The AFLW endures despite the same old critics and criticisms

Is the AFLW doomed? Can it expand any further? Is it an affront to football as facebook and other social media suggests. Am I the one with rose tinted goggles? Ive decided to dig into the stats, rather than rely on the eye test or feelings.

First on skill, yes Ive seen the missed kicks and droped balls and off target shots at goals…and you know what? Im a Carlton supporter, you havent seen anything, we havent won a flag since 1995.. Is it a problem? Its perception, but its a perception thats made all the worse by people who want or expect it to fail.

I played footy – and i started badly, was played out of a back pocket for a year because the coach felt bad for me and i could still feel involved. But i wasnt having to worry about whther my kicking style would be unfeminine or whther my uniform would fit properly, and i was having more contact hours a week at my club in the under 14s than these women were getting in the first 5 years of the AFLW. At 14 I also didnt have to worry about working another job. And I didnt have to worry about social media. (again, old)

The league was created out of nowhere with none of the mens supporting structures. No private school networks, no under 16s and under 18s competitions that come with special coaching opportunities and mentoring. All of the things talented guys would have available to them from a young age – none of that was ready to go. Now we are starting to see the folks coming through those newly established competitions, and we are already seeing improvement.

Its all about patience. And maybe a little support isnt out of the question.

Attendance

AFLW total attendances have never been higher, and 2024 had the highest average attendance since COVID. Number of matches has risen from 29 to 108 in that time. This has changed it from less of a novelty carnival to a more dedicated fan base.

While the average crowd may not have stayed high, the fact is that compared to other womens sports in the country, AFLW holds up well at the domestic level. @HPNFooty goes into this in more detail.

People are critical of AFLW crowd levels but they're probably not making fair comparisons, and that 6000 target for season extension is probably pretty unfair.

Most Australian womens sport gets a fairly similar range of attendance, in the 1-4 thousand range. pic.twitter.com/3js4uRKpA5
— HPN (@HPNfooty) May 22, 2025

There are a number of issues that presently affect attendances from growing. While I dont think playing at the likes of Marvel and the MCG is key, I do think playing at the right time and returning to family friendly approaches like that the league had in season 1 and 2 should be considered. Not clashing with the mens team would also help. But no one should ever be in Frankston on a Tuesday night at 5pm – even if they have to live there! (and oh I have)

However fixturing is also timeslot for tv related and you cant play everything in the mid afternoon on Saturday like its the 80s (sadly)

Television

The AFL reported that in 2024 Fans have continued to embrace the AFLW with viewership average per match up an estimated 9.8 per cent on 2023 and digital growth on AFLW up 20% year-on-year.

2024 was a bumper year for the Foxtel Group and AFLW. In total, 179 million minutes were streamed, while linear audiences on Foxtel saw a 12 per cent growth. Collectively, audiences across Foxtel Group increased by 29 per cent year-on-year, making 2024 the best-performing season since 2018. The Grand final was the best ever on the platform, jumping 31%. The 2024 season also featured five of the top 10 all-time streamed AFLW games across Foxtel Group.

Last years AFLW Grand Final was the highest rating yet with almost half a million viewers.

Prior to this the Total TV data for combined Fox and Seven viewing is a little more…murky with upward progression through to the end of 2022, before dropping off in 2023, rising again in 2024.

Participation

Unfortunately the Ausplay data isnt supposed to be backwards compatible – they changed methodology in the 2024 survey, but AFLW female participation charts something like this (theres a gap because this is all one one giant table lol) Now if you take the numbers at face value, female participation is up 46%, Adult over 15 up 74%, children up 11%.

Financial

The Age recently noted recerly that the AFLW was costing 100m a year and returing only 50. However the data suggests that the 100m figure has only almost been reached once, and the 50m a year loss, was also likely to have only been last year.

Its also one of the things most fans couldnt care less about.

Unfortunately we have limited data on this – the league didnt give figures for distributions prior to 2022.

Effectively AFLW funding accounts for 8% of AFL Revenue – thats competition expenses and club distributions included – in any of the last three years. The Average AFL club will have recieved about 1.9m for AFLW from the league in 2024. Stay with me here, because I dont think we’ve reached a crisis point.

AFLW is designed with the future and development in mind, a top down approach to the game that will hopefully reap dividends. In the same vein the AFL has spent nearly as much on the Suns, Giants and Lions in the same period.

Conclusion

Folks get all uptight about the figures, but thats because there are actually figures to get uptight about. WBBL rarely posts crowd data, and nothing at all about the costs of its WBBL teams or leagues. Netball doesnt post much of anything unless theres a crowd sellout or eventually when their annual report comes out. The NRL hasnt really posted specifics on NRLW costs, and rarely mentions the attendance unless its a full house – although it does post them, but is more than happy to go on about television ratings when it suits – except Origin because christ knows they LOVE Origin. The W-league at least provides attendances. Christ knows if SuperW even exists. So we have the AFL and AFLW just out here exposed for the malcontents and unbelievers to unleash their mostly anonymous internet hate on.

I just cant see it all as bad. Theres an investment price that has to be paid after years of neglecting this part of the market for so long. Its not a 7 or 8 year project that is going to spring into life, and I think everyone at the AFL at the time knew this. This was a body that propped up the Swans for decades, and then the Lions because they think long term on these things. Its not a 10 year project, its generational. And if that sounds like a buzzword, it usually is, except the AFL has a track record with things like this.

If they lose 50m on AFLW, then it serves the same design as funding for the Lions and Suns and Giants – its about development and the future, and theres a hell of a lot of people that arent involved in the sport in their markets – the same is true of the women.

In Southeast Queensland alone, female community football participation has surged by 133% since 2019, while girls’ NAB AFL Auskick participation has increased by 96%.

However while losing 50m may be acceptable, expanding at a cost of 200m would be shocking financial mismanagment. Economies and compromises will need to be made. We might not be able to have everything in the short term, but it doesnt mean we wont ever.

Id like to see the mens and womens season run concurrently, and Id like to see the teams travel together, and play on the same day at the same venue. That has to save on venue and staffing costs, and help with club bonding. Maybe the AFL borrows from the Vlandys school of thought and buys a plane – or at the very least charters them as they have for certain matches and teams over the years. Its a billion dollar entity, they can figure it out Im sure. If you were really bold you could take your reserves team in a presumed national reserves comp and make a full day out of it like its the 80s….again.

The AFL needs to sort out womens fixturing, and Im not sure how they will manage that because even the Mens fixturing sucks, but at the same time the women need to reconsider the “we dont want to be curtainraisers” attitude they adopted when they first came into the league, because thats left the league with sending teams out to grounds that even the mighty Kananook U14s would have looked at and passed in the 90s (Im old).

They need to have a fixed standard of venue that has decent facilities for the women. Theres no point sending them to fields that arent fit to host a VFL side – and almost all club training facilities are better than some of the fields these girls are going to at times. Let alone the early starts, the hot weather and whatever else.

People go on and on about the skill being a turn off and if thats the case then its probably not for you. It is however for plenty of bright eyed younglings that will see them and pick up the torch. – and we are now starting to see the products of full on development programs coming through from the under 16s – something the girls never had before, nor did they have the private school footy programs in their teens, or access to elite coaching. The wheel turns slowly but it is turing.

Did the AFL set too high and expectation from day 1 – probably. Like me, they expected that by welding the AFLW clubs to the AFL clubs theyd be able to enjoy greater support out the gate – that doesnt appear to have happened. So now its a slower process than they might have envisaged.

Finally, I see people online saying the NRL got it right and the AFL got it wrong. Its way too early to tell. The AFLW has all its teams involved and is out mostly from under the mens league in its season, the NRL is expanding much slower, althought it expects all teams represented by 2027, but its season is heavily piggy backed to the mens. Their shining light is womens origin and I will never understand why the AFL took that away from AFLW. That said, I dont think either body is going about it wrong, theres still a lot of play in this pitch.

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