THE AFL has defended its decision not to move the upcoming Australia v Ireland clash to the SCG, saying ticket data has indicated North Sydney Oval is the right venue.

As the first match of its kind in the AFLW competition, the game has drawn plenty of interest and tickets at the boutique North Sydney Oval sold out in a matter of weeks.

>> TICKETS ON SALE FOR THE 2026 NAB AFLW SEASON NOW

Given the venue's capacity of around 10,000 people, and the fact the bigger SCG is available that weekend, the choice of venue has been criticised in some circles.

But AFLW boss Laura Kane says while she hopes the game will one day be suited to a bigger venue, ticket data suggests that time has not yet come.

"When we announced this game ... it's the first time (so) we wanted to create an amazing atmosphere, and so our sellout is incredible," Kane said on Tuesday as tickets went on sale for the 2026 NAB AFLW season.

"We wanted the best players, we wanted the best coaches on show, and we're so thrilled that we have a sellout at North Sydney Oval.

"Do I want to be in future talking about the MCG, the SCG, Marvel Stadium? Absolutely I do, and we will get there. We will get there.

"But for now, our priority is making sure that we have a packed-out full stadium, and we are going to get that with North Sydney Oval.

"And really, it comes down to the data; what does the data tell us around what our fans want to do?

"When it tells us that we can fill the SCG, we'll play there.

"We look at ticket sales ... we set up a wait list to understand how many more people there might be, and when that number's higher, we'll play at bigger stadiums."

With four confirmed AFL-AFLW double-headers already on the fixture for the coming weeks, clubs are still waiting for final dates and times to be locked in given the floating nature of the final two rounds of the men's fixture.

There has also been a suggestion of a fifth double-header, with the exact game yet to be confirmed although the Geelong v St Kilda AFLW match scheduled for round two seems the most likely target.

"We said a couple of weeks ago that we're looking at a fifth one, if it made sense with the match-ups of the teams playing. We're still looking at a fifth one," Kane said.

"We've been keeping the clubs updated so they know which slots they're potentially going to play in ... (it) won't be far off."

Kane also touched on the AFLW's move away from ball tracking technology after just two years and toward a vision-based score review system.

"We want to make sure that we have the best technology available for both of our competitions, AFL and AFLW, and we spent a lot of time looking at what's the best way to provide certainty from an officiating perspective for our fans, for our clubs, for our players. And we felt that the time was right to evolve to vision and video review," Kane said.

"We're also working on optical tracking more broadly, and we've spoken publicly about the work that we're doing here at Marvel Stadium, but both Greg Swann and I are looking at what does optical tracking look like in the context of all the venues that we play at.

"Notwithstanding that there's a few extra W venues that we play footy at, what is the long-term solution? So, at the moment, the best technology that we feel available for score review is video and the video review system.

"But it's always something that we're looking at improving.

"The ball chip, we had a couple of issues, and we talked about those at the time, and we just wanted some more certainty."

Tickets are now on sale for the 2026 NAB AFLW season.