Day jobs an issue for AFLW fixture

The semi-professional nature of AFLW looms as a challenge for players as the AFL faces the prospect of a compressed fixture to make up postponed games in the national women’s league.

This week’s scheduled Adelaide-Fremantle and Greater Western Sydney-West Coast matches have both been put on hold indefinitely, with all four teams in isolation in the wake of Western Australia’s positive COVID-19 case on the weekend.

The Eagles and Crows are two of four AFLW teams impacts by WA’s lockdown.Credit:Getty Images

The league remains hopeful that the clubs could still play this weekend alongside the rest of round two but are bracing for the need to play catch-up matches.

This was a feature of the 2020 AFL men’s season, in which clubs routinely played midweek games off four and five day breaks.

However unlike male players who are full-time professionals, the women’s competition remains the domain of the semi-pro, with many players working second jobs.

Speaking on Tuesday, Carlton star Darcy Vescio said it would be tough for some players to play matches during the week.

“I guess it would depend how many. We’ve got teachers, all sorts of workers, girls working full-time. I think it would stretch the girls, but all the girls want to be playing footy. They’ll do everything they can to ensure that happens,” Vescio said at Whitten Oval where she was helping to launch the AFLW pride round.

AFLW chief Nicole Livingstone said the league would be fully supportive if players needed to opt out of a game for work reasons.

“The feedback that we’ve got is as long as there’s enough notice for them to get things in order in terms of work, and the timing of that, then it’s possible. Again, playing footy in a global pandemic is something that is tricky,” Livingstone said.

“I think if we need to play catch-up we will work with the clubs to make sure that player health and wellbeing is paranount to what we do. It’s our intention to get all of these games away, we just need to make sure we do it in a way that’s safe not only for players and clubs but also for the wider community as well.”

Livingstone stressed that the league was being guided by government advice and was optimistic that should the WA situation get under control, the competition would be able to generate momentum again after a successful first round of the season.

Adelaide and GWS players are both in hard lockdowns in their respective cities while Eagles and Dockers players are allowed to train for an hour daily but not in large groups.

Livingstone said the league was considering imposing restrictions on other clubs to level the playing field.

“There are some precedents from the men’s side of things in terms of clubs having to take a break for a period of time because of a state putting in an isolation period, so we’ll keep monitoring that,” she said.

She noted that the league was well-prepared for various contingencies having dealt with the challenges of the men’s season.

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