The AFLW competition is on the precipice of crisis, with players and staff beyond frustrated about both the short turnaround to the next season and the complete lack of clarity on when it will start.
The league reportedly wants to start the competition in August, despite the previous season only finishing in April.
In that short off-season, AFLW CEO Nicole Livingstone and her team must organise a new collective bargaining agreement with the AFLPA, work out the introduction of four expansion teams – which includes the most intense trade period in the league’s short history – and organise a fixture.
Not to mention the physical and mental toll on the players the short turnaround has caused, coming off a heavily COVID interrupted season.
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Please @aflwomens give us the pre season start dates so we can plan our lives🙏🙏🙏
— Sarah Rowe (@SarsRowe) April 25, 2022
With all that in mind, learning that Livingstone will be spending her evenings commentating on the Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide in May will not sit well within the AFLW community.
The Herald Sun reports that the league CEO is hoping to continue working from the event.
Carlton AFLW runner and long-timer supporter of women’s footy Andy Maher believes it’s a poor look.
“I’m sure that Nicole can do work outside of her commentary duties, but I agree,” Maher told SEN’s The Run Home.
“If Nic nicks over to Adelaide to do the swimming commentary and there’s no CBA, there’s no start date, there’s no update on any of the key issues in front of the entire AFLW community and Nicole Livingstone is seen to be getting on with her stuff outside of it while they cannot, no one in AFLW get on with getting themselves prepared for this upcoming season, I can see (why the optics aren’t great).
“Nicole would concede that. She’s obviously spoken to key members of the AFL about it, she wouldn’t be doing this (without their consent).
“I think it is a tough sell and it is a bad look and I think everybody in the AFLW community would agree with that. She’s the boss. She’s the head of women’s footy in the AFL and there are a lot of people desperate for key information.
“So it is a bad look and I think she’s been around long enough to know that. She knows how these things play out.”
Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon wonders how the AFL landscape would react to an equivalent situation with Gillon McLachlan.
“We would tear Gillon McLachlan to shreds if he was off commentating on the polo,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.
“The competition has got no start date.
“I read it today and thought ‘that’s not a great look at all’.
“Yes I do (think someone should tell her not to do the commentary). She is the CEO of the AFLW competition which is in a period of rapid growth and entering it’s most delicate situation. I don’t think the boss of that situation should be off moonlighting.”
The AFLW’s four expansion sides have begun announcing signings, but lists are far from finalised.
It’s now May.
— Andy Maher (@AndyMaherDFA) May 4, 2022
June’s next.
July thereafter.
Next comes August.
Apparently that’s the month the next AFLW season will commence.
Anyone wanna step-up and lead the way here for these footballers busting their asses and trying to get their lives in order to make this happen?