Seventy percent of W-League players "would consider switching" to the Australian Football League, with money the "major motivating factor, according to a survey" by a leading women's football website, according to Michael Lynch of THE AGE. While the number of respondents "is small -- about one-quarter of the 128 women who play in the W-League -- they were strong in their view that there were big benefits in playing in the AFL's new eight-club women's league," which starts next year. Forty percent of respondents said that they would switch, and another 30% said they would "consider doing so." It is a "warning sign" that football cannot "take player loyalty for granted in the face of a football competition that will offer bigger pay packets, more publicity, increased exposure and a strong career path." Football may have been the first sport to "set up a professional league for women, but the money the AFL has to market and support its new women's competition makes it a serious threat," as many elite football players would have the skills to code-switch without "too many difficulties." Women's football has failed to "generate large-scale financial rewards for its players." Pay packets "are poor, except for the very best" who play at int'l level or are good enough to secure overseas contracts (THE AGE, 9/7).
