AFL Women's

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AFL Women's
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2021 AFL Women's season
180px
Sport Australian rules football
Founded 15 September 2016,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Inaugural season 2017
CEO Nicole Livingstone
No. of teams 14
Country Australia
Headquarters Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Most recent champion(s) Adelaide
Most titles Adelaide (2 premierships)
TV partner(s)
Sponsor(s) NAB, Chemist Warehouse
Related competitions AFL
VFL Women's
WAFL Women's
SANFL Women's
AFLW Under 18 Championships
Official website womens.afl

AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had 8 teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season and expanded to 14 teams in the 2020 season. The league is run by the Australian Football League (AFL) and is contested by a subset of clubs from that competition. The reigning premiers are Adelaide.

History

Establishment

In 2010 the Australian Football League commissioned a report into the state of women's football around the country.[1] Along with findings concerning grassroots and junior football, the report recommended the AFL Commission begin working toward the establishment of a national women's league. While the option of new stand-alone clubs was considered, a model utilising the resources and branding of existing AFL clubs was to be the preferred model for the planned league.[2]

The first on-field step towards the competition took place in 2013, when the AFL announced an exhibition match to be played between women's teams representing Melbourne and Western Bulldogs in June that year. The historic match had a crowd of 7,518 and was won by Melbourne by 35 points.[3]

On 15 May 2013, the first women's draft was held, establishing the playing lists for the two clubs in the forthcoming exhibition match.[4] The match was played on 29 June 2013 and marked the first time two women's sides had competed under the banners of AFL clubs. The exhibition series was repeated with one game between the clubs in 2014 and two in 2015, the last of which, played on 16 August 2015, was the first women's AFL game to be broadcast on free-to-air television. It attracted an average audience of 175,000 which outweighed the 114,000 average audience for the AFL men's clash between Adelaide and Essendon of the previous day.[5]

The success of these exhibition matches prompted the AFL to accelerate its plans for a nationwide women's competition, announcing a preferred start date of 2017.[6] Prior to this, the league had announced only aspirational plans to have the women's competition established by 2020.[7] The already-planned 2016 exhibition series was expanded at this time, with a total of ten matches to be played in venues across the country and featuring a range of new temporary representative teams.[8]

In 2016, the AFL opened a process for existing clubs to tender applications to join the new competition. The eighteen clubs in the men's Australian Football League had until 29 April 2016 to place a bid for a licence, with thirteen clubs making bids. These were Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Geelong, Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs.[9] The AFL's preferred distribution of clubs was four clubs from Victoria and one each from New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.[10]

The inaugural teams were announced on 8 June 2016. As the only teams to bid in their respective states, Adelaide, Brisbane and Greater Western Sydney were granted licences to compete in 2017.[11] Both Western Australian clubs made bids, with Fremantle's bid chosen ahead of West Coast's. Eight Victorian clubs made bids: Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Carlton and Collingwood were successful, with Geelong, North Melbourne, Richmond and St Kilda unsuccessful. All five unsuccessful bidders were granted provisional licences.[12]

Details about the branding of the league were released in the second half of 2016. The AFL announced that the league would be named "AFL Women's" or AFLW for short, on 15 September 2016, with the logo being unveiled on 19 September 2016.[13][14] The logo is a stylised rendition of an Australian rules football ground goal square and goal posts, drawn from a perspective which shows a "W".[14] On 10 October 2016, the National Australia Bank was named as the league's naming rights sponsor.[15]

File:First AFLW Ball Up 03.02.17.jpg
Carlton and Collingwood players contest the first ball-up in the inaugural AFL Women's match in February 2017. The match was played before a lockout crowd of 24,568 - the highest attendance of the inaugural season.

The first premiership game was played on Friday, 3 February 2017[16] at Princes Park (then named Ikon Park). The AFL had initially planned to host the game at Melbourne's Olympic Park Oval, with a capacity of just 7,000, but was forced to change the venue to Princes Park due to overwhelming interest and a lack of adequate seating.[17] The match was deemed a "lockout" with a capacity crowd of 24,568 in attendance, with a few thousand estimated to have been waiting outside.[18] As a result, Gillon McLachlan, the AFL's CEO, personally apologised to those who missed out. The game was also a great success on TV, attracting a national TV audience of 896,000 including 593,000 metropolitan free-to-air viewers, 180,000 regional free-to-air viewers and 123,000 on Fox Footy.[19] The Melbourne metropolitan audience of 424,000 was on par with that of Friday night AFL men's matches.[19]

The inaugural season concluded with the Grand Final held on Saturday, 25 March 2017. The Adelaide Crows were crowned the league's first premiers after defeating minor premiers the Brisbane Lions. The scoreline read Adelaide 4.11 (35) def. Brisbane 4.5 (29).[20]

Expansion (2019–20)

Expansion of the competition occurred in two instalments, with two clubs added in 2019 and four in 2020, to result in 14 teams in total. The ten AFL clubs not originally participating in the competition were invited to bid for inclusion, with priority given to the five clubs that unsuccessfully bid to participate in the inaugural season.[21] The deadline to lodge submissions was 16 June 2017. The only clubs not to bid were Port Adelaide and Sydney.[22] North Melbourne worked with AFL Tasmania to craft its bid, with the club aiming to play home matches in Melbourne, Hobart and Launceston, and also select half of its playing list from Tasmania.[23][24] A final decision on which clubs are admitted to the competition was expected by the end of July 2017 but was delayed several times to September 2017.[22][25][26]

On 27 September 2017, the AFL announced that North Melbourne and Geelong had been selected to come into the competition in 2019.[27] North Melbourne retained its commitment to playing matches in Tasmania.[28] The league then expanded an additional four teams in 2020, with the AFL selecting West Coast, Richmond, Gold Coast and St Kilda to join the competition.[27][28] The growth in clubs was accompanied by the introduction of American-style conferences for the 2019 season, further details of which can be found in the season structure section of this article. The conferences were abandoned in favour of the traditional single ladder ahead of the 2021 season.[29] The 2020 season was curtailed and eventually cancelled without a premiership awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Template:AFLW expansion

Clubs

Template:AFL Women's clubs map

The competition's fourteen teams are based across five states of Australia. Eight are based in Victoria (seven in the Melbourne metropolitan area), Queensland and Western Australia have two teams each and New South Wales and South Australia have one team each. Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory and Tasmania are the only states or territories not to have AFL Women's teams, however North Melbourne has a formalised partnership with Tasmania, which enables the club to draft players from and play home games there.

Club Colours Moniker State Home venue Exhibition
games		 Est. Seasons Premierships
First Total Total Most recent
Adelaide 15px Crows South Australia Richmond Oval — 2016 2017+ 4 2 2019
Brisbane 15px Lions Queensland Hickey Park 2016 2016 2017+ 4 0 —
Carlton 15px Blues Victoria Princes Park — 2016 2017+ 4 0 —
Collingwood 15px Magpies Victoria Victoria Park — 2016 2017+ 4 0 —
Fremantle 15px Dockers Western Australia Fremantle Oval 2016 2016 2017+ 4 0 —
Geelong AFL Geelong Icon.jpg Cats Victoria Kardinia Park — 2018 2019 2 0 —
Template:AFLW GC AFL Gold Coast Icon.jpg Suns Queensland Carrara Stadium 2016 2019 2020 1 0 —
Greater Western Sydney 15px Giants New South Wales Blacktown ISP Oval 2016 2016 2017+ 4 0 —
Melbourne 15px Demons Victoria Casey Fields 2013 2013* 2017+ 4 0 —
North Melbourne AFL North Melbourne Icon.jpg Kangaroos Victoria & Tasmania^ Arden Street Oval — 2018 2019 2 0 —
Richmond AFL Richmond Icon.jpg Tigers Victoria Princes Park — 2019 2020 1 0 —
St Kilda AFL St Kilda Icon.jpg Saints Victoria Moorabbin Oval — 2019 2020 1 0 —
Template:AFLW WC 15px Eagles Western Australia Lathlain Park 2016 2019 2020 1 0 —
Western Bulldogs 15px Bulldogs Victoria Whitten Oval 2013 2013* 2017+ 4 1 2018
^ denotes that the club has a formalised partnership with this state or territory
* denotes that the club had a foundation women's team
+ denotes that the club was a founding member of the AFLW

Venues

Below are the venues that will be used during the 2020 AFL Women's season.

Venue City Host club(s) Capacity Games
Arden Street Oval Melbourne, Victoria North Melbourne 5,000 2
Blacktown ISP Oval Sydney, New South Wales Greater Western Sydney 10,000 2
Carrara Stadium Gold Coast, Queensland Template:AFLW GC 25,000 2
Casey Fields Melbourne, Victoria Melbourne 12,000 3
Docklands Stadium Melbourne, Victoria Carlton, Collingwood 56,347 2
Fankhauser Reserve Gold Coast, Queensland Template:AFLW GC 8,000 1
Fremantle Oval Perth, Western Australia Fremantle 17,500 4
The Gabba Brisbane, Queensland Brisbane 42,000 1
Hickey Park Brisbane, Queensland Brisbane 5,000 3
Kardinia Park Geelong, Victoria Geelong 36,000 4
Lathlain Park Perth, Western Australia Template:AFLW WC 15,000 2
Leederville Oval Perth, Western Australia Template:AFLW WC 15,000 1
Moorabbin Oval Melbourne, Victoria St Kilda 10,000 4
Morwell Recreation Reserve Morwell, Victoria Collingwood 12,000 1
North Hobart Oval Hobart, Tasmania North Melbourne 18,000 1
Perth Stadium Perth, Western Australia Template:AFLW WC 60,000 1
Princes Park Melbourne, Victoria Carlton, Richmond 24,568 6
Queen Elizabeth Oval Bendigo, Victoria Richmond 10,000 1
Ray Mitchell Oval Mackay, Queensland Template:AFLW GC 10,000 1
Richmond Oval Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide 16,500 3
Robertson Oval Wagga Wagga, New South Wales Greater Western Sydney 10,000 1
Sydney Showground Stadium Sydney, New South Wales Greater Western Sydney 24,000 1
Traeger Park Alice Springs, Northern Territory Melbourne 10,000 1
Unley Oval Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide 10,000 1
Victoria Park Melbourne, Victoria Collingwood 15,000 2
Whitten Oval Melbourne, Victoria Western Bulldogs 12,000 4
York Park Launceston, Tasmania North Melbourne 21,000 1

Players

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See also: List of current AFL Women's team squads
File:O'Dea shrugs Scott's tackle 18.02.17.jpg
Melbourne's Elise O'Dea evades Hannah Scott of the Western Bulldogs in round 3, 2017

The club's playing lists were constructed from scratch through the later stages of 2016. All participants in the 2017 season are required to be over the age of 17.

Initially, clubs were asked to nominate a list of desired players, with the AFL assigning two of these "marquee" players to each club. In addition, clubs were able to sign a number of players with existing connections to the club, or with arrangements for club sponsored work or study.[30][31][32] This number varied for each club, in an attempt to equitably spread talent across the teams. In addition, clubs were required to recruit two "rookies" - people with no Australian rules football experience in the previous three-year period. The majority of players were later recruited through the 2016 AFL Women's draft.[33] The balance of list spots was filled with free-agent signings in the week following the draft. In total clubs have a 27 active listed players in addition to injury replacements signed to take the spot of long-term injury affected players.

Salary

The current collective bargaining agreement, in place until the end of the 2022 season, has total player payments per club of $576,240 in 2020 and $717,122 in 2022.[34] Players are split into four tiers.

Tier[34] 2020 2021 2022
1 $29,856 $32,077 $37,155
2 $23,059 $24,775 $28,697
3 $19,661 $21,124 $24,468
4 $16,623 $17,473 $20,239

Rules

The rules are mostly the same as men's AFL, with a few exceptions. For 2019, the main differences were: the women used a slightly smaller ball; played shorter quarters (15 minutes instead of 20); had 16 on the field at a time (instead of 18); 5 interchange players, and no limit on the number of player rotations (instead of 4 interchange players, and 90 total rotations).[35]

Other differences for 2019 were throw-ins were 10 metres in from the boundary; and a "last touch" out-of-bounds rule applies, except within the 50-metre arcs. During 2018, the "last touch" rule applied everywhere.[36]

Season structure

Pre-season

Prior to the commencement of the home-and-away season teams are paired off to play an exhibition trial match. In 2017 these matches took place during varying weeks of January.

Premiership season and finals

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See also: 2020 AFL Women's season

For the first two seasons of competition, the home-and-away season was operated on a single table and seven matches were played by each of the eight teams. The two highest place teams at the conclusion of the home-and-away season qualified for the Grand Final match, in the absence of a proper finals series.

With the addition of two extra teams in 2019, the AFL Women's home-and-away season introduced conferences, a concept not common in Australian sports.[37][38] The top two teams from the respective conferences qualified to the preliminary finals, with the first-ranked team in Conference A meeting the second-ranked team in Conference B and the opposite employed for the other preliminary final. The winners of those matches then met in the Grand Final.[38] The use of conferences was retained in 2020, along with the inclusion of four additional teams. The fourteen teams were split into two conferences of seven, with a finals series for the top three teams in each conference to be held, however these matches were eventually abandoned due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[34]

In 2021, the league will revert to a single 14-team ladder. Each team will play nine matches, and a three-week finals series will occur.[29]

Awards

The following major individual awards and accolades are presented each season:[39]

  • Best & Fairest Trophy - to the fairest and best player in the league, voted by the umpires
  • Leading Goalkicker Award - to the player who kicks the most goals during the home-and-away season
  • All-Australian Team - a squad of 22 players deemed the best in their positions, voted by an AFL-appointed committee
  • Rising Star Award - to the fairest and best young player under the age of 21 as at the start of the calendar year, voted by the AFL-appointed All-Australian committee
  • Grand Final Best on Ground Award - the best player on the ground in the Grand Final, voted by a committee of media members

Media coverage

Television

In its inaugural 2017 season, all matches were televised live by affiliate partners the Seven Network and Fox Footy.[40] As part of the initial broadcast deal, the free-to-air carrier Seven broadcast one Saturday night game per week as standard, in addition to the league's opening match and Grand Final. Pay TV network Fox Footy televised all premiership season matches, including simulcasts of the Seven-hosted matches other than the Grand Final.[41] The two television networks covered the costs of broadcasting these matches, with no licensing fee payable to the league in exchange.[42]

Online

The official internet/mobile broadcast partner of the AFL is BigPond, part of Telstra. The company hosts the league website as well as those of each of the eight participation clubs. The AFL has retained digital broadcast rights to matches in the league's inaugural season and will stream all matches live and free on the league website and mobile app.[42]

Outside Australia, the inaugural season is available on Watch AFL.[43]

Corporate relations

Sponsorship

The National Australia Bank is the league's inaugural and (as of 2019) current naming rights partner.[44]

All playing and training equipment as well as all licensed apparel and hats for the league's clubs are manufactured by Cotton On.[45]

Other 2017 league sponsors included Wolf Blass, Chemist Warehouse and Kellogg's.[46][47][48]

The official ball supplier is Sherrin.[49]

Merchandising

Official match day attire together with other club merchandise is sold through the AFL's stores and website as well through the clubs and through some retailers.

Women's exhibition games (2013–2016)

Prior to the creation of the league, the AFL ran four years of exhibition matches between sides representing Melbourne and Western Bulldogs. In 2016, the series was expanded to multiple teams from around the country.

2013 exhibition game
Sunday, 30 June Melbourne 8.5 (53) def. Western Bulldogs 3.3 (21) MCG (crowd: 7,500) Match report


2014 exhibition game
Sunday, 29 June Western Bulldogs 4.2 (26) def. by Melbourne 10.12 (72) Etihad Stadium (crowd: 24,953 (D/H)) Match report


2015 exhibition series
Sunday, 24 May Melbourne 4.13 (37) def. Western Bulldogs 4.5 (29) MCG (crowd: 29,381 (D/H)) Match report
Sunday, 16 August Western Bulldogs 5.6 (36) def. by Melbourne 6.4 (40) Etihad Stadium (crowd: 27,805 (D/H)) Match report


2016 exhibition series
Sunday, 2 March Melbourne 3.3 (21) def. by Western Bulldogs 6.5 (41) Highgate Recreational Reserve Match report
Saturday, 2 April SANFL Blue 5.4 (34) def. SANFL Red 5.2 (32) Adelaide Oval (crowd: 51,585 (D/H)) Match report
Saturday, 9 April Sydney 9.8 (62) def. Greater Western Sydney 5.3 (33) SCG (crowd: 37,045 (D/H)) Match report
Saturday, 9 April West Coast 13.10 (88) def. Fremantle 3.5 (23) Domain Stadium (crowd: 40,555 (D/H)) Match report
Sunday, 10 April Northern Territory 13.11 (89) def. Tasmania 7.11 (53) Peanut Reserve Match report
Saturday, 16 April Brisbane 5.8 (38) def. Gold Coast 3.6 (24) Gabba (crowd: 20,041 (D/H)) Match report
Sunday, 22 May Melbourne 14.7 (91) def. Brisbane 3.2 (20) MCG (crowd: 26,892 (D/H)) Match report
Sunday, 5 June Western Bulldogs 8.5 (53) def. Western Australia 5.10 (40) Etihad Stadium (crowd: 28,769 (D/H)) Match report
Sunday, 5 June South Australia 4.3 (27) def. NSW/ACT 3.7 (25) Adelaide Oval (crowd: 40,896 (D/H)) Match report
Saturday, 3 September Western Bulldogs 14.6 (90) def. Melbourne 7.9 (51) Whitten Oval (crowd: 6,365) Match report


Premiers and awards

Premiers

Club Years in

competition

 Premierships Runners up Premiership

Years

 Runner up

Years
Adelaide 2017–present 2 0 2017, 2019
Western Bulldogs 2017–present 1 0 2018
Brisbane Lions 2017–present 0 2 2017, 2018
Carlton 2017–present 0 1 2019
Melbourne 2017–present 0 0
Collingwood 2017–present 0 0
Fremantle 2017–present 0 0
Greater Western

Sydney

 2017–present 0 0
North Melbourne 2019–present 0 0
Geelong 2019–present 0 0
Richmond 2020–present 0 0
St Kilda 2020–present 0 0
Gold Coast 2020–present 0 0
West Coast 2020–present 0 0

Best and fairest

The best and fairest award determined in the same way as the Brownlow Medal for men, with umpires award 3, 2, and 1 votes to the best three players in each game, and suspended players ineligible.

Year Player Club
2017 Erin Phillips Adelaide
2018 Emma Kearney Western Bulldogs
2019 Erin Phillips[52] Adelaide
2020 Madison Prespakis[53] Carlton

MVP (Most Valuable Player)

The MVP award is voted on by the players' peers, in a similar method to the Leigh Matthews Trophy for men.

Year Player Club
2017 Erin Phillips Adelaide
2018 Courtney Gum GWS Giants
2019 Erin Phillips Adelaide

Leading goalkicker

Year Player Club Goals
2017 Darcy Vescio Carlton 14
2018 Brooke Lochland Western Bulldogs 12
2019 Stevie-Lee Thompson Adelaide 13

See also

References

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External links

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  11. ↑ Women's league bidding heating up, with teams scrambling for licenses
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  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ New Rules for 2019, AFL, 7 November 2018
  36. ↑ AFLW Insight: New season, new rules, AFL, 6 February 2019
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ https://www.sherrin.com.au/
  50. ↑ First bounce for women's footy at the MCG
  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ Erin Phillips wins AFLW best and fairest for second time after Adelaide Crows premiership win, ABC, 2 April 2019
  53. ↑ Indigenous player Madison Prespakis named AFLW's best player, NITV, 29 April 2020
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