THE 16 marquee players for the AFL women’s league will be announced in the next couple of weeks, says AFL general manager of game and market development Simon Lethlean.
Lethlean said “in the next fortnight, we will announce the 16 marquee players for the eight clubs”.
“We’re pretty close on that; the women are waiting to hear, but they’re certainly a big part of the process and we’ve been dealing with the clubs, the players and the AFL Players Association too about making that announcement,” he said.
“Knowing who the marquee players are most likely to be, I would very much like them [to play in the upcoming Melbourne and Bulldogs match on Saturday, September 3 at Whitten Oval].
“Of the teams announced, the 16 women or the ones who are close to that, are definitely playing [in the Melbourne and Bulldogs match], which is great and so it should be.”
Lethlean said it was “an exciting time for women’s football”.
“As you know with the national women’s competition to begin in 2017, this match will be a preview of the amazing talent that will be on display next year,” he said.
“These women have great skills and are incredibly athletic and play an exhilarating style of football. We expect that fans will turn out in force for this match or as they did last year, tune in on TV, radio or mobile to see just how good these women are.
“I want to thank Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs for their continued support of women’s football. When the AFL exhibition series began back in 2013 with these two clubs, women’s football really came to life. Now we have a fully-fledged competition for next year and it’s very exciting.”
Lethlean said the AFL was looking at potentially playing an all stars-type match next year, featuring the best women footballers in the country.
“It’s something we’re supportive of to have the best 50 women in the competition playing; it’s a great showcase and we’ll look at it for next year,” he said.
“With the season being in February/March it would make sense to have a showcase all-star game at some stage later in the year, so it’s something we’re certainly supportive of making happen.
“To see the best of the girls from the eight teams would be a great thing.”
Lethlean said the AFL bye weekend, in between round 23 and the finals, was set to have some key football events.
“It’s enabled some great celebrations of footy with the EJ Whitten match, which is a big event on the calendar and a very charitable event. It’s given us a chance to showcase this [Melbourne and Bulldogs] match [for the Hampson-Hardeman Cup] on a Saturday night in primetime live television around Australia,” he said.
“It also gives fans a couple of weeks to soak up the fact that their teams are in the finals, rather than it being over in six days so there’s plenty of benefits. We’ll see how it goes and we’re looking forward to showcasing that.
“There’s plenty of upside apart from the speculation about what the elite competition’s problems may be.”
Meanwhile, Lethlean said negotiations were continuing surrounding the coverage of the women’s league next year.
“To be fair to Channel 7, we haven’t actually gone to them with a proper proposal about how it’s going to look,” he said.
“We’ve been pretty keen to get the club licenses and marquee players sorted out and then we’ve got to work out how the fixture will look and that will marry into the pre-season competition.
“In the coming months, we’ll have those discussions with Channel 7, Foxtel and Telstra to work that out. I’m pretty confident that with the goodwill from both partners like Seven and Telstra that we’ll get there with those discussions.”
