2020 AFL Women's season explained

Year:	2020
Date:	7 February—22 March 2020
Teams:	14
Premiers:	Not awarded
Bestandfairest:	Madison Prespakis
Votes:	15
Leadinggoalkicker:	Caitlin Greiser
Goals:	10
Matches:	46
Attendance:	205,050
Highattend:	35,185 (round 2, v)

The 2020 AFL Women's season was the fourth season of the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition, the highest-level senior women's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 14 clubs and ran from 7 February to 22 March; it was intended to comprise an eight-round home-and-away season followed by a three-week finals series featuring the top three clubs from each conference, however the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March saw the season curtailed and finally abandoned without a premiership being awarded. Australian Football League (AFL) clubs,, and featured for the first time in 2020.

's Madison Prespakis won the AFL Women's best and fairest award as the league's best and fairest player, and St Kilda's Caitlin Greiser won the AFL Women's leading goalkicker award as the league's leading goalkicker.

Background

New teams

Four new teams,,, and, joined the competition, bringing the total number of teams to fourteen. This followed on from the inclusion of and in the previous season.^[1]

Collective bargaining agreement

Prior to the season commencing a collective bargaining agreement failed to pass the player's association, with only 70% agreeing, falling short of the required 75% threshold. One of the demands of the dissenters was to have a longer season, so that all the teams could play each other once.^[2] The players later voted with a vote of 98% to agree to a revised agreement, which steadily increased the number of matches to be played over three years.^[3]

Conference system

The conference system utilised in the previous season was retained for this season, though it was expanded to cater for the additional teams. Seven teams were placed in each of the two conferences, with teams playing all their intra-conference rivals once and two cross-over matches against teams from the other conference, resulting in an 8-round home and away season. The placing of the teams was determined by the AFL with competitiveness, list assessments and the previous season's results in mind.^[4]

Conference A
Team	Stadium(s)	Capacity
	Richmond Oval Unley Oval	16,500 10,000
	Arden Street Oval UTAS Stadium North Hobart Oval	5,000 21,000 18,000
	GMHBA Stadium	36,000
	Blacktown ISP Oval Robertson Oval Giants Stadium	10,000 10,000 24,000
	Hickey Park Gabba	5,000 42,000
	Metricon Stadium Great Barrier Reef Arena Fankhauser Reserve	25,000 10,000 8,000
	Swinburne Centre Ikon Park Queen Elizabeth Oval	6,000 21,000 10,000

Conference B
Team	Stadium(s)	Capacity
	Fremantle Oval	17,500
	Casey Fields TIO Traeger Park	12,000 7,000
	VU Whitten Oval	12,000
	Ikon Park Marvel Stadium	21,000 56,000
	Victoria Park Morwell Recreation Reserve Marvel Stadium	15,000 12,000 56,000
	RSEA Park	10,000
	Mineral Resources Park Leederville Oval Optus Stadium	15,000 15,000 60,000

Impact of 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

The 2020 season was disrupted and then brought to an early end by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was formally declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020, prior to Round 6. The pandemic had the following effects on the season:

• All matches played from 14 March onwards were played to empty stadiums.^[5]
• The final two rounds of the home-and-away season were scratched and the finals brought forward by two weeks, being played based on ladder positions at the time.^[6]
• The finals series was expanded from six teams to eight. Under the original schedule, the top team in each conference was to advance directly to the preliminary finals while the second and third placed teams played off in semi-finals; but under the modified system, the fourth placed teams also qualified, and faced the first placed teams in semi-finals. Partway through the finals series, it was announced that no premiership will be awarded after the Victorian government announced a shutdown of all non-essential operations on 22 March 2020.^[7]

Home-and-away season

The originally scheduled eight-round fixture and make-up of the conferences was released on 29 October 2019.^[8]

• All starting times are Australian Eastern Time.
• home games originally scheduled at the Swinburne Centre, the club's home ground, were later moved to Ikon Park out of concerns for crowd capacity.^[9]

Round 6

Ladders

Progression by round

• Numbers highlighted in green indicates the team finished the round inside the top 3.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished in first place in the conference for that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place in the conference for that round.

Conference A

width=20 abbr="Position"		width=400px	Team	width=30 abbr="Round 1"	1	width=30 abbr="Round 2"	2	width=30 abbr="Round 3"	3	width=30 abbr="Round 4"	4	width=30 abbr="Round 5"	5	width=30 abbr="Round 6"	6	width=30 abbr="Round 7"	7	width=30 abbr="Round 8"	8
1								x	x
2								x	x
3								x	x
4								x	x
5								x	x
6								x	x
7								x	x

Conference B

width=20 abbr="Position"		width=400px	Team	width=30 abbr="Round 1"	1	width=30 abbr="Round 2"	2	width=30 abbr="Round 3"	3	width=30 abbr="Round 4"	4	width=30 abbr="Round 5"	5	width=30 abbr="Round 6"	6	width=30 abbr="Round 7"	7	width=30 abbr="Round 8"	8
1								x	x
2								x	x
3								x	x
4								x	x
5								x	x
6								x	x
7								x	x

Finals series

Semi finals

Win–loss table

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	SF	PF	GF	Ladder
							GCS	Rich	X	X	X	A6
Brisbane Lions							Rich	NM		X	X	A3
							WCE	Frem		NM	X	B2
							StK	Geel		X	X	B4
							Melb	Carl		Melb	X	B1
							GWS	Coll	X	X	X	A5
Gold Coast							Adel	Melb		X	X	A4
							Geel	WB		X	X	A2
							Frem	GCS		Frem	X	B3
							WB	BL		Carl	X	A1
							BL	Adel	X	X	X	A7
							Coll	WCE	X	X	X	B5
West Coast							Carl	StK	X	X	X	B7
							NM	GWS	X	X	X	B6

Awards

League awards

• The league best and fairest was awarded to Madison Prespakis of, who polled 15 out of 18 votes.^[10]
• The leading goalkicker was awarded to Caitlin Greiser of, who kicked ten goals during the home and away season.
• The Rising Star was awarded to Isabel Huntington of the .^[11]
• There was no Grand Final best on ground medal awarded, as the match was not played on account of the season's early termination due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• The goal of the year was awarded to Kate Hore of .^[12]
• The mark of the year was awarded to Rebecca Privitelli of .^[12]
• AFLW Players Association awards
  • The most valuable player was awarded to Jasmine Garner .^[13]
  • The most courageous player was awarded to Kiara Bowers .^[13]
  • The best captain was awarded to Daisy Pearce .^[13]
  • The best first year player was awarded to Georgia Patrikios .^[13]
• The AFLW Coaches Association champion player of the year was awarded to Jasmine Garner .^[14]
• Karen Paxman was named captain of the All-Australian team. Twelve of the fourteen clubs had at least one representative in the 21-woman team.^[15]
• were the lowest ranked team overall, and thus could be said to have "won" the wooden spoon, though this is a contestable claim given the use of conferences.

Best and fairests

Club	Award name	Player	Ref.
	Club Champion
	Best and fairest
	Best and fairest
	Best and fairest
	Fairest and best
	Best and fairest
	Best and fairest
	Gabrielle Trainor Medal
	Best and fairest
	Best and fairest
	Best and fairest
	Best and fairest
	Susan Alberti Award
	Best and fairest

AFLW leading goalkicker

• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the season's goal kicking tally at the end of that round. The total is updated following the conclusion of the round.

width=20 abbr="#"	Rank	width=110 abbr="Player"	Player	width=110 abbr="Team"	Team	width=20 abbr="Round 1"	1	width=20 abbr="Round 2"	2	width=20 abbr="Round 3"	3	width=20 abbr="Round 4"	4	width=20 abbr="Round 5"	5	width=20 abbr="Round 6"	6	width=20 abbr="Round 7"	7	width=20 abbr="Round 8"	8	width=20 abbr="Total"	Total
1	Caitlin Greiser	St Kilda	00	22	24	15	27	310	x	x	10
2	Sabreena Duffy	Fremantle	44	15	05	05	49	09	x	x	9
	Kalinda Howarth	Gold Coast	00	00	30	21	02	42	x	x
4	Kaitlyn Ashmore	North Melbourne	11	01	34	04	48	08	x	x	8
	Jesse Wardlaw	Brisbane	11	34	15	27	18	08	x	x
	Jasmine Garner	North Melbourne	00	22	13	03	25	38	x	x
7	Tayla Harris	Carlton	11	12	13	25	16	17	x	x	7
	Cora Staunton	GWS	00	00	11	01	45	27	x	x
9	Rebecca Privitelli	GWS	00	00	33	14	26	06	x	x	6
	Ashley Sharp	Fremantle	00	00	11	01	23	36	x	x
	Daisy Bateman	North Melbourne	11	01	23	25	05	16	x	x

Source^[16]

Coach changes

Club	Outgoing coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming coach	Date of appointment
	Inaugural coach			^[17]	13 December 2018
	Inaugural coach			^[18]	5 March 2019
	Inaugural coach			^[19]	17 April 2019
	Inaugural coach			^[20]	19 June 2019
		End of contract^[21]	15 May 2020	^[22]	6 November 2020
		End of contract^[23]	4 June 2020		4 June 2020
		Resigned^[24]	25 September 2020	^[25]	12 January 2021

Club leadership

Club	Coach	Captain(s)	Vice-captain(s)	Leadership group	Ref
	Matthew Clarke	Erin Phillips, Chelsea Randall	Courtney Cramey, Ange Foley	Sarah Allan, Jess Foley, Marijana Rajcic	^[26] ^[27]
	Craig Starcevich	Emma Zielke	Sharni Webb	Emily Bates, Breanna Koenen, Kate Lutkins	^[28]
	Daniel Harford	Kerryn Harrington, Katie Loynes		Alison Downie, Sarah Hosking, Nicola Stevens	^[29]
	Stephen Symonds	Steph Chiocci	Ash Brazill, Brianna Davey		^[30]
	Trent Cooper	Kara Antonio		Ebony Antonio, Kiara Bowers, Hayley Miller, Gabby O'Sullivan	^[31]
	Paul Hood	Melissa Hickey	Meg McDonald	Renee Garing, Jordan Ivey, Aasta O'Connor	^[32]
	David Lake	Leah Kaslar, Sam Virgo		Tiarna Ernst, Sally Riley, Jamie Stanton	^[33]
	Alan McConnell	Alicia Eva		Jessica Dal Pos, Pepa Randall, Cora Staunton, Britt Tully	^[34] ^[35]
	Mick Stinear	Daisy Pearce	Karen Paxman		^[36]
	Scott Gowans	Emma Kearney	Jasmine Garner	Emma King, Brittany Gibson	^[37]
	Tom Hunter	Katie Brennan	Christina Bernardi	Phoebe Monahan, Lauren Tesoriero	^[38]
	Peta Searle	Cat Phillips, Kate Shierlaw, Rhiannon Watt			^[39]
	Luke Dwyer	Emma Swanson	Dana Hooker	Maddy Collier, Courtney Guard, Alicia Janz	^[40]
	Nathan Burke	Ellie Blackburn	Brooke Lochland	Isabel Huntington, Kirsty Lamb, Hannah Scott, Lauren Spark	^[41]

See also

• 2019 AFL Women's draft

External links

• Official AFL Women's website

Notes and References

1. Web site: AFLW: Tasmania-North Melbourne and Geelong win licenses to field teams in 2019. ABC News. 27 September 2017.
2. News: AFLW season up in air after bargaining agreement fails to pass player vote. Australian Associated Press. 2019-10-06. The Guardian. 2019-10-07. en-GB. 0261-3077.
3. Web site: Landslide 'yes' vote ensures 2020 AFLW season will go ahead. AFL Women's. 28 October 2019.
4. Web site: 2020 fixture and conferences revealed. AFL Women's. 29 October 2019.
5. Web site: Coronavirus crisis: What we know, what we don't. 13 March 2020. 13 March 2020. Australian Football League. Jourdan Canil.
6. Web site: Straight to finals: AFLW season cut short due to coronavirus. Sarah Black. 18 March 2020. 18 March 2020. Australian Football League.
7. Web site: No premiership in 2020: AFLW season ends immediately. Jourdan. Canil. Womens.AFL.com.au. Telstra Media. 22 March 2020.
8. Web site: 2020 Fixtures. AFL Women's . 24 February 2020.
9. Web site: Richmond AFLW home games moved to Ikon Park . www.richmondfc.com.au . 5 January 2020 . 24 February 2020.
10. Web site: Young Blue caps incredible rise with top gong. AFL Women’s. 28 April 2020.
11. Web site: Star Dog bounces back from injuries to claim Rising Star award. AFL Women’s. 28 April 2020.
12. Web site: Mark and Goal of the year revealed. AFL Women’s. 26 April 2020.
13. News: AFLPA award winners revealed: MVP, best captain, more. 24 April 2020 . AFL Women's . 20 April 2020.
14. News: AFLW coaches' champion player . 20 April 2020 . AFL Coaches Association. 24 April 2020.
15. Web site: AFLW All-Australian team for 2020 revealed: 12 clubs represented as two stars make history. Fox Sports Australia. 27 April 2020.
16. Web site: AFL - Every Goalkicker. australianfootball.com.
17. Web site: AFLW: Eagles development coach to lead new team. Sarah. Black. Telstra. Australian Football League. 13 December 2018.
18. Web site: David Lake appointed inaugural GC SUNS AFLW Coach. Telstra. Gold Coast. 5 March 2019.
19. News: Saints appoint Peta Searle as AFLW coach. Michael. Ramsey. The Age. 17 April 2019.
20. Web site: The hunt is over: Tigers name inaugural coach. Sarah. Black. Telstra. AFL Women's. 19 June 2019.
21. Web site: Tom Hunter to depart Richmond. Telstra. Richmond. 15 May 2020.
22. Web site: Ryan Ferguson appointed AFLW coach. Telstra. Richmond. 6 November 2020.
23. Web site: AFLW: Gowans to depart. Telstra. North Melbourne. 4 June 2020.
24. News: West Coast Eagles women's coach Luke Dwyer steps down after one season amid COVID-19 carnage. Braden. Quartermaine. The West Australian. 25 September 2020.
25. News: Daniel Pratt confirmed for dual West Coast Eagles coaching roles at WAFL and AFLW level. John. Townsend. The West Australian. 12 January 2021.
26. Web site: AFLW: 2020 co-captains locked in. Telstra Media. Adelaide. 6 January 2020.
27. Web site: AFLW: Five-person leadership group announced. Telstra Media. Adelaide. 28 January 2020.
28. Web site: Emma Zielke returns as Captain. Josie. Fielding. Brisbane Lions. Telstra Media. 18 December 2019.
29. News: Loynes and Harrington to replace Davey as Carlton opt for co-captains. The Age. 12 December 2019.
30. Web site: Chiocci to lead Pies for a fourth season. Collingwood. Telstra Media. 10 December 2019.
31. News: Hayley Miller voted into Fremantle's AFLW leadership group for 2020. Bonnie. Raynor. The West Australian. 18 December 2019.
32. News: Young . Lachie . 2020 AFLW Geelong Cats: Melissa Hickey named captain, Meg McDonald vice-captain for Geelong . . 14 January 2020.
33. News: Your inaugural AFLW Captains. . 3 February 2020.
34. Web site: Farrugia Calls Time as Eva Takes Over Captaincy. Greater Western Sydney Giants. Telstra Media. 24 November 2019.
35. Web site: Three New Faces in AFLW Leadership Group. Greater Western Sydney Giants. Telstra Media. 17 January 2020.
36. Web site: Nobes . Caitlin . Pearce to lead Demons in 2020 . . . 20 January 2020.
37. Web site: AFLW: Kearney to lead again. 25 November 2019. North Melbourne. Telstra Media.
38. Web site: Katie Brennan becomes Richmond's inaugural AFLW captain . . . 15 January 2020.
39. News: St Kilda names Cat Phillips, Kate Shierlaw and Rhiannon Watt as inaugural AFLW captains. Lauren. Wood. Herald Sun. 14 January 2020.
40. Web site: Midfielder Emma Swanson appointed inaugural captain of West Coast Eagles AFLW team. 12 December 2019. The Sunday Times.
41. Web site: Blackburn named AFLW captain. Telstra Media. Western Bulldogs. 24 January 2020.