Revised season dates for WAFL in 2023

The West Australian Football Commission has today issued an adjustment to the previously announced fixturing for the 2023 WAFL Season. 

To ensure the competition gets off to the best start possible in terms of maximising attendance and audience, the season will commence over the Easter weekend. This start will mean Round 2 will be staged during the AFL’s Magic Round, where there is no AFL content in Perth and Round 3 over the ANZAC Day long weekend. Each of these Rounds will provide blockbuster matchups and a guaranteed great start to the 2023 WAFL season. 

The West Australian Football Commission recognised the opportunity for the WAFL Grand Final being staged post the AFL Grand Final, to deliver an exciting game to a captive audience, highlighting the unique offering of WAFL football and the WA community. The evidence gathered in 2021 and 2022 supported this view.

However, the challenge articulated by clubs is that the extension of the season has a considerable impact on them from an operational perspective. As a result, the Grand Final will now be held on Sunday 24th September, a long weekend in Perth and during the AFL Preliminary Finals.   

The WAFC is committed to growing engagement with the WAFL competition and will be investing heavily in strategies to increase audiences, fans, members and attendance at games throughout the whole season and the finals. 

The full fixture will be released in late January.