As the W-League enters its 11th incarnation, the 2018-19 season has the potential to represent further advancement in women’s football. This campaign arrives at a significant time in the international cycle, immediately preceding next year’sWomen’s World Cup in France.

At the high end, the league has its first marquee player in Ballon d’Or nominee and 2018 NWSL top goalscorer Sam Kerr. Then there are her Matildas teammates. A squad and a half of them in fact, with 30 capped players (including Kerr) named in the nine W-League squads, all vying for tickets on the plane to France.

This season also offers an opportunity for wider discussions as to how the league and its players can be best equipped to reach their potential, and push for greater rights and improved conditions. With the excitement of the World Cup, what may fly under the radar is that at the end of this domestic season, the first W-League collective bargaining agreement will expire.

This agreement, Professional Footballers Australia deputy chief executive and former Matildas captain Kate Gill explains, was “foundational” in that “it provided a wage floor”. “The aim now is to push that up,” Gill says.

In its 2017-18 W-League review, the players’ union found that over half of players might “leave the game earlier than [they] otherwise might have” for “financial reasons”. A huge 85.4% of surveyed players indicated their careers would be prolonged by “more money from football”.

The wage floor during the 2017-18 season was $10,000 (half of that for the NWSL in 2017). For the 2018-19 campaign, this rises to $12,287. While actual figures for the next CBA are still being discussed internally, they are to be “fair and equitable”, with securing career-ending insurance for female players “a no-brainer”, says Gill.

Players link their capacity to achieve to their potential with the ability to earn a full-time wage for playing. Kerr, ahead of last week’s league launch, said that the W-League is generally on a par with the NWSL, the main difference being that the NWSL is entirely professional.

“All the people, all the girls, are full-time – so obviously they can put in a little bit more extra to trainings and practices.”

It’s another no-brainer. Standards are raised when players can afford to dedicate themselves to being footballers. This can only benefit sides like the Matildas, who have seen their international stature rise with the W-League’s, and are viewed as the World Cup’s potential dark horses. This, in turn, can only benefit the standard of football at the World Cup.

The development of the close relationship between the NWSL (with its season lasting from March to September) and the W-League (October to February) is one way players have been able to play and earn full-time. This season, the W-League’s influx of international NWSL stars includes the Utah Royals and Scotland captain Rachel Corsie, while Seattle Reign and England striker Jodie Taylor is set to rejoin the league in December.

The leagues have long been marked by player crossover, offering fans greater opportunities to watch some of the world’s top international talent, and adding to the W-League’s credibility. This means the solution might no be as clear cut as competition expansion. As Gill says, the question becomes one of whether “a fully-fledged [standalone] competition” be established. But “does that prevent players from moving between the leagues? Or do the leagues work closely together to complement one another?”

Off-field, the new W-League season has garnered a promising set up. In addition to the glut of talent signed the competition’s integrity is buoyed by Football Federation Australia’s recognition of Fifa’s international breaks, while coverage is considerably expanded, with a mix of streaming and TV broadcast options available for fans globally.

Noting that this was “the first time the two leagues were launched together”, Gill says clubs are demonstrating a greater awareness of the need to integrate their men’s and women’s teams, while Fox has been giving female footballers equal airtime with their male counterparts.

Meaningful, successful integration is about more than photo opportunities. While the on-field exploits of the Sam Kerrs and Keisuke Hondas can be conveyed to and seen by fans as equally exciting and meaningful, the off-field conditions that the male and female players work in tend to be less equitable. Seeing the players portrayed as equally important may make fans more receptive to engaging with the conditions affecting the players and their ability to perform to their potential if these emerge as less than equitable.

Ahead of the excitement of the World Cup, if the 2018-19 W-League season can meaningfully represent anything, it is that preparation for elite tournaments and improving the foundations from which players can go on and perform at them can – and needs – to be done together.

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