AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan has revealed the League's preference for the next AFLW season is for it to begin in the pre-finals bye weekend of the men's season.

In a wide-ranging interview with AFL.com.au's Damian Barrett, McLachlan also said a complete round of AFLW could be fixtured in Victoria on the public holiday Friday before the men's Grand Final

"(August start time) is our emerging preference, the Commission has signed off on that in theory, which gives us the licence to talk to players, clubs, broadcasters, and make sure we can deliver an upside and not a downside," McLachlan said.

ON THE MOVE? Earlier season start on AFLW's agenda

"There are probably eight or 10 benefits. The biggest of those is we think you get a huge kickstart coming out of men's, a clean-air bye weekend before the (men's) finals. So, they would start in that bye weekend, and you'd have a huge momentum coming into that, then we think we can play during the finals series and we could have double headers and work around our finals series. As the season rolls into the second half you get all that clean air, standalone, in great venues.

"(Men's) Grand Final day, and this is a bit tactical, we've got a public holiday the day before, maybe we schedule all AFLW games on the Friday, around Melbourne, so we think all those things are of benefit."

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