'Stupid' A-League Women summer kick-off times slammed as Canberra United players and fans suffer

Vesna Milivojevic said it would take her days to recover physically from the draining Saturday game against Western United where temperatures soared to 35 degrees Celsius at McKellar Park.

"I think it's pretty stupid to be honest, to be playing at 3pm in the middle of an Australian summer," she said.

"So hopefully that can be changed."

It's the second game this season where United have had to endure scorching hot conditions, with Milivojevic recalling their round two clash in Brisbane as another shocking experience.

She said drinks breaks alone are not a solution, and urged the APL to introduce more night games during the summer months of the A-League Women competition.

"I don't know why we have to play 3pm. It deters a lot of fans from coming," she said. "Who would want to be sitting out in that heat with their kids?"

United midfielder Hayley Taylor-Young suffered heat exhaustion in the 5-0 loss on Saturday, as did at least two Western United players.

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Goalkeeper Chloe Lincoln said making necessary changes "should be the top priority" for the APL, particularly with the season set to extend to 22 rounds next season.

Lincoln is hopeful the APL will work with the Professional Footballers Australia to fix the issue which she said is "unsafe" for players and fans alike.

"Especially considering some players are actually suffering with heat stroke symptoms," Lincoln said.

"It's really important that we put the health and safety of the players and the fans first."

The PFA have been complaining about the issue of afternoon kick-offs in summer for some time, but discussions have intensified this season with both the men's and women's game impacted.

The APL's heat policy stipulates matches must be delayed or postponed if the ambient temperature nears 40 degrees Celsius, and/or the wet bulb globe temperature exceeds 28 degrees Celsius.

As such, the A-League Women's game in Blacktown on Saturday between Western Sydney Wanderers and Newcastle was rescheduled from 3pm to 5.30pm.

Western United's men's fixture on Saturday avoided being pushed back due to narrowly falling below the wet bulb globe temperature measure, but even with a 5pm kick-off, coach John Aloisi was fuming at the conditions his players and Macarthur faced at that time at Campbelltown Stadium.

"Football people who play and coach aren't listened to," Aloisi said.

"They want to make it a good spectacle but you can't do that when players are struggling to run.

"It doesn't invite a high-intensity game, you can't ship the ball as quickly and it's hard to play your style when it's like that."

Canberra were unwilling to blame their drubbing to league leaders Western United solely on the heat, but it certainly didn't help.

"As you fatigue, your mind starts to play tricks on you, and it tries to bring you down but you've really just got to push through that and have the mental toughness and resilience to keep going," Milivojevic said.

A disastrous first half saw five goals conceded and despite an improved second 45 performance, the team are desperate to address their poor form in recent games.

Heavy defeats back-to-back will lead to some "soul searching" this week according to coach Njegosh Popovich, and the players are motivated to right the ship on Sunday afternoon when they face the Newcastle Jets at home.

"We are really disappointed with the past few games and how we performed," Milivojevic said.

"It's not just the defence. You can't blame one line, you have to blame the whole team.

"Obviously, something went wrong.

"It's a big way a wake-up call for everyone that we can't take anything for granted, and we need to go into each game 100 percent focused."

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