The coaches of Adelaide and Collingwood’s AFLW sides have welcomed the league’s extraordinary memo on game style.
Adelaide’s reigning premier coach Bec Goddard says the move is common-sense to protect the fundamentals in the fledgling AFLW competition.
“What we have at the moment is a part-time competition and part-time athletes where you only get them for a few hours a week,” Goddard told reporters on Friday.
“And I think concentrating on the footy fundamentals, the basic one-on-one competition, rather than trying to introduce complex zones or adding plus-ones, plus-twos in defence to try and defeat that genuine one-one-one nature, is a great idea.
“I’m really pro the anti-density rule … so we can guarantee broadcast rights, sponsorship fore the girls and one day a fulltime wage.
“And once they’re fulltime athletes, then we can start introducing the more complex elements of football.”
Collingwood coach Wayne Siekman said the league directives suited his team.
His main warning to the Magpies players ahead of Saturday night’s match against Fremantle was to be wary of the policing of the 15m protected zone in front of stoppages.
In the wake of last weekend’s opening round of the second season, AFL football operations manager Steve Hocking sent a letter to the eight teams calling on them to play more attacking and entertaining football.
“The more chance we have one-on-ones, the better we’re going to be,” Siekman told reporters in Melbourne.
“We encourage it and support it.
“It’s great for AFLW – it’s in the news and everyone is talking about us. Any news is good news, as they say.”
The main concern after last weekend’s opening round was Collingwood’s loss to Carlton in a game which featured only five goals.
“We want to make this thing bigger and better as soon as we can, so the players get the rewards,” Siekman said of the AFLW.
“The only way the players keep getting the rewards is to make it attractive, make the fans keep coming, make the fans keep watching it on the TV.
He said the 15m area would be a major rule focus for the Magpies ahead of the Fremantle game at Perth’s new Optus Stadium, where a crowd of more than 50,000 is expected.
