Richmond vying for a licence to have a team in the national women's league (Age)

[one-eyed]

A league of their own: How will an elite women's AFL competition work?

By Libbi Gorr and Gus Goswell
7:30 report
Thu 18 Feb 2016, 10:31pm

As a result, the AFL immediately accelerated its plans for a nationwide women's competition, bringing the start date forward from 2020 to 2017.

With the opening bounce just a year away, some of the most powerful women in the game are urging the AFL to nail down the details.

Richmond Tigers president Peggy O'Neal said her club would only consider its own women's team if it made commercial sense.

"We don't know, for example, what kind of financial contribution comes from us, what kind of financial contribution from the league, how many games we're going play, where we're going play them," she said.

All AFL clubs have been told they will be able to tender for a women's team.

The original cut-off for tender submissions was planned for this month, but the AFL still has not managed to get the tender documents to the clubs.

7.30 understands there is at least two to three more months' work to be done internally before the business case is put before the AFL Commissioners.

The clubs will then be given a clearer picture of the plans for the 2017 competition.

It is expected the budget will be determined in the latter part of the year.

AFL game and market development general manager Simon Lethlean acknowledged the AFL had a lot of work to do and that there were many questions that needed to be answered.

"How are we going to set it up? How are we going to create the teams? Is there going to be a draft? How are we going to list players? Which grounds are we going to play at?" he said.

And then there's the thorny question of payment.

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-18/womens-afl-2017-competition-call-for-more-details/7180052

[one-eyed]

Punt Rd perfect fit for women’s game

Herald-Sun
28 April 2016

RICHMOND chief executive Brendon Gale says the Tigers’ Punt Rd Oval could be the long-term home for women’s football in Victoria.

The Tigers — along with eight other Victorian clubs — will table bids to the AFL on Friday for one of four local licenses to enter teams in next year’s groundbreaking national women’s competition.

There will be four interstate teams in the competition. Hawthorn is the only Victorian club to bow out of the bidding process.

Gale said the further development of Punt Rd in the medium to long term, coupled with its proximity to the MCG and public transport infrastructure, could “enable it to effectively become the home of female football”.

The main thrust of Richmond’s pitch, however, is what Gale said was an authentic and long-term commitment to gender equity and the establishment of a culture that would allow a women’s team to thrive.

“We haven’t just decided gender equity and female engagement is a good idea because the national women’s league is going to be established. We have been committed to genuinely promoting gender equity for the best part of five years,” Gale said.

Richmond’s track record in that regard is borne out by a club-established research project called Gender Equity: What will it take to be the Best, a project done in conjunction with the AFL and the Australian Sports Commission begun more than three years ago.

“A women’s team will give us a participation arm and we are very well placed to support it,” Gale said.

“Our view is there needs to be real depth to any female program and our track record in creating the environment to support women can’t be questioned.”

The Tigers last month outlined a vision for Punt Rd to be upgraded to a third Melbourne AFL venue with 40,000 seats and a fan zone linking the oval to the adjacent MCG.

Gale said the ground would be an immediate asset to the women’s game.

“It has an elite surface, has lights that will allow night games, undercover seating and it is close to public transport. It will serve the immediate needs of the team, and some requirements of the competition, and talent pathways more broadly,” he said.

“But what we like most in the medium-to-long term is what can be achieved with the development of a masterplan that would enable it to effectively become the home of female football.

“This is an iconic location in the heart of one of the great sporting precincts in the world.

“As opposed to some suburban venues, we think a redeveloped Punt Rd Oval facility would become a venue women aspire to play at.”

The AFL Youth Girls National Championships grand finals will be hosted by Richmond at Punt Rd on Friday, May 6, with the Division A Under-18 grand final being played as a curtain raiser to the Richmond-Hawthorn game at the MCG.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/brendon-gale-wants-punt-rd-to-be-the-home-for-womens-football-in-victoria/news-story/195d068f0144096bbaa52f356a3cfcae

[cub]

stiff bollocks

[sugark]

some might suggest that its already the home of womens football

[TigerLand]

Does this mean Brandon Ellis is eligible for both teams?

[one-eyed]

Tigers, Pies under lights on Australia Day to launch women's league?

Samantha Lane
The Age
30 April 2016

In an unprecedented Australia Day twilight match between club heavyweights, Richmond want to host Collingwood at Punt Road Oval and mark the historic arrival of the AFL women's league.

A stand-alone opening fixture of what's guaranteed to be a radically different season, given eight AFL clubs will field elite female sides in 2017, has been pitched formally to the league by the Tigers.

Among eight clubs vying for four licences, the AFL intends to award in Victoria for season one of the new national competition, Richmond is proposing male AFL players will present jumpers to female footballers sharing the same number to add to the inaugural match occasion.

The Tigers have submitted the Australia Day game be a free annual event with pre-match clinics and a boardroom function for family members of the first cohort of elite female AFL players and sponsors.

The match would likely take place more than a week before the first pre-season game played by male AFL clubs next year, boosting exposure and impact of the women's league with the involvement of such well-followed clubs.

"Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs have done a great job building the profile of women's football, but we think a marquee game, involving two new sides, would quickly broaden the competition in the minds of supporters," Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale told Fairfax Media on the day his club submitted its women's team bid.

"We think the idea of a stand-alone season opener at Punt Road – played in the twilight or at night – is a significant opportunity to create a major women's football event that will give the competition some real momentum.

"Australia Day is a perfect day in that it appears it would be eight or nine days out from the scheduled season start. This gives the marketing of the game some clear air and some theming opportunities as well."

Should it win the right to field a female team from next year, Richmond also wants their new side to play a curtain-raiser to one of its preseason NAB Challenge games played by their male arm.

Richmond have not specified Collingwood as their ideal season-opening opponent in their women's team licence bid, but Fairfax understands the Pies are the club they have firmly in mind.

Women's football pioneer clubs Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs are widely considered to have their bids for a team from year one all but ticked off by the AFL. Collingwood's strong submission – the planks of which Fairfax revealed three weeks ago – and undeniable reach are thought within the industry to be too good for the AFL to resist.

With Hawthorn and Essendon the only Victorian clubs that did not bid for women's sides for next year, it leaves a battle between Richmond, Geelong, North Melbourne, Carlton and St Kilda for the remaining licence. Unless – as St Kilda's CEO proposed this week – the AFL decides to include more than four Victorian clubs from season one.

In January, a twilight game at Punt Road would not provide any issues for television broadcast quality; relevant given the interest of Fox Sports and Channel 7 in covering the AFL's female league.

There are lights at Punt Road Oval considered conducive to providing footage of webcast quality.

The key planks of Richmond's bid for a women's team is a proven commitment to gender equity over several years.

Richmond present as an authentic example of an organisation already proactively committed to equality. They highlight, in their licence bid, that they have demonstrated support – well before now – of female football in coaching and playing. The club also presents its Punt Road headquarters as a female-friendly, fully functioning facility for athletes in an iconic, central setting.

Richmond are not only the first club in VFL/AFL history to appoint a female president – Peggy O'Neal made that history in 2013 – they also commissioned a meaty gender report as a reference for the whole of Australian sport.

Richmond continue to measure themselves against tangible models and targets that report set out to combat gender discrimination and inequality.

From a commercial perspective, the Tigers' enviable supporter base makes a compelling argument, particularly given the club's strength in demographics considered key in the success of the women's league.

Using metrics they have on membership, attendances and television audience, Richmond says they are the AFL's undisputed leader at converting fans into consumers over the past six years.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richmond-to-play-collingwood-on-australia-day-to-launch-womens-league-20160429-goicvp.html