Almanac Football (and Economics): Proposals for reform of the AFLW

 

Braham Dabscheck is an internationally renowned researcher, thinker and analyst on all things pertaining to players’ rights and the economic systems in which they exist. He was a pioneer in the emergence of players’ associations across numerous sports around the world. Originally a Melburnian, his academic career has taken him to many places, especially Sydney where he lives now. Hence he is especially interested in the AFL and NRL (including their women’s competitions). In this piece he observes the current AFLW conditions and proposes a program of reforms which would improve the competition and provide a variety of benefits to the women who play the game.

 

 

The Australian Football League Women (AFLW) commenced operations in 2017. It was initially an eight team competition. Two extra teams joined the competition in 2019, another four in 2020; with a final four to be added in 2023. The AFLW will have the same number of teams as the men’s competition, the Australian Football League (AFL). The AFL, in its wisdom, decided that the AFLW should be (mainly) played during January and February, the hottest months of the year. With increases in the number of teams, despite the reluctance of the AFL to allow teams to play each other once, the season now stretches into March and April. For 2022, the Finals of the AFLW will overlap with the first two weeks of the AFL season. AFLW players have made representations for a longer season where all clubs play each other. The 2022 season, which contains fourteen teams, comprises ten rounds plus a finals series. AFLW games are shorter than those of the AFL – 15 minutes a quarter compared to twenty minutes, plus different arrangements involving time-on which increase the length of AFL games. There are also other differences, such as the AFLW having 16 players a side plus 5 interchange players compared to the AFL of 18 players and 4 interchange players.

 

The AFL is reluctant for the two leagues to overlap. More generally, this reflects ambivalence about what the AFL wants to do with the AFLW. Is the AFLW little more than a curiosity to ‘fill in’ when the men aren’t playing and a means of countering the appeal of other summer sports played by both men and women; with a side benefit of attracting more females to the sport as both players and consumers? Or, should the AFLW be developed as a fully fledged professional sport designed to provide talented female athletes with a ‘decent’ income and a career path in sport comparable to that of men in the AFL?

 

Per the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiated with the Australian Football League Players’ Association, the following payment schedule for players is operative for the 2022 season: sixteen players receive $20,239 (in effect, a minimum payment), six players $24,468, another six $26,697 and the top two $37,155. There are also extra payments for ambassadorial roles, additional service agreements and for playing in the finals. Some high profile players also earn income from sponsorships and endorsements. More than fifty per cent of players earn slightly over $20,000. This is approximately half of the Australian adult minimum wage of $40,175, determined by the Fair Work Commission for July 2021. Even the top players of each club do not earn the Australian adult minimum wage as a base payment; though they undoubtedly receive the ‘lions share’ of additional income sources that are available. As of 1 November 2021, the Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded that full time adult average total earnings were equal to $90,635. Given the low levels of income on offer many players are forced to work other jobs or ‘moon light’ in other sports to make ends meet.

 

The major problems with the AFLW is that the games are too short, the season is not long enough, it is played at the worst time of the year when the weather is too hot which reduces the ability of players to perform at their best and players are not paid enough to encourage the best female athletes to play and develop their skills and/or continue playing, which in turn reduces the attractiveness of the competition for spectators, sponsors and broadcasters.

 

 

Games Are Too Short

 

The AFLW currently operates on 15 minute quarters, compared to the AFL’s 20 minutes. The length of quarters can and should be gradually increased. There are two ways of doing this, though they could be combined. The length of quarters could be increased by an extra minute each year over a five year cycle. For example, for the 2023 season they would be increased to 16 minutes, then to 17 minutes in 2024, ultimately to 20 minutes in 2027. Alternatively, at the beginning of the 2023 season the first four rounds of the season could operate on a 15 minute model. The next four rounds could be increased to 16 minutes, with a review at the end of this period to evaluate the impact of this increase to determine whether it should be continued, increased or decreased. This process could be continued and/or integrated with the proposal concerning an annual increase outlined above.

 

The Season Is Too Short And Games Are Played At the Wrong Time Of The Year

 

In 2022 the AFLW is organised around a ten round home and away season and three weeks of finals. It is assumed that in 2023, with an eighteen team competition, the final series will be extended to four weeks, similar to that of the AFL. The season has been mainly played in January and February in the hottest months of the year. The AFL’s logic has been to either keep it ‘apart’ from or as a ‘prelude’ to what the AFL presumably regards as its major competition, the men’s AFL. The first recommendation that will be offered here is that it would be more appropriate to move the AFLW competition to later in the year, long after the AFL season has commenced, and to have its finals played after the end of the AFL season. That is, instead of having competitions that run from January to September (AFLW followed by AFL) it would be wiser to have them operating from mid-March to November (AFL followed by AFLW). If nothing else, this would enable players, both men and women, to be free of training responsibilities during the Xmas-New Year period, like the rest of us.

 

With the AFLW growing to eighteen teams it seems inevitable that it will have to increase to a seventeen round competition and four weeks of finals. The AFL, whether it likes it or not will be forced to play sections of both competitions head to head. Table One outlines a proposal on how this could be organised. It assumes that the AFL will be a twenty two week season plus four weeks of finals; the AFLW seventeen weeks and four weeks of finals. The date in column one is for the Saturday of each week/round. It is of course realised that games can be played on any day of the week, as they have in the past. The proposal adds a two week bye, an increase from the one week that has recently operated in the AFL, for both leagues. For the AFL this would be after Round 13 (June 17) creating space for the first two rounds of the AFLW. The AFLW would also have a two week bye after its Round 13 (September 24) given the playing of the AFL Preliminary and Grand Finals. The AFL would also have a bye before the finals (September 3).

 

Table One: Proposed Fixtures For AFL And AFLW For 2023 Seasons

Date*	AFL Round	AFLW Round
March 18	One
March 25	Two
April 1	Three
April 8	Four
April 15	Five
April 22	Six
April 29	Seven
May 6	Eight
May 13	Nine
May 20	Ten
May 27	Eleven
June 3	Twelve
June 10	Thirteen
June 17	Bye	One
June 24	Bye	Two
July 1	Fourteen	Three
July 8	Fifteen	Four
July 15	Sixteen	Five
July 22	Seventeen	Six
July 29	Eighteen	Seven
August 5	Nineteen	Bye
August 12	Twenty	Eight
August 19	Twenty One	Nine
August 26	Twenty Two	Ten
September 3	Bye	Eleven
September 10	Final Week One	Twelve
September 17	Final Week Two	Thirteen
September 24	Preliminary Finals	Bye
October 1	Grand Final	Bye
October 8		Fourteen
October 15		Fifteen
October 22		Sixteen
October 29		Seventeen
November 5		Final Week One
November 12		Final Week Two
November 19		Preliminary Finals
November 26		Grand Final

 

* Week/Round as of or ‘starting’ on Saturdays.

 

If the AFL competition started a week earlier on March 11 and the AFLW a week later on June 17, finishing on December 2, with appropriate adjustments for the assumptions contained in Table One there would then be an extra two rounds of ‘clear air’ for both the AFL and AFLW competitions. For the AFLW this would add Rounds 11 and 12 (round 11 to 17 plus the finals).

 

Players Aren’t Paid Enough

 

AFLW payments for 2022 operate on the assumption of ten and a half weeks training, ten weeks for the regular season and an extra three weeks for finals – a total of 23 and a half weeks, effectively 24 weeks (Collective Bargaining Agreement). The minimum payment for more than half the players is slightly more than $20,000, approximately half of the adult minimum full time wage of $40,175. On the assumption that the season expands to seventeen rounds, plus four weeks of finals, three weeks of byes and pre season training of ten and a half (really eleven weeks) players would have a total commitment of 35 weeks. The men’s Collective Bargaining Agreement provides six weeks leave for players when their seasons come to an end. If this arrangement was applied to the AFLW this would translate into a 41 week ‘season’. The current payment arrangements are clearly inadequate for the commitments that clubs will require of players.

 

Players should receive payments which are at least the same as the adult minimum wage. Given that they are highly skilled athletes they should receive a wage higher than this minimum; a premium for their skill. It will be proposed here that for the 2023 season they should receive whatever the minimum wage is for 2023 (given the proposal here with the season beginning in July 2023, in all likelihood, there will be two minimum wage case increases – decisions traditionally take effect in July of each year – and assuming both increases will be in the range of 3.5 to 4.0 per cent, the adult minimum wage will be in the range of approximately $43,000 to $43,500). Given that players should receive a premium for their skill and compensation for the extra time and commitment required of them, the minimum payment for an AFLW player for season 2023, should be increased to $50,000. With each succeeding year such payments should be increased in response to whatever increases in the adult minimum wage granted by the Fair Work Commission plus an additional – that’s correct, an additional – $6,000 premium increase for each additional year (such increase would be added to the level determined in the previous year) until the minimum wage is equal to the same amount as full time adult average total earnings, which currently stands at $90,635. It will obviously be much higher when ‘equality’ is finally achieved.

 

If the AFL wants the AFLW to grow and prosper it needs to provide players with full time professional employment where they can devote themselves to training and playing. Player incomes need to be high enough for players to make such commitments free of the need to find additional employment to provide them with a decent minimum standard of life. The minimum wage being suggested for 2023 will still be relatively low at $50,000, especially in comparison to male players and players of other female sports such as cricket, netball and the Matildas. By providing players with this minimal level of economic security, skilled female athletes are more likely to pursue careers in Australian football and able to devote more time to increasing their skills, becoming fitter and making the game more attractive and appealing to spectators, sponsors and broadcasters.

 

 

Read more from Braham Dabscheck HERE.

 

 

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Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

 

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