Statement to be attributed to AFLPA CEO Paul Marsh:

“As has been reported, the AFL Players’ Association, through consultation with our player leaders, has developed a proposal for the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations with the AFL that now sits with the AFL.

The proposal will allow our members to be fairly rewarded for the work they continue to do in growing the game. This has never been more evident than over the past three years.

The time is right for the industry to agree to a joint CBA, to bring AFL and AFLW members in line with other major sporting codes around the country. To this end, we engaged a gender and pay equity expert who has considerable experience working with other sporting codes to help us develop a fair financial model to distribute the players’ share of industry revenue between AFL and AFLW players.

Players are committed to a joint CBA as we genuinely believe it is the best way forward to achieve the objectives for both sets of players and the industry more broadly.

The AFLPA strongly believes in the AFLW competition and knows, with further investment, it will continue to grow. This also applies to the AFL competition.

A joint CBA is our number one current priority and we look forward to working through it with the League in the coming weeks.”

— Ends—