Suzie Miller's New AFLW Drama Fumbles the Ball, Critics Say

Aria Parker

7 days ago

2 min read

Acclaimed writer Suzie Miller's new drama centred on AFLW is landing with a thud among critics, with early reviews describing the project as surprisingly anaemic given the pedigree behind it and the rich subject matter it had to work with.

Miller has built a strong reputation for incisive, socially engaged writing, which made a drama exploring women's Australian rules football feel like a natural, potentially powerful pairing of subject and storyteller. AFLW itself has been a genuinely significant cultural and sporting development in Australia, offering ample dramatic terrain around ambition, gender and institutional growing pains.

Quick Facts

Suzie Miller's new AFLW-focused drama has received lukewarm critical reviews.
Critics have described the show as surprisingly 'anaemic' given its subject matter and writer's pedigree.
AFLW has been a significant recent development in Australian sport and culture.
The criticism centres on execution rather than the ambition of the concept.

That's precisely why the lukewarm reception is landing as a bigger disappointment than a routine so-so review cycle might otherwise generate. Expectations were high specifically because both the writer and the subject matter seemed well-suited to each other, making the reported flatness of the execution more notable by comparison.

Critics pointing to the show as 'anaemic' suggest the issue lies less in ambition and more in execution — a drama that had the right ingredients on paper but didn't translate them into the kind of dramatic tension or character depth AFLW's real-world story arguably deserves.

For Australian television more broadly, high-profile disappointments like this tend to fuel ongoing debate about how well local productions are translating significant sporting and cultural moments into compelling scripted drama, rather than just prestige-adjacent packaging.

Whether the show finds its footing in later episodes, if there are any, or simply becomes a cautionary tale about mismatched expectations, remains to be seen as more reviews and audience reactions roll in.