Essendon coach Natalie Wood eager to see AFLW fixtures expand

Essendon mentor Natalie Wood - one of two senior mentors from South West Victoria alongside Carlton's Mathew Buck - wants to see the 10-game season increase in coming years.

The AFLW will kick off its eighth campaign on September 1 with all 18 clubs represented.

Blockbuster games, such as Dreamtime between the Bombers and Richmond, Western Derby and Showdown, which are must-haves means the draw has its restrictions.

"I think the AFL have done a terrific job in getting to 18 teams in seven seasons," Wood told The Standard.

"I think that aggressiveness to expand has allowed all AFL clubs to be a part of the journey.

"They should be applauded for that and the next step now is 'how do we extend the number of games?'

"Draws become really important when there's 18 teams and you're playing for 10 weeks.

"Hopefully in the years to come we see it become 12 or 14 games and just being able to play a bigger cross-section of the competition.

"If you lock in five big blockbusters every year then you're only locking in five games between the other 12 teams. Hopefully that changes as more games come into the picture."

Wood, who will coach in her home town of Warrnambool against Geelong on Sunday, October 8, said footballers also deserved a longer season, given the amount of work they put into prepare.

"They change their whole 12 months to working towards being elite footballers," she said.

"Personally I would prefer them to have more than 10 weeks of executing that. It would be great to have more games.

"I know the AFL wants to build the following and they have some metrics they want to improve before expanding."

Wood is happy with the season's start date after earlier editions saw players battling the January heat when temperatures can soar into the mid-40s.

"I think it (a September start) feels like a good fit," she said.

"It means we're not playing games in the real scorching late summer."

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