Port fans will have to wait until the second round to play at home.
- There will be a series of doubles matches between the men’s final and the “floating” AFLW matches
- The season continues in 10 days despite the presentation of four new teams, with four weeks to go
Last season, which took place in January, the AFL opted for an experimental approach to the AFLW opening, with St Kilda facing Richmond at Frankston Park, but the game only attracted a bit more of 3,300 spectators.
In August, the AFL will hope to return to the crowds of the inaugural years of the AFLW, where the first goal drew between 15,000 and 25,000 during seasons 1-4.
The first round will also feature a big clash between two of the competition’s four new clubs, Essendon and Hawthorn, which will take place on Saturday night at Port Melbourne.
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Sydney fans will be able to see their team in action for the first time at the North Sydney Oval, against St Kilda, on Saturday’s twilight strip.
Meanwhile, Adelaide and Melbourne will face off in a grand final match at Norwood Oval, with Daisy Pearce likely leading her team for a final season and leaning towards a dodgy first direction.
Port Adelaide fans, however, will have to wait until the second round for Power to enter the field in Alberton, with the first Port game to be played away from home against West Coast.
For now, the AFL rules out extending the season
Despite the introduction of four new clubs, there will only be 10 rounds of regular competition, which means not all clubs will be able to play each other.
Instead, the finals series has been extended to four weeks, to take place among the top eight teams.
Asked about the election, which was a point of contention in the final talks of the collective agreement, AFL chief Travis Auld said the league’s approach was to “develop real competitive competition, matched “.
“Right now, the focus, especially with the expansion of four new teams, is to put it on the ground,” Auld said.
“How long it is, I don’t know … what has worked for us, so far, with AFLW, is to take each step at once and then make decisions based on what we’re learning, so we’ll keep doing that.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm around the competition and our job is to make sure we moderate growth so that every step we take is solid … we just have to balance those two things.”
Daisy Pearce will return to action for the Demons for another tilt on a prime minister. (Getty Images: AFL Photos / Dylan Burns)
Double matches with men’s finals
In a change of direction for the AFLW, the doubles matches are in favor, with the start of the season in their new strip of the men’s competition pre-finals week.
This causes the first five rounds to take place during the men’s finals series, with the AFL noting that Saturday’s AFLW matches during September will have “floating” time slots so they can move to better align with the men’s finals. men’s final.
Four AFLW games will also be played on the holiday of the Victorian Grand Final on Friday 23 September, while Richmond and the Brisbane Lions will play at Punt Road on the day of the Grand Final at 11:10 am.
After the men’s finals, there will be two AFLW games played as a double header every Friday night.
Port Adelaide is one of four new clubs to enter the competition and has secured the signature of Erin Phillips (pictured). (ABC News: Brant Cumming)
The popular Indigenous round will be split again into two rounds (in rounds three and four), while the AFLW will premiere a “Dreamtime” game between Essendon and Richmond for the inaugural Fire Department season.
The Pride Round will also return in the eighth round, with a double header on Saturday at Princes Park, but this year the traditional clash between Carlton and the Western Bulldogs will not be played.
With the four remaining clubs joining the competition (Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney), there will be four state derbies held at the biggest stadiums: the SCG, Gabba, Perth Stadium and Adelaide Oval.
Once again, AFLW will be played at a variety of locations across the country, including the regional Victorian towns of Warrnambool, Ballarat and Mildura, as well as Mackay in Queensland.
The North Tasmanian Kangaroo Kangaroos will continue to play matches in Launceston (fourth round) and Hobart (first round), while the Gold Coast Suns will play a match in Broadbeach (at Kombumerri Park) in the fifth round.
Posted 3 hours, 4 July 2022 at 03:33, updated 3 hours, 3 hours ago, Monday, 4 July 2022 at 03:36