DOUBLE-headers across AFL and AFLW games are set to be increased next year, after the success of their introduction in 2026.

The men's season has been pushed back a week next year due to the MCG's unavailability in March, meaning there will be at least three weeks of crossover between the men's and women's home-and-away seasons.

There were five double-headers played in the opening rounds of the NAB AFLW season in August, with the majority seeing the women's match played before the men's.

Feedback from clubs to AFL.com.au saw them broadly supportive of the concept, but keen to keep it to two clubs involved on the day – rather than three or four – to assist in logistics.

"They were amazing, I wish we did more of them, they were so good," AFL executive general manager of AFLW, health and football operations Laura Kane said at the launch of AFLW Pride Round on Tuesday.

"We're up 35 per cent in attendance, year-on-year, which is an enormous number. It's 50,000 more people who have come to AFLW, and it's because of those double-headers,"

"To see 16, 20, 22,000 people there, hours before the men's game, was amazing. To test what a post-AFLW (AFL men's into AFL women's) game looks like, also drew a bigger crowd than we'd normally have for that match-up (GWS v West Coast). I love them.

"Absolutely, I'll be pushing [for more double-headers] myself."

In a wide-ranging media conference, Kane was also asked about:

Competitive balance across the AFLW

"There's often a gap, even in a men's competition, between top and bottom. From a competitive balance perspective, it's the first full year of all three pillars or levers of competitive balance being in place.

"The salary cap hasn't yet hit its straps, so we need to make sure the teams are structurally set up to attract players and be able to spend money on them. That's the mechanism they can do in time. For now, the draft is the most important competitive balance lever we have. If clubs ask for special assistance, that's a request made by them to our commission."

On what point is it on the clubs to lift their investment?

"Lifting investment in women's footy is probably subjective. The soft cap is available to them to spend the same amount on their football program, and they do. There's not a drastic difference in that. I think the players you bring in, and the development programs you have before you even get to the game plan – I've said it so many times, we want the bottom to lift and meet the top, and that's player development and a game plan that stacks up against the best."

Are you satisfied that all 18 clubs are spending close to 100 per cent of the soft cap?

"I won't talk to specifics, but I'm satisfied that everyone's investing in their AFLW program as they should. Like I said, I think the secret or the unlock is how you develop your players. The talent coming through is extraordinarily good, and I don't think it's that varied, in terms of the talent, from the top to bottom, that the clubs have on their list. 

"It's who's extracting the best from those players. We're seeing players who were picked up in the SSP or equivalent, playing in premierships at the top. They're available to everyone. What are those teams doing? They're in a good system, but it's about their development program."

Future Australia-Ireland games

"Rep footy is here to stay; what form that takes, we're working that out. We've talked about all options. We've talked about the same venue, the same weekend, we've talked about different venues within Sydney, NSW, all around the country and overseas."

Five teams have needed top-up players already. Have bigger list sizes been discussed?

It's a CBA-negotiated point, so we'll work through it at the right time. A few weeks ago (at the start of the season), we had 36 players replaced, so the mechanism is available, and clubs don't go without. If they need extra players, we make sure they can have them.

"The important question at a macro level is, is it the next place where we'd spend our dollar? That's what we have to strategically assess. I'm not sure if bigger lists are the way forward, but we'll work through that in the next CBA."

Possible jumper clashes in Pride Round

"You do your best. The challenge for us is so much time and effort goes into the designs, it's the same as the Indigenous Round where we had one of our most spectacular clashes. We try to avoid it. Now we don't have white shorts, it makes it a bit more tricky. We want every single special design to be on show through every game. I hope we see all of them match up against each other. Someone in my team has looked at every jumper option, and we always learn, we don't want to have jumper clashes."