DESPITE a record one-third of clubs dipping into top-up players during the 2024 NAB AFLW season, squad sizes will remain at 30 for the 2025 season.
Clubs eliminated from finals have now moved into list management mode, with some delistings already confirmed at Gold Coast, Carlton, Greater Western Sydney, Geelong and Melbourne.
List managers have informally raised the idea of extending squads with the AFL, but the decision has been made to remain at 30.
A minimum of two selections will be made per team at the Telstra AFLW Draft this year, which will be held on December 16.
Clubs can access top-up players when they have fewer than 24 (a team of 21 and three emergencies) available, giving very little wriggle room if a couple are injured in a short space of time.
An injury-hit Collingwood leaned on top-ups most heavily, with Jordi Ivey playing six matches and named emergency for a seventh, while Sarah Ingram played two matches.
Melbourne also fielded Sarah D'Arcy twice, with Jo Lin and Sophie Casey named emergencies.
Geelong filled its entire emergency bay with top-ups for its final round of the season, the Giants needed one top-up emergency in week eight, St Kilda one in week seven, and West Coast had two in week five.
One issue with increasing list sizes is the need to also increase the soft cap to resource the additional players, whether that be in coaching, medical or welfare.
If a club is fully fit, larger lists means there's a higher number of players who are playing in club-organised scrimmages, rather than fall back into concurrently-run state leagues like the men.
While the soft cap is set to increase in the AFLW, the season will sit at 12 games for the first time, meaning a lot of the additional room will be swallowed by the longer season.
One school of thought is to have a supplemental list of 5-6 per side, with players signed to that list with the knowledge they are there on a pure developmental basis, with only an outside chance to be called upon to play, to help manage expectations.
Another issue list managers and footy departments will have to contend with is around the proposed earlier start date for the season.
Decisions will have to be made around the availability of players with long-term injuries, particularly those like Steph Wales who only tore her ACL in recent weeks, with clubs having the ability to pre-emptively rule them out for the entire season as inactive players and replace them in the squad of 30.
