Well aware of the need to grow the AFLW audience, Sydney coach Scott Gowans admits being "baffled" by the fixture clash between the Western Bulldogs men's and women's matches.
The Swans will kick off their campaign in a season-opening blockbuster against Collingwood at North Sydney Oval on Friday night as the league enters a new era.
Growing from 10 to 11 home-and-away rounds plus finals this year, the 18-team competition is due to play 12 regular-season rounds by 2025.
But expansion to 14 rounds, following a five-year collective bargaining agreement, will depend on achieving an average attendance of 6000 fans (up from 2606 last season), and average broadcast viewers of 100,000 (from 54,969).
Gowans says the AFL missed an opportunity to help the competition after it scheduled the Western Bulldogs' men's elimination final with Hawthorn against the club's first home game in round two of the AFLW season.
Fans will be forced to choose which team to support, with the Bulldogs women's side to take on Port Adelaide at Whitten Oval, before the men play the Hawks at the MCG in back-to-back fixtures.
"I think that's why the Bulldogs decision baffles you a little bit," Gowans said on Tuesday.
"We're all on board to try and lift the crowds and get the average attendance up to get another game into the season.
"You just want to have the right time slots, the right fixtures to allow us to all to do that.
"I don't know all the intricacies to it, but it feels like, from the outside looking in, that it was an opportunity missed and disappointing that the Bulldogs W team clashes with the men's program.
"There'll be reasons behind it, I'm sure, and the AFL would have to be aware of it, and they've made a decision based on the evidence they got.
"Maybe this is just one of those cases that it was either an opportunity missed or a commercial reason."
All-Australian ruck Ally Morphett is racing to prove her fitness for Friday night's match after fracturing the scaphoid bone in her hand last season.
Collingwood captain Brianna Davey is in the same boat after undergoing an ankle reconstruction in the off-season.
