THE AFL says it is committed to investigating a mother-son rule that would make the sons of AFLW players eligible to play for their clubs.

The league has already brought in a father-daughter rule which means the daughters of AFL players are linked to their AFLW clubs.

Those men needed only to play one AFL game to qualify their daughter for the club or clubs they played for.

It means the promising daughters of former AFL stars like Carlton’s Andrew McKay will be able to follow their footsteps in the AFLW.

Simon Lethlean, the head of the women’s competition, said yesterday the league remained committed to exploring the mother-son and mother-daughter rules.

media_camera Collingwood‘s Kate Sheahan has a young son, Will. Picture: Mark Stewart

With a maximum of eight games possible per season the league would need to consider what games qualification was fitting for those new rules.

Under the father-son rule a player needs 100 AFL games for their son to be linked to their club.

The club then needs to bid for that player and pay a fair price to select them in the national draft.

Given the father-son benchmark is just on four and a half home-and-away seasons, an AFLW player might qualify their son in just over 30 games.

Collingwood player Kate Sheahan has a young son Will who theoretically could be eligible to play for the Pies’ men’s team under a mother-daughter rule in just over a decade.

Lethlean said the league would “consider in due course” the details for both rules.

media_camera Darcy Vescio is one of the stars of the AFLW. Picture: Sarah Reed

Melbourne chief executive Peter Jackson said on Sunday in the interests of fairness a mother-son rule should eventually be brought in.

“I would look at where the women’s competition is in 2020 and make a few calls then. That would be my instinct,’’ he said.

“Does the mother-son rule feel quite right? I am not sure. If you have got it for the men you should have it for them women.

“It’s a bit hard to imagine when you don’t know where the competition will sit. I don’t know if you can answer the question totally until you can see what sort of foothold the women’s competition has.”