AFLW players have secured a 94% pay increase in a deal hailed as "a giant step forward" for the fast-growing league Down Under, but a move to an August start to the season is likely to have negative ramifications for inter-county sides on Irish shores.
The AFLW pre-season commences on 13 June, with Gaelic football set to suffer as Irish players will be forced to make tough decisions prompted by the calendar switch from an Aussie summer slot to a winter campaign.
The TG4 All-Ireland championship starts on 11 June, which means inter-county players signed with AFLW clubs will need to seek permission to skip part of pre-season, or else miss out on this year's GAelic football season.
In a one-year collective bargaining agreement struck by the AFL and the players' association, athletes across all levels of the women's game will receive a significant boost in salary.
The top two players at each club will now get $71,935 a season, up from $37,155, with that figure expected to inflate to over $100,000 for select players when other allowances are added.
The minimum wage also increased 94% to $39,184 (€26,070).
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said the deal provided certainty for players and clubs and reflected the continued growth of the sport.
"The agreement represents a landmark improvement in pay for AFLW players and a historic level of investment in domestic women's sport," he said.
"It is a giant step forward in achieving our vision of ensuring AFLW players are the best-paid female athletes in any local professional competition by 2030."
While men have been playing Australian Rules for around 160 years, women only got their own league in 2017.
It followed high viewing figures for a televised exhibition game that prompted administrators to bring forward the launch of a national competition for women by four years.
Since then the AFLW has gone from strength to strength, with four new clubs set to enter next season, making it an 18-team competition when play gets under way in late August.
