Quince paste and hand-picked grapes have played a part in helping the Sydney Swans launch themselves to the top of the AFLW attendance charts, less than two years after their first match in the women’s league.
The Swans play their final home match of the regular season this weekend with an average attendance of 4,365 from four games so far – 124 more than the next best club Adelaide – and a marquee pride match against Collingwood at Henson Park to come on Sunday where a crowd in excess of 4,000 is expected.
The club’s focus has been to target local communities and make match days compelling for fans on and off the field, according to executive GM of marketing at the Swans, Loretta Johns.
“Our team has put a lot of work into sourcing some wonderful food offerings, entertainment and activities for kids, while we’ve had a local focus in promoting our games,” she said.
Fans of Australian rules football in the Harbour City have a reputation for being fickle. After a winless campaign in 2022, the Swans – led by ex-Collingwood player Chloe Molloy – have been competitive this season. The team won their first AFLW match in round one and are within a game of the top eight with two rounds to play.
But general manager of women’s football at the AFL, Nicole Livingstone, said the Swans’ off-field offering had tapped into something “uniquely Sydney” and helped make matches more attractive.
“To go to North Sydney Oval and to have quince paste and hand-picked grapes, cheddar cheese and biscuits in a little box that’s got this beautiful wrapping on it – they’ve really thought about what they’re doing and made it an experience,” she said.
“Even at Henson Park [the Swans’ other home ground in Sydney’s gentrified inner west], they’ve gone to microbreweries in the local area and invited them in, but also promoted through their clientele to come to the football.”
The Swans forward Bella Smith said the players were proud of the club’s attendance record, and were grateful for the support. “We get there two hours before the start of the game and the hill [at Henson Park] is bare. When you come out for the first team warm-up, the hill is slowly filling and then by the time the first bounce gets around, it is full,” she said. “You can hear it, the atmosphere is amazing.”
The average attendance for the AFLW is a little over 2,500 a match this year, tracking approximately on par with previous seasons and with a finals uptick likely to come. But crowds are short of targets that could accelerate the extension of the regular season, which grows from 10 games this year to 12 games by 2025.
The league enjoyed strong attendances in round one, which were partly attributed to the so-called Matildas effect, but some clubs have struggled to attract fans in large numbers this season. Crowds of less than 1,500 have been recorded in both traditional markets such as Melbourne and Perth, as well as areas targeted for growth like Blacktown and the Gold Coast.
The A-League Women launched this month with a first round highlighted by a crowd of more than 11,000 in Sydney. But more modest attendances in subsequent games, including two sub-2,000 crowds in Perth, suggest the popularity of the Matildas’ run to the semi-finals has only had a limited impact on support for domestic women’s sport.
Livingstone said the “green and gold fever” associated with the Women’s World Cup was a one-off and the AFL has plans in place for long-term growth. “We’ll continue to keep building the base and keep building the foundations and have it not just strong at year seven, season eight, but strong for generations to come.”
In a bid to improve the spectacle of the AFLW, the league introduced longer quarters this year and an interchange cap to help increase scoring. The effect, according to Livingstone, has been positive.
“We’ve increased game time by eight minutes per match, on average, and we’ve had record scores across the rounds,” she said. “Whereas leading into the season we hadn’t scored more than 100 goals in a round, we’ve regularly been scoring over 100 goals in a round.”
The Swans recorded their highest total last round, in their 14-12-96 to 6-3-39 defeat of the Western Bulldogs, the league’s winless bottom side. Molloy recorded 17 score involvements to set a new AFLW mark.
But Livingstone said the AFL was happy with the level of competition. “Our ladder, from position five to 13 – there’s only a game separating it. It just shows that this is a really competitive competition.”
