MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The title-deciding “Grand Final” for the women’s top flight of Australian Rules football will have a prime-time slot for the first time in a landmark for the women’s game, the league confirmed on Wednesday.
The season-ending match of Australian Football League Women (AFLW) will kick off at 7:45 p.m. local time (0845 GMT) on Nov. 30 with the highest-ranked qualifier in the playoffs to host the match.
“This will enable more people to watch the biggest game on the AFLW calendar, exposing more people to our great game and an unforgettable atmosphere to close the season,” AFLW general manager Emma Moore told Australian media.
“We were up in every metric, crowd, broadcast numbers and games (this season).”
The men’s AFL competition has long played its Grand Finals on a Saturday afternoon slot in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, though the 2020 and 2021 deciders were hosted under lights in Brisbane and Perth respectively due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Since starting with eight teams in the AFLW’s inaugural season in 2017, the competition has expanded to 18 teams to match the men’s league.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Michael Perry)
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