“I keep hearing this,” said Kelly to Underwood. “Stop saying it. You and others. Stop saying we’ve got it wrong. We can’t just squeeze the lemon and start handing out the cash that we haven’t got as a whole competition,so I’m saying to all our girls:‘Let’s keep investing,let’s keep going forward.’
“There’s only a certain amount of money that goes around. Every time we put on another weekend of footy it costs a lot of money.
“Every time we go from two days (of training) a week,we go to three or four,what else happens? We have to get the doctors and physios in so that all adds up.”
Kelly stressed how much the Collingwood girls were enjoying their pre-season and that their training sessions were accompanied by music. He suggested the controversial decision to fold the Magpies’ netball team had come in part because of the club’s support for AFLW. His comments raised eyebrows even among Collingwood colleagues.
Kelly has long backed the AFL against the AFL Players Association when pay disputes have become serious in the men’s game. And he is not the only club chief who did not back the decision to link the AFL and AFLW in the current negotiations over the stalled new collective bargaining agreement.
Nor was the Collingwood presentation the only meeting fraught with frustration and player disappointment with such a heavy approach from the AFL on the forthcoming marketing campaign at a time when players were facing legitimate issues regarding their livelihoods and playing conditions.
That such an influential AFL figure as Kelly has so publicly and privately put the brakes on the AFLW so soon before the start of season 2023 is symbolic of the state of play in the women’s game. His comments also signify the cultural divide between the traditional male sport and the AFLW,whose key leader Livingstone is not considered worthy of an executive role at the AFL and has played no part in the crucial pay negotiations.
It is almost two months since incoming AFL chief Andrew Dillonpresented a bleak picture of AFLW audiences to club chiefs,reporting that TV ratings were down 70 per cent on season one and crowds were down 60 per cent by way of explaining the ongoing 10-week home-and-away fixture and wage -increase concerns.
Now head office is attempting to relaunch the AFLW centred around celebrating the differences between the men’s and the women’s game with a fixture more heavily centred on smaller community venues. Frustrated at some clubs’ failure to promote and improve their home-game experiences the AFL has granted the clubs all match-day ticketing revenues - not largely significant given entry is $10 for adults and free for children - and no longer tax AFLW memberships.
Loading
Most significant,though,is the reality that the AFLW season will officially launch on Monday with no pay deal in place. Negotiations between the AFL and AFLPA are expected to continue on Monday,but there is the real possibility that,when Melbourne take on Collingwood for the season opener on September 1,a deal won’t have been done.
The CBA hold-up is because the two parties cannot agree on the women’s share. Although the AFL (five years) and the AFLPA (four years) remain divided on the length of the next pay deal and over the players’ share in revenue from Marvel Stadium,both parties agree that the male players will earn 28 per cent of the game’s overall revenue.
In total the AFLPA is pushing for a 31.5 per cent share for the length of the deal,with the remainder being shared by the women. The minimum salary for AFLW players is currently $40,000,which the AFLPA wants to be increased to $70,000 by 2026.
Outgoing AFL boss Gillon McLachlan is leading the negotiations and stated at the start of 2022 that he wanted to oversee the next CBA,which looms as his final negotiation. His argument that the game cannot afford such a significant pay increase for its women footballers is disputed by senior AFLW players and players’ association bosses,who argue that head office should be prioritising the new competition and investing more in its growth.
Dillon’s dismal attendance figures and TV ratings might have been bitingly accurate and suited the AFL’s argument at the time but hurt the AFLW brand and its promotion as thewomen’s soccer World Cup loomed.
And they painted only one small part of a much bigger picture. None of the Brisbane Lions,Sydney,Richmond or Hawthorn in the near future would have held any hope of building their lavish new facilities were it not for local,state and federal government support of the AFLW. The growth in club members who remained so loyal during the pandemic and helped save the club bottom-liners was built partly on the new wave of support for the women’s game.
The AFL’s much-vaunted growth in participation has come about through the national women’s competition. And the bigger picture is what an expanding national women’s league offers young girls,who at this minute would see the Matildas as a significantly more viable option.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country.Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.