Melbourne City coach Rado Vidosic says the W-League season isn't long enough and needs more games to remain competitive as Europe's competitions grow in strength.
The W-League wasn't expanded to a full home and away competition this year as the league fell further in line with America's NWSL, but head of leagues Greg O'Rourke has previously flagged the possibility of mid-week fixtures in future seasons.
Ahead of Sunday's season opener against Newcastle, Vidosic said "12 games was not enough", with mid-week games a logical solution.
"We are playing (games) on Thursday anyway," he said.
"So I don't think that we can't play on Thursday and back up on Sunday - I don't see any problems."
Most Matildas signed in the W-League but the tide is shifting towards Europe with Sam Kerr joining Chelsea and Emily Gielnik at Bayern Munich.
"The game is improving rapidly in Europe and we need to make sure that we get our competition right here first and then hopefully we can get even more quality players back to our competitions," Vidosic said.
The City coach also pushed for the implementation of a reserves competition similar to the men's Y-League to allow players who had minimal W-League game time to earn match minutes.
"I think what's (also) needed is a second tier competition," Vidosic said.
"I think our young girls - we saw Mary Fowler, she's one of them that's good enough to play in that competition - but we really need something like (the) national youth league boys' competition that we can have alongside a W-League (for players who aren't ready yet.)
"And I think clubs need to take a little bit more ownership of developing their young female athletes - not just the federations."
Vidosic is entering his second season as City coach, with expectations high after signing Matildas Ellie Carpenter and Emily van Egmond.
He said he'd taken plenty out of his first W-League season - when City fell short of finals for the first time.
"You learn a lot because it was the first time I worked with female athletes," Vidosic said.
"I learned how tired they are after the seasons that they play - Australia, America, Europe, back to Australia - how much we need to manage them to try to get the best out of them.
"And also I think the (biggest) thing I learned is how important it is to start well because our club is famous for a good finish but last season we just didn't have a chance because we (didn't) qualify for top four."
Australian Associated Press
