Landmark five-year CBA to give 'immense' boost to AFLW Giants

This week the AFL and AFL Players Association announced a new five-year CBA which will deliver a 29 per cent pay pay increase for AFLW players for this season, and a whopping 77 per cent uplift by 2027.

It's the first time the CBA has been done for both AFL and AFLW players together.

Following a 94 per cent increase in 2022, AFLW players will now be further boosted with average salaries to rise from $46,000 to $60,000 this season, and then to $82,000 in four years' time.

Impressively, more than 90 top tier AFLW players will stand to earn more than $100,000 in 2023.

In addition to the pay increase, the AFLW season will extend to 12 rounds in 2025 and 14 rounds by 2027.

Giants head of women's football Briana Harvey said the CBA is a game-changer for AFLW players.

"The pressure that it takes off the playing group is enormous and it's really good for their wellbeing," Harvey told The Canberra Times.

"There can be some wellbeing and anxiety issues because players want to train and be the best they possibly can, but living in Sydney is not cheap, and petrol is not cheap, even if they love what they do.

"There comes a point where it can become quite stressful, so this will be a huge relief to the playing group."

Harvey said when the AFLW started salaries were around $20,000 and not enough to live off alone, but this "significant rise" in recent years will soon allow some players to reduce or altogether drop their work outside of football.

A majority of Giants players currently work part-time and even full-time in other jobs while also being contracted to play in the AFLW, juggling training, nutrition, travel and playing commitments.

Often Giants players will have to use annual leave in those other jobs to play games through the AFLW season.

"The girls train 20 hours a week, and so holding down a full-time job, particularly in Sydney, is really challenging," Harvey said.

"The big change with this CBA is also the 12-month contracts, so the girls know that they've got a continual income for the year.

"Hopefully it all just means they can take a bit of financial stress off themselves."

Harvey identified another bonus of the historic CBA. The AFLW's state-based draft set-up for top prospects currently limits the young talent available to teams, especially those outside of Victoria, like GWS.

Harvey said without a truly national AFLW draft a "competitive imbalance" exists, but that can be lessened with higher salaries able to attract more interstate players meaning recruits would be less reliant on needing to find other work in their new home.

"We've got some really talented players in NSW but obviously the majority of the talent is coming from Victoria, so it does open up the opportunity for players to be able to move interstate more, and that will help us immensely," she said.

The Giants lost 16.10 (106) to 5.7 (37) to the undefeated Adelaide Crows on Saturday at Manuka Oval.

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