The Australian Professional Leagues' (APL) reluctance to make the A-League Women a full-time professional competition is leading to another mass exodus of Australia's best women footballers, according to former Adelaide United captain Dylan Holmes.
With the 19th season of the league set to kick off in two months' time, the A-League Women is experiencing its second major wave of player exits, in part due to a loss of belief in the direction and decisions being made about the league.
"On the women's side, we're seeing leagues around the world exploding, we're seeing investment taking off, we're seeing the growth of the game, and here we don't feel like enough is being done to realise the potential that we believe is in the A-League Women in Australia," she told The Far Post Podcast.
"We've just had a hugely successful Women's World Cup, and then we had the Asian Cup, and for us, if change hasn't happened after those two huge events in this country, then when is it going to?
"It just got to a point where there wasn't enough being done, and it was either we can go through this process again in a year and hope we get the outcomes we want, or we take a stand now and go down a different path."
Holmes, who debuted in the A-League Women back in 2014 but is now departing to take up an overseas study opportunity, said there has been a higher number of players leaving than usual because it feels like the A-League Women has stagnated while women's club football overseas continues to progress.
This second exodus comes five years after the first wave of Matildas such as Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord, Ellie Carpenter, Steph Catley, Mackenzie Arnold and Alanna Kennedy left the A-League Women to pursue full-time football.
- Australia's top 11 most expensive transfers of all-time
- South Melbourne signal intent to join A-League after Western's demise
- A-League CBA explainer: What's going on between the APL and PFA?
For Holmes, who was also a player delegate and executive committee member of the players' union for many years, the most recent breakdown of negotiations with the APL over a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) crystallised the problem. That process, she said, highlighted the vast differences in vision and belief between those who run the A-League Women and those who play in it.
"The CBA was a bit of a sticking-point because we had just released the Ready For Takeoff report, we had done all this research, we had shown all this data and the possibilities of what can happen when there's thought and effort and energy and investment put into it," she said.
"And through this negotiation, it just felt like that wasn't the direction it was going in; that it was more of a 'we need to just get through this period and eventually we'll get there.' Whereas we're ready for those things to happen now, and it's vital that it happens now.
"I'm incredibly frustrated. I've been playing in this league for so many years now, and I always hoped that towards the end of my career I would see full-time, 12-month contracts. [But] through this CBA negotiation, it hit me that I wouldn't see that in my career in Australia."
Holmes is one of over a dozen high-profile A-League Women players who have departed Australia for overseas leagues in recent months including former Julie Dolan medallist Isabel Gomez, Golden Boot winner Holly McNamara, and multiple young or fringe Matildas like Bryleeh Henry, Alexia Apostolakis, Leah Davidson and Grace Johnston.
It comes as faith in the direction of the league is at record-low levels, with data from the union's most recent end-of-season survey painting a worrying picture.
One-third of A-League Women players did not believe their clubs wanted a women's team, 75% said they were either "not at all" or only "slightly" secure when it came to their finances, two out of five players do not believe the A-League Women allows them to develop to their full potential, and a record high percentage said they were "not at all" confident about the direction or control of their careers in Australia.
"It's pretty damning in terms of where the league is at now, and unfortunately we're seeing the consequences of that," Holmes said. "We're seeing a lot of players leave the league to play overseas, and it feels like a lot more than we normally would. They're sick of waiting; they're sick of waiting for change to happen."
The 2026-27 A-League Women season kicks off on Oct. 16.
