- Match payments stopped for two VFLW squads
- Players from Port Melbourne and Essendon
- Numerous said to be ‘angry and frustrated’
Players from Port Melbourne’s VFLW squad are seething after being informed they won’t be paid for the 2025 season.
The decision follows a meeting with the club’s CEO and two board members, who confirmed the funding previously allocated to the women’s program has now ended.
And earlier this week, Essendon players in the same women’s competition were told previous match payments of $70 wouldn’t be in use this year.
They will also play purely for the love of the game.
‘We are pretty flat, a bit angry and frustrated,’ one Bombers player told ABC Sport.
‘A lot of it also came with the fact that, we went in thinking that if we were going to get our whole pay cut, the men would get a bit of a cut, but they said that they weren’t touching the men’s pay.
Players from Port Melbourne’s and Essendon’s VFLW squads are seething after being informed they won’t be paid for the 2025 season (both clubs are pictured)
Port Melbourne won the VFLW grand final in 2023 – but may have a tough season in 2025 given no players will receive game day payments
‘[So, yeah] just feeling a bit undervalued.’
The men’s side recently signed former Essendon captain Dyson Heppell on a two-year contract for the 2025 and 2026 seasons in a dual role as player and community ambassador.
Bombers great James Hird is also working at the club in a director of coaching role.
At Port Melbourne, one physiotherapist was tasked with overseeing 45 players from the women’s squad.
The ladies also trained at Lagoon Reserve this week, which is a suburban dog park.
‘If they [club] could show that they were putting our pay into our program and our resources, I think we would be more OK with it,’ another player stated.
‘But yeah, that’s also frustrating. We are not even seeing any improvements in the program. In fact, it’s gone down from last year, the quality of it.
‘It is sad to see what is happening across VFLW.’
In 2018, Hawthorn were the first club to pay VFLW players in the state-wide competition.
It came when the club was pushing hard for an AFLW license, which was granted ahead of the 2022 campaign.
At the time, then Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett said at the women’s launch the players ‘won’t become millionaires overnight’ – but should be paid for their time and effort.
