Carlton superstar Madison Prespakis has questioned the efficacy of the AFLW season amid continued COVID-19 fixturing chaos.
The 2020 AFLW best-and-fairest believes that continued complications in the lead-up to the finals could create an uneven playing field.
Five of this week's games have either been moved, rescheduled or postponed due to concerns related to the Omicron variant of the virus.
The 21-year-old Prespakis stated she would rather play in a hub-style environment, as opposed to continual fixture changes.
"I'd much prefer being in a hub, I'd say," Prespakis told the Herald Sun ahead of this weekend's fixture.
"It's such a short season that you could probably do the hub and get it done even quicker with all 10 games. Do two in a week or something for everyone, rather than chopping and changing.
"We're halfway now, but who knows how long it is going to take with fixture changes. I don't know when we're going to be going to WA."
Prespakis' Blues have had a number of games either re-fixtured or cancelled due to opponents' COVID struggles, while other teams have dodged the chaos entirely, which has led to some discontent among players.
"Some people look at other teams' fixtures and think 'they're lucky, they're playing these clubs' and things like that. But then you do look at the integrity of it – the teams that are getting their games played and then not really getting fixture changes, you kind of envy them in a way," she added.
"They get six-day breaks rather than three, or whatever it is. I haven't looked that much into it, but at the back of the season if we have to do another two games in a week, we'd be like 'far out, we're tired'.
"You don't want to use it as an excuse … but playing two games in a week when others have a week's rest, it's pretty tough."
With a considerable number of players set to return to full-time work in the coming weeks, the combative midfielder believes the weight is becoming heavy for many.
"Potentially towards the back-end of the season you might see girls have to take more annual leave to get their games in. It's going to take a toll because getting up to go to work after training is just as tiring anyway," she said.
"If you're playing two or three games in a week to try and catch up, it's definitely going to take a toll on players and the back-end of the season is the crunch time."
Carlton is set to face Adelaide at Ikon Park this Sunday, before taking on ladder-leader Fremantle in what is set to be an almightily challenging week for the 10th-placed Blues.
