AFLW CEO Nicole Livingstone sees the fact that her playing group hold full-time jobs outside of footy as a good thing and something the male players could learn from.
With the AFLW Grand Final taking place this weekend between Brisbane and Melbourne, Livingstone was asked about the future of the league and players becoming full-time athletes.
Currently, AFLW players remain part-time and are paid from season to season.
“I want to take a different take on it actually, because we talk about them (AFLW players) having other jobs like it is a shame, it’s not a shame and in fact, I think the AFL men’s program could learn a lot from the way the AFLW is operating,” Livingstone told SENQ’s Pat and Heals.
“My language is more around them being year-round athletes. So right now, we are in six-month contracts I think that’s the next phase – to have them in an off-season period and they are actually training and they’re on a contract to train in that off period as well.
“I still want them to be able to work and to be able to play football because if you’re 100 per cent on footy, or Olympic sports, Olympic sports has cottoned on to this a while ago, it’s actually not good for you as an athlete.
“It is too consuming, too pressure packed.”
She added: “It’s more about being year-round, they’re already professional heart, soul and mind in what they’re doing its about how do we now allow them to thrive in both areas.”
“The future is really bright for the women.”
Livingstone added that they’re expecting a crowd of over 7,000 in Springfield for the AFLW Grand Final.
“We just released another batch of tickets yesterday, the first batch of tickets that brought us to 6,500, and went very, very fast – I’m talking minutes, and then yesterday’s batch went very fast as well,” she said.
“We are at about 7,200 in terms of the expected crowd, which is a wonderful crowd.”
The AFLW chief described 2022 as a “phenomenal year” for women’s footy and is expecting a tight decider between the two best teams of season 7.
“We’ve delivered over 174 matches of AFLW this year with two seasons, it has been a phenomenal year for womens football,” she said further.
“These two teams were separated by 0.3 of a percent, one behind separated them on the home and away ladder so this is going to be a phenomenal Grand Final.”