Carlton Supporters Club

Your comments highlight the fundamental problem with AFLW, there is such a strong desire to try and play the same game style as the men that is detracting from the spectacle.

I remain convinced, the first AFLW team that lets' go of the "Play like the Boys" mindset, will have it's Barassi / Hopkins moment and change AFLW forever.

If it stays anchored and focussed on the power and strength aspects of footy, it will forever be the poorer cousin of the AFL.

Your comments highlight the fundamental problem with AFLW, there is such a strong desire to try and play the same game style as the men that is detracting from the spectacle.

I remain convinced, the first AFLW team that lets' go of the "Play like the Boys" mindset, will have it's Barassi / Hopkins moment and change AFLW forever.

If it stays anchored and focussed on the power and strength aspects of footy, it will forever be the poorer cousin of the AFL.

I stand by my assertion, the AFL style bumps, the tackles, the stuff the players want to be the same as the men's game disproportionately kills momentum in AFLW. There is no point denying it, it descends into an under age like scrum all too easily, and that negatively impacts the scoring.

There is absolutely no point commentators calling a scoring fest of 3 or 4 goals, it's a lie the media perpetrate and everybody knows it, it's now becoming a parody!

The girls no matter how great the physical differences on field, more often than not are completely unable to shrug or stand in tackles and dispose. Sure, you get examples / incidents that contradict this, but they are exceptions.

Without momentum, the bulk of AFLW players can barely handball 5m, outside of throws stopping the players momentum locks the footy into a 5m radius, and from there the game descends into chaos all too often. As much as it might be fun to play, the spectacle then becomes ordinary as Mrs DJC seems to point out.

I am and always will be an AFLW booster, but if we ignore the perceptions of casual fans we doom the sport, because it's living a lie.

If you want an advertisement as to why the AFL pays big dollars for international artists to perform at the mens GF, you only had to watch the AFLW GF pre-game. They had some artist call GFlip who is apparently Australian and an international star. I have no idea who she is, all I heard was some woman yelling for 15 mins or so! It was embarrassing.

After a slow start, the game was quite entertaining.

So often during the game, the term 'brutal' was continually used and was backed up by the actions of many players on the ground and well done to them. Their attack on the ball and player was exceptional. .

It made for a good spectacle............but do mothers walk away from watching that saying 'THAT'S the sport I want my daughter to play!!"

 I would argue that the skill, fitness and professionalism of the Matildas would be far more attractive to parents than the self confessed 'brutality' of AFLW at the highest level.

If you want an advertisement as to why the AFL pays big dollars for international artists to perform at the mens GF, you only had to watch the AFLW GF pre-game. They had some artist call GFlip who is apparently Australian and an international star. I have no idea who she is, all I heard was some woman yelling for 15 mins or so! It was embarrassing.

After a slow start, the game was quite entertaining.

Mate, that probably says more about you.
I’d say the AFLW actually targeted and got a direct hit with Gflip.
As opposed to the afl literally rolling out a procession of wheelchairs with geriatrics who have been unheard of for 40 years, but that says a lot about me…

Exactly.

The reason i remembered gflip did the mens/AFL grand final is because a friends daughter had no interest in watching the actual footy, but demanded to be told when it was time for the half-time show just for her 5 minutes of fame.

Which is exactly what the AFL wanted. To target a different audience. It worked.