The growing tally of season-ending injuries is creating genuine concern, and varying degrees of strain, across the new eight-club competition.

Some coaches and players are already convinced the AFL's mandated limit of 27 female footballers per club is way too small and must be changed as a matter of priority for year two.

Carlton, Collingwood and Greater Western Sydney have all been forced to use the 'top-up' system which, under current rules, is only permitted when clubs cannot fill a team sheet.

It is a remarkable scenario when compared to the weekly running of AFL men's sides, which have lists of 45 and name 22 players for premiership season games like in the AFLW.

Angst over the women's list cap – each club began with 27 players, including two rookies, and can bring in 'top-up' players if the number of fit footballers drops below 24 – is materialising as some feared.

Fairfax Media has been told this week of an unwanted byproduct of the AFL limiting women's lists to 27 in season one, which clearly helps financially even with the majority on a $8500 minimum wage.

Quite aside from the obvious difficulties the set-up presents to coaches, Fairfax Media has been told small lists threaten to limit competitiveness within teams.

If an AFLW team is besieged by injury, but still has 24 fit players, every one of them is guaranteed selection for matches.

Another potential risk is footballers' health. Acutely aware of the cutthroat nature of their seven-week competition before the first AFLW grand final, it's natural some players would feel even more inclined to push through injuries, possibly to their detriment.

Speculation about the fitness of Western Bulldogs' key forward and marquee player Katie Brennan is humming in the countdown to round three. Brennan entered round one with an ankle complaint, re-aggravated the injury in round two and has said publicly she may require "assistance" to keep making it on field.

Painkilling injections are not commonly used in state league women's competitions, even in the established Victorian Women's Football League.

Another aspect of the AFLW list regulations jigsaw are the realities of recruiting stop-gap emergency personnel, as the Pies, Blues and GWS have been forced to do.

The view of figures at the coalface is that this is not as straightforward as some may have thought, with players required to come from state academy pools.

These emergency 'ring-ins', or top-up players, will not have completed the intensive three-month pre-season training in the AFLW program, or be familiar with a new club's game plan, let alone a big-time setting.

Some clubs would also prefer the right to select top-ups from outside the formal state academy programs.

The prospect of more than half the AFLW's clubs being forced to use the list top-up rule is very real.

Fremantle and Melbourne are teetering near needing top-up players after a number of season-ending player injuries in close succession.

Serious casualties from the opening two AFLW rounds include Olympic javelin thrower Kim Mickle, whose debut footy season with Fremantle ended in her first match for premiership points last Sunday.

The winless Dockers were hit with a double blow after Brianna Green's season was declared over due to a broken collarbone she sustained in the second term in the same game against Brisbane.

Melbourne lost ruptured hamstring victim Meg Downie for the season after last weekend. Downie was also concussed in an illegal heavy hit in her club's match against Collingwood, but it has nothing to do with her season ending prematurely.

Demon Stephanie De Bortoli will also play no further part in AFLW season one, after snapping an Achilles tendon.

Adelaide announced on Tuesday it would have to make do without midfield Sophie Armistead after scans revealed a meniscus tear in her left knee.

In round one Carlton lost Natalie Plane, who suffered a severe ankle sprain in the AFLW's unforgettable inaugural match that saw thousands of fans locked out of Princes Park.

AFL spokesman David O'Neill confirmed on Thursday the league had started a review of "all elements" of the new competition with the eight participant clubs.

"Initial discussions have raised the possibility of increasing the size of the playing lists," he said. "... the AFL would be receptive ... if it was the prevailing view among clubs."