'We absolutely hear the feedback': AFL footy boss comes out of hiding amid AFLW uproar
AFL footy boss Laura Kane has broken her silence on the furore surrounding the condensed AFLW fixture.
Kane and AFLW chief Emma Moore were accused of going to ground and refusing to respond publicly to mounting criticism about the league's treatment of players and clubs with a bizarre 2024 schedule.
The tensions reached boiling point after Essendon beat the Bulldogs in what many pundits labelled the worst game in the competition's history.
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The diminished quality was blamed on a fixture that asked some teams to play four games in the space of two weeks. The AFLW this year added an extra round, but refused to expand the actual season dates, so more footy was crammed into the same period of time.
It resulted in games being played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, with Monday the only day of the week without an AFLW fixture.
The GWS Giants AFLW team leave the field after a loss. AFL Photos via Getty Images
Nine's AFLW Weekly podcast host Sarah Burt revealed the AFL and AFLW had denied the opportunity several times to have any spokesperson questioned about the issue.
On Monday, Kane appeared on Channel 7 and confirmed she is aware of the growing anger.
"We absolutely hear the feedback. A lot of it I share… we're definitely across how people feel," she said.
"One thing we did learn... was that Sunday nights and midweek football, people really like that, the fans like it.
"You might see a midweek game next year, but when do you play your next one?
"I think we've heard the feedback on that one pretty clearly."
Australian rugby league's professional women's competition is designed so the grand final falls on the same day as the men's NRL final.
Laura Kane. Getty images
It makes for a three-game rugby league festival, generally on the first Sunday of October.
The AFL has been criticised for focusing on the men's competition and failing to take the women's with it.
The AFLW season runs for several weeks after the AFL grand final and the games continue to be played even as the weather heats up in late October and November.
Kane is open to changing the schedule.
"I think there are a couple of important decisions that we have to make, one being when do you play the AFLW grand final," she said.
"A focus for us over the last year has been building rituals into the fixture and making sure that our fans know when their team will be playing.
"So yes, (an earlier start) is something that we're definitely considering."
