Per Xander McGuire on 7 EDIT: The MCG game will also be played.

This post is not related to any ongoing events in Cape Town

The AFLW has now been around for a decade with its 11th season currently ongoing in 2026. Thanks to two separate seasons in 2022, we’re in a strange situation where we’ve had 11 seasons over the course of 10 years. But it is worth asking ourselves, how has the Women’s game developed during that time. With little to no support for grass roots women’s footy prior to the creation of the AFLW, the sport has had to develop at a speed the men’s game never has to in order to cater enough players to fill the top flight.

In 2017 the league consisted of 8 teams, playing each other across 7 rounds and leading directly into a grand final. Teams also consisted of 14 on-ground players and 6 on the bench on gameday and squads consisted of ~27 players each. This meant that there were ~216 professional players at this stage. Quarters were only 15 minutes with only the final 2 minutes including time on and unlimited interchanges.

Fast forward to 2026 and we have 18 teams competing across 12 rounds leading into a similar finals structure to the men’s game (minus wildcard round, thank god). Teams now have 16 players on the ground at a time with 5 on the bench with squads expanding to ~32 players. In total this means there are now 576 professional players in the system a 266% rise over a ten-year period. Game time has also been extended to 17 minutes a quarter with time on in the last two minutes and interchanges are now limited to 60 per game.

With this in mind and my own personal opinions about how the women’s game has been managed out of the way, let’s have a look at how the game has changed over the last 10 years. To do so, I built spreadsheets that identified total stats across key statistical areas and identified differentials in each statistical category per game. This allows us to get an understanding, game by game, what is occurring, how teams are winning and what denotes a ‘successful’ game style in 2017 compared to 2026.

Full article: https://pathannah.substack.com/p/how-aflw-has-changed-2017-to-2026?r=7coz0j&utm_medium=ios

Excitingly, despite the massive changes the AFLW has gone through in the last 10 years there has been significant change in the way the game has been played since 2017. Despite an additional 360 players in the system in 2026 compared to 2017, the standard of Football has increased with more uncontested footy, increased disposal efficiency and increased scoring, even when the statistics are normalised between the seasons. This is a pretty remarkable achievement to be honest because imagine if a similar amount of players were dumped into the Men’s game.

Personally, I think this reflects exceptionally well on how the pathways for AFLW have developed over the last 10 years, producing players who are prepared for the elite level more regularly. While there is still growth to be had, the comparisons to the first season suggests that that growth is currently happening. With the correct support at the grassroots level and preparing young talent for the rigours of the top flight we should see this quality continue to grow. Where I think the league needs to improve most drastically is through its support of the in club AFLW programs to help with the development of players once they enter the system. Not providing them appropriate foundations to grow as athletes will continue to hamstring the competition and restrict it from growing into the league it deserves to be.

On a club-by-club level, this analysis identifies the key areas of the game teams should be building on including their capacity to recycle the ball out of contest and into an uncontested environment. On top of this, ensuring you are effective in your disposal once you’re in those environments is essential with Disposal Efficiency and Efficiency Inside 50 becoming more and more important as seasons go by. If you can ensure that once you are in an uncontested environment you can continue to hit targets, particularly Inside 50, you will have far more opportunity to get past your opponents. It’s not rocket science to be honest, but it’s always harder to put systems into practice on the pitch that help bring these skills to the fore, the best teams do it very well while those who’ve struggled this season have been poor. Investing in individual skill development and confidence to hit dangerous kicks more often feels like the key targets for teams like Essendon, Collingwood and St. Kilda.

Edit: due to a formatting issue on the AFLW website, I was led to believe that there were 14 on-ground players in the initial season. This was incorrect, though most of the information will stand, in fact the gaps will most likely increase.

What matchups ignite precisely nothing in your heart or soul? I don't mean a game between two teams you hate, I mean the ones where you feel almost nothing whatsoever reading on the fixture list.

For me:

Gold Coast vs Port Adelaide. This fixture conjures absolutely nothing tantalising in my imagination. I'm specifically looking at the GC home game because the reverse fixture at least has the benefit of Adelaide Oval. Otherwise, these two teams do nothing for me.

Kangaroos vs Bulldogs. Aside from being the "teams who are called by the mascot" derby, this one has nothing going for it. Is there a less heated Melbourne-based fixture than this one? Both likeable teams and I'm sure the fixture has some history to it but it has to be bottom of the list when it comes to classic VFL matchups.

Brisbane vs Geelong. Eh. Just eh. WGAF, ya know?

It's all incredibly subjective, so what are the games that you frankly feel nothing for?

fyi - I've looked for the behind-the-goal vision of Stynes running across the mark but that doesnt appear to exist. Even the ABC host at the time says that havent found footage of that indescretion. At least this side on camera shot, which was further around than the TV broadcast allows us to see Stynes immediate reaction to the goal. (Ch7 and ABC footage cuts away instantly the ball goes through the goals). The behind the goals shot is intriguing because it doesnt seem to have re-screened anytime after this despite being a clearer angle of the Grinter/Buckenara free kick. The Ch7 and ABC broadcast footage doesn't really capture it as the camera was still panning

This might be a silly question, since the AFL are drip feeding the next season's fixtures with Round 1 & Gather Round. We know when AFL Origin will be held, but when are the Preseason match sim & AFL Community Series matches schedule set to be rolled out?

Thanks

Seems he’s put himself up as the AFLW content police especially pressuring content creators to post about AFLW