"Isn't footy over for the year?"
The question haunting the AFLW season.
The AFL this week confirmed that the 2026 AFLW Season will remain in its current slot on the calendar, with Round 1 kicking off the week commencing Aug. 10.
At this stage, the structure will replicate the 2025 season, featuring 12 home-and-away rounds followed by a four-week finals series. However, the AFL has left the door open for expansion, placing a caveat on a potential 13th round, contingent on meeting specific growth benchmarks: an average attendance of 6,000 and average broadcast viewership of 100,000 per match.
While the announcement cements some stability for now, it reignites an old question that continues to hover over the competition: is this really the right time of year for AFLW?
Let's remind ourselves of the various season timings the league has seen since inception:
From its summer launch in 2017 to its spring-summer placement today, the AFLW has seen more calendar changes than any other elite competition in the country, and while the answer from the league is often that the league is in a phase of 'trial and error', the jury is out on which iteration actually suits the game.
The current model aims to give the women's game "clean air" - a window with minimal overlap with the AFL men's fixture. But not everyone believes that's working.
Podcaster and head of Making the Call Pathway, Emma Race, says timing is only one piece of the puzzle. What matters most, she argues, is alignment.
"It would be amazing if the M and W teams played the same clubs each round," Race said.
"It could build the storylines."
AFLW expert Chyloe Kurdas agrees but says it may only work once the women's league is in a place where each team plays each other once in the yearly fixture.
"It would likely only be possible once they all play each other once," she said.
"It would require the men to play each other once before they go around again."
For fan Tayla Oates, the logic is simple, mirror what already works at the community level.
"That's how local footy works," she said.
"It creates an exciting day for the club plus a sense of unity between the men and the women."
AFLW fan Julia Faragher is unconvinced that the current scheduling achieves the "clean air" often referred to by the league, with the men's trade and free agency periods dominating newspaper back pages.
"I feel like a lot of the reasoning we're given for the current timing of the AFLW season is that it has clean air from the men's fixture," she said. "However, I really don't think clean air exists."
"If the media and fans are only interested in AFLM, they will find a way to focus on it no matter what time of year it is. I haven't felt like W has had clean air yet and it's Round 11 of 12."
Similarly, Fiona Newton, co-host of Chicks Talking Footy, says the deeper issue might just be the way we are conditioned.
"Once the men's Grand Final has happened, we've been programmed to switch off the games until the next year," she said.
"Whenever we're doing our show at this time of year, I get lots of 'isn't footy over for the year?' comments."
VFLW player Ally Kirkwood says the current timing also affects the next generation.
"Junior girls are playing at the same time as AFL men's," Kirkwood explained.
"The inspiration and education from the game is from watching the men's teams rather than women's teams.
"It makes it harder for them and their coaches to relate to women's players they can learn from and watch."
Her point hits on a larger issue. If the elite women's competition runs parallel to community seasons, young players simply can't engage with it in the same way.
Former AFLW player Kate McCarthy told ESPN she believes the earlier slot still makes more sense for viewership and momentum.
"I still think earlier in the year is better for viewing and timing with other sports," McCarthy said.
"I would have the AFLW Grand Final in Gather Round.
"I just know there is a huge decline in viewers and attendance post men's finals, and I also don't think it will get the coverage it deserves if it competes with men's footy for more rounds."
Her comments echo the statistics, and while viewership for the AFLW continues to grow gradually, audience engagement traditionally spikes when the competition sits closer to the AFL men's offseason, not after it.
Ultimately, many within the game simply want the AFL to make a permanent call and stick to it.
As Race summarised:
"As a supporter, the constant moving of the season makes it impossible to build crowds and attendance, and subsequently the gate numbers and viewer numbers should be voided as a trigger to expanding the season."
Until then, the AFLW remains in a kind of seasonal limbo, a competition still searching for its rightful place on Australia's sporting calendar, and for a public ready to remember that footy isn't quite over for the year after all.