New AFLW boss Emma Moore is adamant the competition can find the momentum needed to thrive and hit its own metrics for further season expansion.
The 2024 season starts during next week’s AFL pre-finals bye, kicking off with Sydney hosting Collingwood at North Sydney Oval on Friday night.
The 18-team competition, which is now 11 games plus finals, is due to expand to 12 regular-season rounds by 2025, and potentially 14 during the five-year deal signed last September.
But the latter expansion is dependent on achievement of key audience metrics (average attendance of 6000 fans, average broadcast viewers of 100,000).
There were 234,525 fans across 90 regular-season AFLW games last season (average: 2606) while the regular-season average viewership was 54,969, according to the AFL’s annual report.
“There’s great momentum. The fixture was released earlier this year than ever before,” Moore, who replaced Nicole Livingstone, said at Tuesday’s captain’s day.
“We’re really clear about where we’re going, what the metrics are.
“We’ve got a very integrated marketing and branding campaign going on. We’ve worked incredibly closely with all of the talent and all of the clubs to ensure that they’re talking to all of their fans as well
“So I’m very confident about the season that’s about to emerge.”
Change-ups in the fixture include midweek games between rounds four and seven.
“We need to actually make sure that we’ve tested the opportunities that are out there,” Moore said.
“School holidays, looking at a mix of fixturing across the week where we take into consideration viewership as well is really important and we’ll be certainly monitoring it.
“I’m a month in, so it’s really beholden on me to make sure that we understand the possible opportunities within the fixture to grow the game and hit those metrics.
“Because that’s what I’m here to do, is to deliver on those metrics.”
Collingwood captain Brianna Davey knows there is plenty of room to grow.
“For me, the biggest thing is exposure, and I think we’ve done that quite well,” Davey told AAP.
“We need to continue to push it though, and the more eyes we can get to our game, the more we’re going to be able to transfer over.
“The AFLW have a really great little community that consistently come to games, but it’s about reaching people that may not have ever watched a women’s game before, or haven’t watched much.
“If we can try and bring in some more consistent numbers, that would be awesome.”
Moore believed the gap between inaugural and expansion sides was closing.
The league will also be buoyed by an influx of young talent.
“Each year the competition gets better, the players get better, the young ones coming through get better, and the speed of the game as well,” Davey said.
The league is introducing smart ball technology called ‘score assist’ – which is similar to goal line technology in soccer.
Sensors inside the ball assist with tracking and motion, with football boss Laura Kane saying it made the Sherrin about “a teaspoon of sugar” heavier than a normal football.
If the ball crosses the goal line, hits the post or is touched in flight, score assist officials at the game receive a real-time alert indicating what has happened, and will communicate with the umpires.
