North Melbourne-Werribee celebrate their win in the 2025 VFLW Grand Final. Picture: AFL Photos

A HOST of AFLW players will be given a greater chance to push for selection through the reserves in 2026, with clubs informed this week that the timing of next season's VFLW competition will be shifted to later in the year to allow for a greater crossover.

It is understood clubs were told this week that the VFLW will run during the first six weeks of next season's AFLW competition, allowing for non-selected AFLW players to vie for selection through the reserves.

Only this season's VFLW finals coincided with the start of the AFLW campaign, meaning non-selected AFLW players were mainly made to compete in unofficial scratch matches organised independently instead of competitive games.

Collingwood captain Dom Carbone and North Melbourne-Werribee captain Renee Tierney ahead of the 2025 VFLW Grand Final. Picture: AFL Photos

The first round of unofficial scratch matches, played at Braybrook's Skinner Reserve in August, saw 74 players from 15 clubs compete in a round-robin event. There were three teams, with six 15-minute games played across the morning.

AFLW clubs had subsequently pressed their case with League headquarters for the VFLW season to be moved to align with the top-tier competition, and next year's VFLW season is now scheduled to begin on the weekend of May 16-17 having started on April 19-20 this year.

It will mean that clubs with a VFLW alignment will have three weeks of home-and-away games, and a further three weeks of finals if they qualify, to test non-selected players in competitive reserves matches.

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North Melbourne, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, the Western Bulldogs, Melbourne (Casey), Hawthorn (Box Hill) and St Kilda (Sandringham) are the clubs with VFLW alignments heading into next season.

The League is set to trial double-headers featuring VFLW and AFLW sides in next season's fixture as a result of the change. The season shift will also enable the VFLW Grand Final to be played on the same day as the VFL Grand Final.

While there had been an appetite for the VFLW fixture to completely overlap with the AFLW season, operational challenges with venues due to cricket commitments made it almost impossible for the campaign to run through October and November.

The VFLW competition will expand to 13 teams next season due to Tasmania's arrival, with the league set to trial a revamped top-six finals system played across three weeks from next year onwards.