Pretty cool IMO. I think she'll do well, too.

Shows how lucrative this is going to be for women athletes when a wnba player can choose to change sports .
Good for her,

I think Erin's situation is fairly unique.
I don't know what the AFL is paying the women for their 2 months but I'm pretty confident that she could play basketball in Europe and earn quite a bit more.
I'd say this is more about passion for her than money.

She says that her dream is to play footy at the MCG, and apparently it fits between the WNBA season. I think it's great. It shows how skilled she is to be able to switch between codes

She dominated in junior footy playing with the boys until they made her stop and she showed enough even in the couple of Slowdown games she played (Crows legends vs Port legends) a few years ago that she'll be a good player.

Put it this way Lleyton Hewitt used to tell anyone that would listen that he would've been a footy player if not for tennis and she looked 2-3 times better than him in those Slowdowns.

I don't think Erin is playing for the money, she's definitely playing for personal reasons and good on her.

She would be the marque style player they need in their squad.

The women's league is starting off small and in 5 years time is likely to be quite an important cog in the AFL marketing machine.

fyi - Erin couldn't easily make that (200k) by herself in Europe in a season.

No taxes and a long euro season plus the conversion to $AUD could see her getting within that ball park although if you're not a key player on UMMC Ekaterinburg or playing in China as an import the money made in Europe isn't ridiculous.

I too question how honourable the AFL's motives are, but right now this new thing has some excitement and momentum behind it so I don't blame people for giving it a crack. For Erin in particular the timing really couldn't be better.

That's kind of what this place is about ;-)

This is great for Erin, an amazing opportunity to step in and be a star in a sport she loves. Hopefully we'll see her in Opals uniform though, she is the type of player who is prepared to do the little things that make teams win.

My point is - so what if the AFL is "nasty" and doesn't really care about women's sport? Right now they are giving women's sport a *lot* of promotion and some cash.
What do people expect female athletes to do in response? Say no thanks we'll sit this one out?

The AFL doesn't really care about men's sport either. It cares about monopolising the sports market as best it can. The result of that right now is an average salary for AFL players of $250k and rising.

Different sports suddenly competing for female athletes is not a bad thing for females. Yes it's probably bad for the WNBL, which is sad for me as a fan of the league, but that's also entirely the WNBL's own fault for having a 20+ year head start on the competition and wasting it.

I'm pretty sure BA are working on a TV deal. News of an announcement is imminent.

it is just flavour of the month

AFL is run like a business...Cricket is as well, and so would other sports if they actually had money and some sort of decent sized market. Probably can't criticise them for doing what businesses do - attempt to find and push a competitive edge. The public funding aspect might be hard to swallow though.

I agree with Luuuc in particular the WNBL wasting a 20 year head start.

I'm pretty sure BA are working on a TV deal. News of an announcement is imminent.

There is a obvious reason why women don't play AFL/rugby ....this will not end well.

Odd comment. She started all 6 games for the Opals in Rio.

I was happy enough just to see Ebony Antonio (ex West Coast Waves & Bendigo Spirit player) in action on the footy field, and she did pretty well too, but Erin is going to be even better.

There is a obvious reason why women don't play AFL/rugby ....this will not end well.

It certainly won't end well for 87.5% of them

Australian Bo Jackson?

@ Luuuc - she will be great as she is a different level of athlete to most others that will play in the league. That is if her body holds up.

@Koberulz, in approx 18 months remember my post....

Why would I do that when it's provably wrong now?

Don't forget they're only playing this league for 2 months.

But it's fine when men do it, of course, because they're adults and responsible for their own decisions.

@koberulz, "provably wrong now" what the hell are you talking about?
Women are already playing AFL rules football in Melbourne district clubs....

Yes, exactly.

And in Adelaide - for the full season.

I just hope that she has on "Out" clause for when the Power enter a team.
Father- daughter rule can come in play.

Funny arguments here. There are many sports where there's a risk of concussion. I got knocked out cold playing European Handball once, and have had concussion from basketball too.

Also - it's not about people wanting their daughters to play the sport. It's about people making their own decision to play the sport. Plenty of boys do it, and plenty of girls do it too.

It's no doubt a challenge for the WNBL (and netball), though it's lucky for other sports it'll only be a 2 month league for the time being..

I don't think Greenwood is, he's coming off the bench for the Crows reserves now. After an initial flurry I don't think he's done much all season but we'll see if he does anything in the Prelim Final against Sturt this Sunday.

Jesus I've barely seen him in either game and thought that had to be BS so looked up the official match reports on the SANFL site and true enough he was given the Crows best on ground against Centrals and their 2nd best on ground against South.

In my very weak defence he was named on the bench last week against South though.

F: Beech, Dear, Menzel
HF: Knight, Lowden, Milera
C: Seedsman, Grigg, Wigg
HB: van Berlo, Hampton, Henderson
B: Doedee, Otten, Kelly

R: O'Brien, Ellis-Yolmen, Gore
INT: Ramsey, Carey, Keath, Hunter, Greenwood

Confirmation bias. I hadn't seen much of him against Centrals, saw he was named on the bench against South again didn't see much of him against South so assumed he was going backwards.

Obviously not good luck to him although I want to see Sturt get up this Sunday to play the Eagles in the GF.

Would be terrible to see an AFL reserves team win an SANFL premiership.

Not sure being named on the bench or starting on the bench means too any more really..

Greenwood has improved as the season has gone on. Still not at AFL level though

Yeah, it does kinda stink.
Women's sport has been around for ages. Netball, Basketball, Soccer, you name it. And it has always struggled for money and exposure.

Now the AFL is just using its muscle to push all those other sports even further into the background.