Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan expects a decision on the composition of the inaugural AFL women’s competition to be reached by late-May.
Eight women's teams aligned with AFL clubs could form the new women's national competition planned for 2017.
The AFL is considering running a national competition in February and March next year that includes four teams from Victoria and one each from Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. Both SA-based AFL clubs are vying for the available licence.
The Crows have teamed up with the SANFL to promote and grow women’s football in the state.
The two organisations collaborated to maximise Adelaide’s planned talent trial in January, which also signalled the start of the SANFL All Stars Program for 2016. Over the past three weekends, some of the best female footballers in SA have trained at West Lakes under the guidance of Crows and SANFL coaches.
Former Adelaide Thunderbirds netball coach Jane Woodlands-Thompson and respected SA women’s football figure Narelle Smith have both joined the Club’s women’s football advisory committee, which is responsible for charting a path to the national league and driving player recruitment.
The Adelaide Football Club has also formed a significant partnership with the AFL Northern Territory. The proposed hybrid team would split home games between Adelaide and Darwin's Marrara Oval.
Initially, the AFL held concerns over the depth of female talent in SA, but McLachlan said he was confident the state could field a competitive team next year.
“Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland have been very strong and South Australia is playing catch up, but that’s the opportunity,” McLachlan said on FIVEaa.
“As you’ll know, the Crows have formed an alliance with the Northern Territory and there are a number of very talented women playing up there.
“In terms of having the depth of talent to have a competitive team in 2017, I think they (the governing bodies) are recruiting talent, developing juniors and there’s a whole program in place.
“The guys are confident they’ll be able to have a competitive team.”
McLachlan reaffirmed there was likely to be only one team from SA in the national women’s competition next year, but didn’t rule out adding a second team in future seasons.
He said the AFL Commission would consider a number of factors when awarding the women’s licences.
“The governance and how it blends into the club is one … (as well as) the program for developing women and running the team,” he said.
“The financial stuff will be important and then (in a) broader (sense) helping develop women’s football, generally. I don’t want to be too specific because it’s got to go through the AFL Commission in March, and then to the clubs in April.
“I think it’ll be a broad-based approach.”
In the lead up to the introduction of the women’s national competition, there will be 10 exhibition games in 2016 including two at Adelaide Oval.
McLachlan expected the national women’s competition to generate interest from not only aspiring participants, but broadcasters and sponsors.
“This is something new and fresh and it’ll take a long time to build, but there is such a passion for young women coming through to play our game and to be good at it,” he said.
“I think people were surprised by how good they were (in the exhibition game last year) and we were really enthused by the ratings of the Melbourne v Bulldogs game last year, which on Channel 7 peaked at half-a-million viewers and averaged over 300,000. It out-rated the men’s game that day.
“There are big brands who want to come and be involved with the women’s teams. It may be because they have a particular person running their business with a particular passion for women’s sport, or because of what it represents for the gender more broadly or because of that the product is that their business sells.
“There are a number of brands with significant money. We’ve got to work through the modelling, but this won’t be something that is a noose around clubs’ necks, it will be the opposite.”
