AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national professional Australian rules football competition for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams. The league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 14 teams in 2020 and 18 teams in 2022. The league is run by the Australian Football League (AFL) and is contested by each of the clubs from that competition. The reigning premiers are the North Melbourne Kangaroos.
The AFLW is the second most attended women's football competition in Australia (behind A-League Women) and one of the most popular women's football competitions in the world. Its average attendance in 2019 of 6,262 per game made it the second-highest of any domestic women's football competition. Its record attendance of 53,034 for the 2019 AFL Women's Grand Final was until 2020 the highest match attendance for women's sport in Australia.
Since launch, the AFLW has attracted an audience of more than 1 million attendees and 2 million viewers"Over 2.6 million Australians watch AFLW on TV ", from Roy Morgan, 29 March 2021, Finding No. 8674. and has managed to maintain high interest while moving to primarily ticketed and subscription broadcasting models since the 2021 season. It consistently ranks in the top three (alongside cricket and netball) most-watched women's sporting competitions in Australia. The league receives international interest, particularly in Ireland, where it has begun to attract a significant television audience due to the ongoing recruitment of Irish Gaelic football stars. However, it was reported in mid-2023 that data revealed a significant drop in attendances for the seventh season of the women's league compared to the first season.
History
Earlier women's participation in Australian football
While men playing Australian rules football is documented back to 1858, women's games have only been documented back to 1917, and the first lasting women's league was formed in 1981. Women's participation in the sport and the prevalence of women's leagues continued to grow into the 21st century.
Establishment In 2010, the AFL commissioned a report into the state of women's football around the country. Following the report, the AFL Commission began working toward the establishment of a national women's league, choosing to establish women's teams in AFL clubs rather than form separate clubs.
The first on-field step towards the competition took place in early 2013, when the AFL announced an exhibition match to be played between women's teams representing and in June of that year. On 15 May 2013, the first women's draft was held, establishing the playing lists for the two clubs in the forthcoming exhibition match. The match played on 29 June 2013 marked the first time two women's sides had competed under the banners of AFL clubs. A crowd of 7,518 watched the historic match, which Melbourne won by 35 points. The exhibition match became a series between the clubs, with another game played in 2014 and two played in 2015, the last of which – 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, surpassing the 114,000 average audience for the AFL men's clash of the previous day, between Adelaide and Essendon.
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. Prior to this, the league had announced only aspirational plans to have the women's competition established by 2020. 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.
In 2016, the AFL opened a process for existing clubs to tender applications to join the new competition. The 18 clubs in the men's league had until 29 April 2016 to place a bid for a licence, with 13 clubs making bids: Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Geelong, Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda, West Coast, and Western Bulldogs. 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.
The inaugural teams were announced on 8 June 2016. , , and were the only teams to bid in their respective states and were granted licences to compete in 2017. Both Western Australian clubs made bids, with 's bid chosen ahead of the bid from . Eight Victorian clubs made bids: , , and were successful, with , , and being unsuccessful but granted provisional licences.
Details about the branding of the league were released in the second half of 2016. On 15 September 2016, the AFL announced that the league would be named "AFL Women's" or AFLW for short, with the logo being unveiled on 19 September 2016. The logo is a stylised rendition of an Australian rules football ground goal square and goal posts, drawn from a perspective that resembles a "W". On 10 October 2016, the National Australia Bank was named as the league's naming rights sponsor.
The first premiership game was played at Ikon Park on Friday, 3 February 2017. 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 to Ikon Park due to overwhelming interest and a need for more seating. The match was deemed a "lockout" with a capacity crowd of 24,568 in attendance, with estimates of a few thousand left outside. 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 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. The Melbourne metropolitan audience of 424,000 was on par with that of Friday-night AFL men's matches.
The inaugural season concluded with the Grand Final held on Saturday, 25 March 2017. The Crows were crowned the league's first premiers after defeating the minor premiers, the Brisbane Lions. The scoreline read Adelaide 4.11 (35) def. Brisbane 4.5 (29).
Expansion (2019–present) The remaining AFL clubs would join the league in the follow years, with two clubs added in the 2019 season, four in 2020, and the last four in 2022.
The 10 AFL clubs not originally participating in the competition were invited to bid for inclusion, with priority given to the five clubs that had submitted unsuccessful bids to participate in the inaugural season. The deadline to lodge submissions was 16 June 2017. The only clubs not to bid were and . worked with AFL Tasmania to craft its bid, with the club aiming to play home matches in Melbourne, Hobart, and Launceston, and also to select half of its playing list from Tasmania.
A final decision on which clubs would be admitted to the competition was expected by the end of July 2017, but was delayed several times. On 27 September 2017, the AFL announced that and North Melbourne had been selected to enter the competition in 2019. North Melbourne retained its commitment to playing matches in Tasmania. The league then added four teams in 2020, with the AFL selecting , , and to join the competition. The growth in clubs for the 2019 season was accompanied by the introduction of an American-style conference structure, which was abandoned after the 2020 season in favour of the traditional single ladder. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 season was curtailed and eventually cancelled without a premiership awarded.
On 12 August 2021, the final four AFL clubs (, , Port Adelaide and Sydney) were granted licenses, and the league's seventh season in 2022 was the first to feature all 18 AFL clubs.
became the first expansion team, founded after the inaugural season, to win a premiership, when the Kangaroos defeated Brisbane by 30 points in the 2024 decider, following this up with a 40 point victory in the 2025 Grand Final rematch.
Clubs
The competition's 18 teams are based across five states of Australia. Ten are based in Victoria (nine in the Melbourne metropolitan area), and New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia have two teams each, while a team from Tasmania will enter the AFLW at a date to be confirmed. The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are the only states or territories not to have AFLW teams.
Current clubs Club Colours Moniker State Seasons Premierships First Total Total Most recent Crows South Australia Norwood Oval — 2016 2017+ 8 3 2022 (S6) Lions Queensland Springfield Central Stadium 2016 2016 2017+ 8 2 2023 Blues Victoria Princes Park — 2016 2017+ 8 0 — Magpies Victoria Victoria Park — 2016 2017+ 8 0 — Bombers Victoria Windy Hill — 2022 2022 (S7) 2 0 — Dockers Western Australia Fremantle Oval 2016 2016 2017+ 8 0 — Cats Victoria Kardinia Park — 2018 2019 6 0 — Suns Queensland Carrara Stadium 2016 2019 2020 5 0 — Giants New South Wales Various 2016 2016 2017+ 8 0 — Hawks Victoria Frankston Park — 2022 2022 (S7) 2 0 — Demons Victoria Casey Fields 2013 2013* 2017+ 8 1 2022 (S7) Kangaroos Victoria & Tasmania^ Arden Street Oval — 2018 2019 6 2 2025 Power South Australia Alberton Oval — 2022 2022 (S7) 2 0 — Tigers Victoria Punt Road Oval — 2019 2020 5 0 — Saints Victoria Moorabbin Oval — 2019 2020 5 0 — Swans New South Wales Henson Park 2016 2022 2022 (S7) 2 0 — Eagles Western Australia Lathlain Park 2016 2019 2020 5 0 — Bulldogs Victoria Whitten Oval 2013 2013* 2017+ 8 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
Notes
Future clubs Club Colours Moniker State Joining league Devils Tasmania Macquarie Point Stadium 2028
Venues Below are the venues that hosted during the 2025 season.
Venue Matches Location Capacity Host club(s) Alberton Oval 6 Adelaide, South Australia 11,000 (6) Arden Street Oval 4 Melbourne, Victoria 4,000 (4) Bond University 1 Gold Coast, Queensland 3,000 (1) Blacktown ISP Oval 2 Sydney, New South Wales 10,000 (2) Carrara Stadium 4 Gold Coast, Queensland 22,500 (4) Casey Fields 5 Melbourne, Victoria 9,000 (5) Cazalys Stadium 1 Cairns, Queensland 15,000 (1)Coffs Harbour International Stadium1Coffs Harbour, New South Wales10,000 Eureka Stadium 1 Ballarat, Victoria 11,000 (1) Frankston Oval 5 Melbourne, Victoria 5,000 (5) Fremantle Oval 6 Perth, Western Australia 10,000 (6) Great Barrier Reef Arena 1 Mackay, Queensland 10,000 (1) Henson Park 8 Sydney, New South Wales 30,000 (4), (4) Kardinia Park 6 Geelong, Victoria 40,000 (6) Lathlain Park 4 Perth, Western Australia 6,500 (4)Leederville Oval2Perth, Western Australia15,000 (2) Manuka Oval 2 Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 16,000 (2)Marrara Stadium1Darwin, Northern Territory12,500Richmond (1) Moorabbin Oval 6 Melbourne, Victoria 8,000 (6)North Hobart Oval1Hobart, Tasmania10,000 (1) North Sydney Oval 1 Sydney, New South Wales 10,000 (1) Norwood Oval 4 Adelaide, South Australia 10,000 (4) Princes Park 12 Melbourne, Victoria 12,000 (6), (1), (5) Springfield Central Stadium 6 Brisbane, Queensland 8,000 (6)University of Tasmania Stadium1Launceston, Tasmania19,000 (1) Unley Oval 2 Adelaide, South Australia 10,000 (2) Victoria Park 6 Melbourne, Victoria 10,000 (6) Whitten Oval 5 Melbourne, Victoria 10,000 (5) Windy Hill 6 Melbourne, Victoria 10,000 (6)
Players
The club's playing lists were constructed from scratch through the later stages of 2016. All participants in the 2017 season were required to be over the age of 17.