“For us, what we could get out of it outweighed the risk, and we were potentially willing to take those risks at this stage with a young group, to see where they're at,” he said.
He added that the lower league offered the chance to trial position changes, including skipper Ellie Blackburn playing at half-forward, Jess Fitzgerald at half-back and Jasmyn Smith, who moved from the Gold Coast at the end of the last season with just five AFLW games. under his belt, on the wing.
Bulldogs recruit Jasmyn Smith training with her new teammates on Monday.Credit: Joe Armao
Ahead of the AFLW pre-season, Greater Western Sydney and Sydney joined the VFLW competition for five weeks, with players from their AFLW lists getting more development and practice.
The different approaches of the clubs have led to certain unequal contests.
In Round 1 of the VFLW season, Box Hills Hawks thrashed Casey (aligned with Melbourne) by 108 points. Sydney beat North Melbourne by 89 points and Casey by 85 points.
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Swans coach Scott Gowans told AFL media his team thought they had “almost taken another season (in the wider AFLW competition)” because of the state league.
Chiera said the emergence of stars such as Hawthorn's league best and fairest winner Emily Bates and former No.2 draft pick Jasmine Fleming surprised some VFLW sides.
“From club to club, I've definitely had feedback that players are not sure what's going on because their club isn't allowing them to play, or if they are, it's only a handful of players who have been booked. com in need of development, but most of the list doesn't. And they look across the competition, and there are a lot more senior players playing in the VFLW and they wonder why,” he said.
“So the example of Emily Bates, for example, when she appeared in the VFLW, that might have taken some clubs by surprise because their clubs' equivalent of Emily Bates wasn't playing in the VFLW.”
As the AFLW and VFLW seasons do not overlap, players in the domestic competition who drop out or return from injury do not have a forum to find form and fight to return to their team during the season.
“It's hard to stay motivated. Especially in a long off-season where you just don't play for that long. You know in 12 months of the year you're going to play competitive football for three or four months. That's a long time without play a game,” said Chiera.
“So, do they lose their passion? If possible. It's hard to be motivated and be at such a high level when it's just training and there's no game in sight.”
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Ash Nulty, head of AFLW at Carlton, said although the AFLW and VFLW seasons are not aligned, they have tried to emulate their men's programs, using their seconds to educate players on game plans and systems .
“For us, even though it's different times for the season, the principles and the purpose behind it is probably the same, so an opportunity for them to play and continue to grow the talent,” Naulty said.
He added that it was important to keep players connected to their love of the game as the AFLW season was only three months out of the year. “Equally, it's a bit of a nutritional point of view because it's an off season.”
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