Brisbane Lions AFLW coach Craig Starcevich calls on AFL men to fast-track professionalisation

Brisbane Lions AFLW coach Craig Starcevich has called for the sport's elite male counterparts to «give up a piece of the pie» to help fast-track women becoming full-time professional footballers.

Speaking to ABC Podcast 'The W with Sharni And Sam' the reigning premiership coach said if he was granted one wish from AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan it would be making female players full-time professionals, tomorrow.

«It has to happen,» Starcevich said.

Currently, just two players at each AFLW club will earn a competition-high maximum wage of $37,155, with most players (16 per club) to earn $20,239 per season in the semi-professional competition.

Starcevich, who's been at the helm of the Brisbane Lions since the inaugural AFLW season in 2017, said the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was going to be decisive.

«The tricky bit now is I see a lot of the boys' representatives on the PA (Players Association) talk about their support for women's footy, which is absolutely brilliant,» Starcevich said. 

«How much of the pie are you prepared to give up to fast track women becoming full time professionals?»

«That will be the absolute clincher.»

The AFL aspires to make AFLW players the highest-paid sportswomen in a domestic competition in Australia, but their vision is light on detail. 

«Because I can hear you Paddy [Patrick Dangerfield] (President of the AFL Players' Association) right now saying how much you support women's footy, but when it comes down to sitting down at the table and working out what piece of the pie you're prepared to go into bat for the women or even perhaps sacrifice to bump up the women's slice of the pie, how hard are you prepared to go at that?»

«It may not require a sacrifice, but if it did, to make sure that our