THE AFLW will revert back to teams playing one match per round in 2025, with each club set to play 12 games across 12 rounds after playing 11 in 10 during 2024.
The competition introduced mid-week footy this season in addition to weekend games, with the aim of increasing the number of games played without increasing the season length, but while more footy has been played, players and clubs have also voiced their concerns on the innovative fixturing strategy.
These concerns include being unable to train and implement game strategies with games sometimes just four days apart, as well as non-selected players being unable to push their case for selection with limited training opportunities.
“There were players that said they preferred playing instead of training, but overall, we heard the feedback as a collective and all things considered… we’ll look to make changes for next year,” AFL footy boss Laura Kane said at the AFLW Finals Launch on Wednesday.
Kane said the league was getting closer to providing clarity on the fixture for 2025, including whether mid-week footy would return and season start dates.
“We’re really close. We’ve taken all of the feedback and we’re in the process of rounding out our assessments of the home and away season that just finished, making sure that we’re able to give the industry certainty and all of our fans ahead of next year,” she said.
“Surprisingly, we did (have some positive feedback). We had a lot of feedback from a lot of people. We listened to it, and there are things that we will change next year as a result of the feedback.
“But we had some positivity, we had clubs who travelled over to Melbourne for two weeks to play three games, they told me if they’d won those games, they would like it and if they lost them, they might not, but they won.”
With 12 games in 12 weeks, it appears the condensed fixture will not return in 2025, but footy could still be played during the week with the women's season likely to overlap with the men's home and away season.
Last month, Kangaroos defender Emma Kearney said midweek footy “might have a little purpose” but was unsure if it provided fans and stakeholders the best version of the competition.
“I think we want to try to grow the game, and I think we want to try and get the best product out there. I’m not sure if the condensed fixture has been able to highlight the quality of the games,” she told AFL.com.au.
Kane and AFLW boss Emma Moore also confirmed the AFLW Grand Final will be held at night, but rejected suggestions it was an “experiment” for the men’s competition.
“This isn’t an experiment. This takes into account really clear growth, metrics and inputs. This decision was made by our commission, which we welcomed,” Kane said.
“The decision for the men’s will equally be made and continue to be made by the commission. But I think here we have an opportunity to do things differently. We don’t have the same history, we have a different proposition, different product and we think that we can do things to mix it up a little bit. But I don’t expect that question to slow down in particular.”
AFLW finals begin on Friday night at Ikon Park, with North Melbourne and Adelaide facing off.
