Why the AFL has booted men’s footy from its most lucrative timeslot

August 10, 2026 — 2:09pm

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With 47 seconds remaining in the third quarter of Carlton and St Kilda’s season-opening AFLW match on Sunday, Channel Seven commentator Alistair Nicholson delivered a message to viewers that inadvertently captured one of the most significant challenges confronting the competition.

“For Victorian viewers, you are going to Seven News. If you want to keep watching the footy, go to 7mate now.”

Tyanna Smith had just burst through a centre bounce like Bailey Smith and booted a brilliant goal – her second – from outside 50 metres to put the Saints within 22 points.

The football continued. Seven’s coverage on its primary Victorian channel did not.

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There was nothing sinister about the decision. TV networks routinely move programming between channels, and Seven’s evening news remains among the most commercially important programs on its schedule.

But the timing was striking.

Four days later, there will be no men’s AFL match on Thursday night, with Melbourne and Hawthorn instead afforded clear air for their AFLW fixture.

The contrast warrants examination.

Thursday night AFL has become one of the most valuable pieces of sporting content on Australian television, regularly attracting audiences of around one million across Seven’s platforms this season. This Thursday night’s AFLW game is expected to attract a fraction of that audience.

So, at best, the decision to clear men’s footy from that timeslot to showcase the AFLW will cost Seven hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Within the space of four days, the industry will have provided two vastly different illustrations of where the AFLW currently sits.

On Sunday, the broadcaster considered the product sufficiently........

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