THE eighth season of the AFLW season kicks off on Friday with reigning premiers the Melbourne Demons, among the fancied teams to win the Premiership in 2023.
Barely four months into her debut Aussie Rules season, Blaithin Mackin kicked the opening goal for Melbourne in their victory in the 2022 AFLW final against the Brisbane Lion.
The former Armagh ladies’ football star will play alongside her older sister Aimee this year. Aimee Mackin joined Melbourne in the off-season and will be hoping to emulate her sibling’s success in season 2023.
In AFLW there are 16 players aside instead of 18 in the men’s game and matches are 20 minutes shorter. The oval ball ‘Sherrin’ used in AFLW is also slightly smaller than in the AFL. The AFLW season is shorter than the men’s equivalent with ten rounds of football followed by the finals' series.
There are 16 teams and only the top eight will qualify for the play-offs’ as is the case with the men. The 2023 grand final is scheduled for December 3.
The Adelaide Crows are the most successful side in the history of the AFLW with three premierships. Brisbane, Melbourne, and the Western Bulldogs are all one-time premiers.
Last year’s runners-up, the Brisbane Lions, North Melbourne, Adelaide, Richmond, Collingwood, and Geelong are also among the leading teams expected to play finals football this time around. The Sydney Swans, who failed to win a game in their inaugural season last year, and West Coast are both wooden spoon favourites.
Players to look out for in 2023 include Tayla Harris, a teammate of the Mackin sisters at Melbourne. Harris, who is also a boxer, is the leading goal kicker in AFLW history with 58 goals and has become a household name with her own statue in Melbourne's Docklands.
Isabel Huntington has replaced the retired Cork champion Cora Staunton in the GWS forward line. Sydney captain Chloe Molloy and Richmond’s Monique Conti are also highly rated.
Brisbane teammates Ally Anderson and Natalie Girder are also standout players along Hawthorn trio Greta Bodey, Emily Bates and Jasmine Fleming. Charlie Rowbottom, a teammate of Donegal star Niamh McLaughlin, is set for another big season.
Veteran superstar Erin Phillips, 38, played every game for Port Adelaide last year. The Adelaide legend may retire at the end of the season with her place in women’s football history assured.
More Irish players than ever before will play in the 2023 AFLW season and the numbers are set to rise in future seasons according to Leitrim star Aine Tighe, who is a teammate of Armagh’s Amy Muholland.
"I think for the majority of the girls, it's the professional environment," Tighe explained.
"Just being able to have that opportunity, because sport back home, pretty much everything is amateur and over here, there's just so many opportunities… so for us, that's a big difference."
Last year top tier AFLW players were paid around $AUD71,935 a year which is around £36,824 pounds a season.
Despite the fanfare ahead of the start of the new season, the competition is not without its problems. Last year television ratings were down 70 per cent on season one and crowds were down 60 per cent amid ongoing collective bargaining agreement negotiations in which players are demanding more games.
