Crows AFLW coach Matthew Clarke is confident the League will see out the season after last year’s unprecedented shutdown.
The Round One and Round Two fixtures were reshuffled to accommodate for COVID-19 border closures, a move Clarke said showed the AFL’s commitment to a full nine rounds.
“Everyone recognises the amazing momentum that’s been generated around ALFW in the past four seasons,” he said during Wednesday’s Crows Live event.
“To lose that momentum would be a real shame.
“Everyone in the league is aware of that and there’s a really strong push to make sure that we do everything possible to get the season away and get a premier crowned.”
Clarke said the girls had put in the extra effort after the COVID-19 “blip” last November, which cut short a week of pre-season.
“It’s been a really good pre-season, we got through a lot of work in a really short space of time,” he said.
“Last year, we were a little bit disappointing in contest and defence, but probably our ball movement really dropped away.”
“We spent a lot of time speeding up our ball movement and getting that ball forward efficiently.”
Clarke expected a new wave of leaders would be ready to rise to the occasion following Erin Phillips' decision to step down from the captaincy.
“We’ve been blessed to have two outstanding leaders since our inaugural season in Erin and Chelsea (Randall),” he said.
“Erin has chosen to take a sideways step to allow some of those younger leaders to come through, but she’ll still have a really strong influence on the group.
“We’re in a really fortunate position as a team that we do have a breadth of leadership.”
Adelaide will now fly to Perth on Saturday, January 30, to take on West Coast in Round One.
Round Two will still be Adelaide’s first home game of the season, and the Crows will host Fremantle on Sunday, February 7 in the inaugural Pride Round at Norwood Oval.
Tickets for Round Two will be available to AFLW members at 9am Monday 1 February and the General Public at 11am.
