The women’s super panel will also address the match review system that prevented Western Bulldogs captain Katie Brennan from leading her side into the AFLW grand final, rules attacked by her legal representative Jack Rush, QC, as sexually discriminatory. To date the women players, disillusioned following the early season release of a contentious AFL memo instructing coaches how to change their tactics, have resisted all attempts by head office to modify the rules of their new elite competition. But according to Hocking, the charter will underline the significant differences between the men’s and women’s games, improve the quality and appeal of female football and make the game better and safer. Hocking told Fairfax Media he also saw AFLW as a separate commercial entity potentially attracting an entirely different set of sponsors and supporters. Despite the two parties being at odds over a push by the AFL to further separate AFLW from the traditional Australian rules game, Hocking remains determined to restructure and rewrite the rules of women’s football.

Work on the AFLW charter comes five years after then incoming league chief Gillon McLachlan set about establishing a document drawn up to protect the values and nuances of the men’s games. Hocking, AFLW boss Nicole Livingstone, AFL players chiefs Paul Marsh and Brett Murphy and two players from every club will hold talks on Monday to open the debate over the revolutionary plans to redesign the women’s game. Having disenchanted the women footballers at the start of the season with a strangely timed AFL memo instructing coaches to make immediate tactical changes to address defensive flooding and congestion around stoppages, Hocking and his team have agreed to work together with players to improve the quality of the game. AFLW star Daisy Pearce was disappointed with the league's early season memo. Credit:AAP The AFL view is that while the standard of AFLW has improved in its second season, its players generally lack the sufficient skills to deal with congestion and the kicking skills to avoid regular stoppages and low scoring.

‘‘I certainly see it as something we need to do sooner rather than later,’’ said Hocking. ‘‘We see the grand final as the end date and then we will be working with the players and all the other parties and navigate through this.’’ Hocking said the AFLW charter would be created in the recognition that the elite women’s brand of Australian rules football was a different game to the men’s, just as AFLX was different again. Although the women remain determined to play football under the same rules as the men the new panel, which will also include the game’s new head of coaching David Rath - who oversaw the controversial memo - will push against that, with league bosses equally determined to improve the game as a spectacle. The firm view is that the women lack the skills to deal with congestion and that the introduction of set formations or zones would help overcome the contentious issues of significantly shorter kicking and low scoring. The Hocking view is that AFLW must be created in its own image — a separate entity with different rules, different sponsors and commercial arrangements and a new approach to health and safety concerns.

‘‘Once you’ve got a charter in place, you’re recognising that you want the game to be played and look a certain way,’’ said Hocking. ‘‘AFLW has a personality of its own and we want to wrap it up that way. It’s different from AFL, it’s an individual game, just as AFLX is individual. ‘‘When you acknowledge the individuality you have to ask how you want it to look.’’ Hocking said the number of serious knee injuries incurred this season meant health and safety ‘‘has to be a priority’’. Loading Livingstone has been working with a number of sporting and academic institutions and notably the Australian women’s rugby union team, treating injury prevention as a matter of urgency as the league expands, with six new teams to be introduced over the next two seasons. The Wallaroos approached Livingstone with some advice as mounting anterior cruciate injuries punctuated season No.2.

Melbourne captain Daisy Pearce, who will attend Monday’s meeting to be held after the Most Valuable Player function, highlighted the unfortunate timing of the AFL memo after round one, saying the only talking point after the opening weekend was ‘‘the perception that the league is broken’’. Pearce had previously warned former AFLW bosses Simon Lethlean and Josh Vanderlou before the opening season that moving the game to 16-a-side would not help clear congestion on the ground. She also urged the AFL to take the women players along with them on the AFLW journey. AFLPA boss Marsh told Fairfax Media that Hocking had gone out of his way to do so following the memo debacle and that the players would approach Monday’s meeting with open minds.