Melbourne City Women vs Wanderers Women 3/1/2016 2:00PM

10 minutes in and it's 0-1 already

Does w-league have cap?

Lost 4-0.

 

 

Does w-league have cap?

 

Yes. $150,000.

Lost 4-0.

 

 

 

Does w-league have cap?

Yes. $150,000.

Wow. City have done awfully well to attract some of the country's best talent into one squad.

The season only really lasts about 4 months so you have about $37500 a month to pay the whole squad, although with no minimum, you would likely have a fair chunk of the squad getting paid nothing.

I heard that City are the only club in the W-League to spend the whole cap and the rest don't come close to it.

 

They'll win the league by a mile.

They already did before they played us.

 

Lost 4-0.

 

Does w-league have cap?

Yes. $150,000.

Wow. City have done awfully well to attract some of the country's best talent into one squad.

 

 

 

The season only really lasts about 4 months so you have about $37500 a month to pay the whole squad, although with no minimum, you would likely have a fair chunk of the squad getting paid nothing.

 

 

I heard that City are the only club in the W-League to spend the whole cap and the rest don't come close to it.

 

They'll win the league by a mile.

 

I guess here lies the argument about needing to increase women's pay sports: demonstrably better performance by those who actually get paid a decent amount. I haven't watched Melb City play tbh, but considering the state of the ladder it's obvious to see that them being owned by fat oil money and paying far better than the opposition has had a positive result for them.

 

The argument of "Oh women can't get paid properly because they don't play as well as the men's teams" is kind of a dead duck; if you pay the players properly then they'll have more of a desire to play better.

 

Then again, I can't imagine the individual clubs (particularly Canberra United) are that wealthy...

Have you watched any W-league? The standard is relatively poor to begin with. There are plenty of 15 and 16 year olds running around out there (often because they have better raw skill than some older players - there is no youth league after all). There is a huge gulf in class between the best players (Matildas and imports) and the rest, City have targeted a strong first 11-13 and probably filled the rest with youngsters on next to nothing. They have four Matildas and three Young Matildas, plus three imports from Man City and Seattle Reign and one in the Mexican national team.

Not trying to take anything away, a season unbeaten (so far) is a huge achievement, particularly in your first season. But as Mack said, they're the only ones spending the whole cap.

I've only ever been to two games that Canberra United has played (my partner is friends with one of those 15 year olds that play for the team), and yes the standard has been quite low. However in the case of the W-League I don't think they are able to develop their skills over due to lack of promising future career prospects and the reality of having to have another job to go along with your football since the wage isn't enough. I remember reading one of the Matilda's complaining about how having a job as a teacher made it that much more difficult to fully participate in training and development.

 

I have noticed the abundance of youngsters in the teams, and you mention the lack of a youth league. A youth league would definitely help boost the quality of the W-League. But when the FFA struggles to make a profit, and with the exception of MelbCity the clubs aren't probably well financed...I guess that avenue is a while off unfortunately.

Again, not wanting to take anything away from them. The W-league players are the definition of passion and playing for the love of it because they're rarely rewarded for it.

 

General question: Do many NPL teams have women's teams? Or is it only for the local, lower leagues?

I think you'll find that not paying the players is exactly the reason that the teams are 50% teenagers. Once they are of an age where school is finished and they need to either get jobs or do further study to have any possibility of being able to support themselves both now and later in life the importance of football falls away. Even those who are paid still need, in many cases, at least part time jobs to survive.

 

Its a catch 22 the standard isn't going to improve until you can pay the players enough to dedicate more time to football but the money isn't going to come in until the standard improves.

 

I think its good that its on TV now and the number of double headers with the womens games prior to the A league has increased the exposure (slightly). These initiatives have the potential to increase the funds coming in. The club does a good job highlighting the games in the match program and in the ground announcements at A League games and has improved the social media promotion also. but i have to say the response from fans is still disappointing. I must admit i've only gone to 2 W-league games this year and they were the Newcastle Double header and the derby game that was prior to one of our games at Wanderland. 

Some interesting figures. W-League average crowds at Wanderers home games:

Season 1: 334
Season 2: 506
Season 3: 840
Season 4 (one game left): 1,208

We currently hold the W-League record for the highest crowd in a stand-alone (non double-header) match which was 3,084 in season three. Compare this to Melbourne Victory [one of the strongest clubs on and off the field, despite their poor on-field results this season) who took five seasons for a single match of theirs to crack 1,000 attendance and who were still getting crowds of under 150 in their fourth season.

I look forward to seeing what these numbers will be like when we have a team who is challenging for the title!

Especially like that last sentence CL

The reason for that crowd (I thought it broke 4k) was a Sydney derby at Marconi.

 

I'd be livid if I found out some our girls are not being paid, I don't care if Ellie Carpenter is 15 she plays in the highest women's league in the country.

Many of our girls aren't paid or are underpaid.

 

The club should make a commitment to spending the whole 150k cap. I personally would be willing to pay a $10 levy on membership to fund this.

Many of our girls aren't paid or are underpaid.

The club should make a commitment to spending the whole 150k cap. I personally would be willing to pay a $10 levy on membership to fund this.

 

Maybe an optional extra when applying for the membership?

Many of our girls aren't paid or are underpaid.

The club should make a commitment to spending the whole 150k cap. I personally would be willing to pay a $10 levy on membership to fund this.

 

Many of our girls aren't paid or are underpaid.

The club should make a commitment to spending the whole 150k cap. I personally would be willing to pay a $10 levy on membership to fund this.

Maybe an optional extra when applying for the membership?

Brilliant idea. I was thinking about maybe donating a bit to the Canberra United team through their sponsors just to do a little bit to help with the local women's football scene. I'd give double that if the Wanderers had some kind of donation scheme that went directly towards developing the women's team

 

Bit of a stretch but is anybody coming down to our nation's glorious capital for the WSW game against Canberra? I don't want to have to face the Canberra United hooligans myself...

Edited January 5, 2016 by Valter43