Former Matildas and current Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri believes that the implementation of a new, richly funded and well advertised Women’s AFL competition, could tempt female athletes from all sports into ”jumping ship”.
Speaking on the Daily Football Show this afternoon, Barbieri believes with so much money available to throw at players she has no doubt that players from the W-League could be tempted by the idea of a substantial pay rise to play AFL.
”Oh they will jump ship (regarding W-League footballers crossing codes to AFL) definitely, a lot of our players jump ship, if they aren’t in the frame for national selection a lot of players will move across (to the womens AFL) if they aren’t grounded down by a contract.”
Barbieri also opened up about the poor scheduling that W-League clubs face, having to literally jump off a plane and prepare for a match just a matter of hours later.
”I’m sure the A-league boys would have had plenty of time to get acclimitised to the conditions, often flying in the night before so im not sure what the issue is,” Barbieri said.
”Most W-league sides fly up often in the morning or even just a few hours before the match is starting so I don’t think Ernie (Merrick) has much to complain about.”
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