AFLW Today regular Hester Mary Brown has thrown her weight behind the campaign to make Marvel Stadium the permanent home of the AFLW grand final, telling co-hosts Alex and Olivia Spencer the league has reached a point where its showpiece deserves a closed-roof stage in Melbourne's CBD.
"Yeah, it needs to be," Brown said when asked whether the decider should be played at Marvel every year. "100% it should be. I will personally, AFL, if you can make this happen, I will personally commit to filling 100 seats. We could have sold 20,000 seats last year very easily, and you can get the lower bowl done."
The push comes off the back of another record-laden round of AFLW football. Brown, whose husband Ben played 204 games at North Melbourne and Melbourne before moving into AFLW coaching, says the competition is in what she called an "embryonic" phase where records will tumble for the next half-decade.
"In the last two weeks we have seen biggest wins by clubs, the highest score in AFLW ever, seven goals kicked in a game," Brown said. "The leading goal kicker this year will kick more than the 21 goals that is currently the leader this year every year for the next five or so years until we hit that eventual dream phase that we've all got of having 17 to 18 rounds of footy a year. Records will be broken week on week, and it's great. It's amazing."
The pro-Marvel argument leans heavily on goalkicking data. Six of the seven highest scores in AFLW history have been kicked at proper stadiums, with the lone exception coming at Fremantle Community Oval, a famously windswept venue. The contrast was on display last weekend when GMHBA Stadium produced a high-quality contest while suburban venues such as Frankston have repeatedly been criticised for difficult conditions.
"You put these games on at proper stadiums, you see better football," Brown said. "It's like, yes, well, you go and try and kick goals at Frankston on a Saturday night in July when the wind is blowing."
Brown, who has been close to the program at North Melbourne since the club secured its AFLW licence, also wants the AFL to align the AFLW second-tier scrimmage matches with main-list football, mirroring the AFL/VFL set-up.
"That's my major concern, is what do the athletes need? They're the one putting on this incredible show for us. What's going to make it better for them? So I would say line up the seasons. That's really important to me. I would say more money, give them more money. We're expecting professional results, we need to have professional pay."
Brown also reiterated her support for AFLW expanding to 18-versus-18, a long-running coach and administrator debate. "VFLW, every other competition around the country is 18 versus 18. Why isn't the premier competition 18 versus 18?" she said. "Watching these games on the weekend, there's a lot of kicking to nowhere because you need to kick the footy. That's where number 17 would have been."
The AFL has not committed to a permanent grand final venue beyond the host-the-best-team model, but Brown's plea adds to mounting pressure from supporters and former players who argue the league is now ready to be treated as a top-tier event.