Garry Lyon has urged footy fans to think about the long game when it comes to determining the success of AFLW.
The opening round of AFLW 2.0 saw big crowds, and a couple of higher scoring games, but questions continued to be raised around congestion and whether skills had improved from season one.
The former Melbourne captain admitted while he thought there would be major improvement from what he saw last year, he accepts it will take time.
“I think you’ve got to temper this in terms of your expectation. We all do,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.
“I thought it would be better too, I have to admit. I thought there would be a marked improvement on what we saw, but clearly it’s going to take a bit more time.
Lyon says you can’t compare AFLW to the men’s game, rather it needs to be judged comparatively to the various local competitions played during the season, and whether it’s a step up.
“It’s also, what are you comparing this with? You don’t compare it to the men’s game,” he said.
“The women’s footy [at local level] where teams like Darebin play, that’s where the comparison needs to be made, the level underneath, so where you can see the step up.
“You’ve got to compare apples with apples.”
The competition will expand to ten teams next season with Geelong and North Melbourne winning licences, while St Kilda, Richmond, Gold Coast and the West Coast will enter in 2020, taking the number of teams to 14.
Lyon says while it may be “ideal” not to expand the league too early, he expects things to improve quickly in coming years.
“You think it would be spreading the talent pool very thinly,” he said on expansion.
“But these young girls, the more that are coming in, then the greater the talent pool, they will improve quickly.”