Footy simply does not stop. And despite valid criticisms about the shortened season and the haphazard conference system and the general treatment of the league like a gimmicky sideshow, the AFLW will still go ahead in season 2019 and it will still kick significant ass.
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League bosses today unveiled the schedule for season 2019, which is set to kick off on Saturday February 2nd, with one of the league’s newest additions Geelong taking on Collingwood at the Cats’ traditional home stadium of Kardinia Park.
The 2019 season takes place over seven rounds, with a two-week finals series held at the end of it. This stands in opposition to the two previous seasons, which featured eight rounds with a standalone Grand Final.
Additionally, the competition has been split into two conferences, with Conference A consisting of Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Adelaide, Fremantle, and North Melbourne, while Conference B features Brisbane, GWS, Collingwood, Carlton, and Geelong.
Teams will play all sides in their own conference once, and will play three gams against sides from the opposing conference. This means that each team will not play all other sides in the course of the season. Notably, newcomer sides Geelong and North Melbourne do not meet each other in their inaugural season.
At the conclusion of the seven rounds, the top two sides from each conference will play off in Preliminary Finals, with the winners of those going on to play in the AFLW Grand Final, which at this stage still has no fixed date; it will once again be at the mercy of the men’s season, with the Grand Final to take place during Round 2 of the men’s year.
Despite the fluctuating parameters of the season, the 2019 AFLW fixture has highlights a-plenty, including a return to the inner-Sydney Drummoyne Oval on February 8th, when GWS takes on North, two games in Tasmania for the incoming Kangaroos, a 2018 Grand Final rematch between the Bulldogs and Brisbane on February 23rd, and a blockbuster double-header at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on March 9th, which will see Collingwood and North clash at 4:45pm in the afternoon, before the Bulldogs and Melbourne take the field at 7:15.
Peep the full schedule via the AFLW below.
😆 Introducing our official 2019 @NAB AFL Women’s Competition fixture!! 🙌 #AFLW #Journeyto2019 pic.twitter.com/CruruFcbE6
— AFL Women’s (@aflwomens) October 26, 2018
I tell you what, there is simply no such thing as too much footy.
99 days until footy’s back, folks! Mark yr calendars.
