GEORGIE PARKER: Why less could be more amid hectic AFLW schedule as Collingwood’s Brianna Davey is sidelined

Three games in nine days and four in 14.

That is what AFLW teams are having to manage in this condensed fixture period due to the season changing from 10 matches to 11 this season.

The midweek games create very short turnarounds during which injuries - that would normally result in one match out - turn into several with the end result being a poor product for spectators.

The players and fans both wanted more matches, but what is the cost?

This may be an unpopular opinion for many fighting the fight for the women’s game like me, but I would rather 10 games if this is what 11 looks like.

If we can’t have matches being played at reasonable times for fans to enjoy and the game to grow, and are losing our best players to injury, then the extra match is not worth it.

Is more actually better? Time will tell, but right now I don’t think so.

I want this league to work, and I want the women to have a longer season, but the best players need to be playing to set the standard required to elevate this game.

At the moment, this isn’t happening. Some injuries can be put down to conditioning and the lack of squad depth, both of which will improve over time, but there are issues with this condensed fixture that are out of the club’s hands.

Take Collingwood captain Bri Davey, who is out with a concussion. The 12-day mandatory protocol will result in her missing two matches due to multiple short turnarounds.

In the men’s league, where there is never back-to-back five-day breaks, a player can never miss more than one game due to a concussion. Collingwood, however, had a four-day break followed by two five-day breaks.

We need players like Davey to be on the field, not just for her wellbeing, but also for the quality of the product the AFLW is selling.

She is one of the best in the competition and the fact she isn’t playing has nothing to do with her conditioning or her ability, but because the matches are too close together so the protocol means she cannot play.

At the moment this is just setting the women up for an impossible task.

The AFL is expecting AFLW players to perform at a standard close to the men, yet that is impossible to do due to the continual barriers being put in front of them by the league that is meant to be supporting them.

I don’t like the AFLW being compared to the AFL. I think that is a dangerous game and one that the women will not win, but how the game is administrated can be done with the same framework as the men.

The AFL is the gold standard of sporting administration in the country, which is why I have high expectations of how they should run the women’s league.

It should either extend the season to allow for the extra game or keep the season at the same length with 10 games, because at the moment the women up are being set up to fail.