AFTER an agonising wait for many AFL Women’s hopefuls, the 2022 AFL Women’s Draft date has been set – June 29. In a landmark announcement by the AFL today, the worst kept secret – of an August starting date – was revealed, with the full season calendars announced.

Season 7 of the AFL Women’s will kick off on the weekend of August 25-27, and run until November, with the first week of finals set to take place November 4-6 after 10 rounds of action. The AFL Women’s Grand Final will take place on the weekend of November 25-27, which will be the day following the AFL Men’s Draft.

The AFL Women’s Draft will take place on Wednesday, June 29, and will mark the first time all 18 clubs will partake in the event. It gives the budding AFLW Draft prospects just over a month to prepare for the day, which will include the AFLW Draft Combines around the country, next Wednesday, May 25.

Prior to the AFLW Draft, the Sign and Trade Period will take place from May 31, enabling clubs to trade players or picks in order to strengthen their list or draft hand depending on their position. In some cases where a standout prospect is in a state (such as Western Australia or South Australia), the higher ranked clubs in Adelaide and Fremantle may try and bargain their way up the draft boards.

For a team like Sydney, who might have a lower draft pool to select from, the Swans may look to ship off high selections in order to bring in high quality talent given their draft pool is just the two teams. Naturally the Swans, Port Adelaide, Essendon and Hawthorn will all receive two picks inside the Top 8, before the reverse ladder order begins after that. From that point on, the four sides will also receive a pick at the end of each round.

Those players lucky enough to be selected on June 29, will come into preseason a few weeks after it has begun, with Season 7 preseason beginning on June 13. That allows the AFL Women’s players just over two months to prepare for the 10-week season. The aim is to increase the length of the season in the coming years, with a full-time 17-round competition by 2026. Though the regular season has remained as per the status quo, the increase in teams has seen the finals revert to an eight-team series, which will run for four weeks in an identical fashion to the men’s series.

The other major talking point for the the women’s competition was the pay increase, and all tiers of the lists have received a boost of almost double their previous salaries. Two players on each AFL Women’s list will occupy a Tier 1 and two other a Tier 2, with the former earning $71,93, a massive boost up from $37,155, whilst the latter will take home $55,559, well up from $28,697. The remaining tiers are Tier 3 ($47,372 up from $24,468) and Tier 4 ($39,184 up from $20,239).

The AFL Women’s Season 7 fixture will be released in due course, but for now the key dates and pay are locked in, with Rookie Me Central delighted to bring you all the coverage and lead-up to the AFL Women’s Draft.

AFLW Season 7:

• AFLW Expansion Signing Period 24 May 2022
• Sign and Trade Period 31 May 2022
• NAB AFLW Draft 29 June 2022
• Pre-season commences 13 June 2022
• Season Commences, 25-27 August 2022*
• Finals commences, 4-6 November 2022*
• NAB AFLW Grand Final, Weekend of 25-27 November 2022*