The 2021 AFL Women's season was the fifth season of the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition, the highest-level senior women's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 14 clubs and ran from 28 January to 17 April, comprising a nine-round home-and-away season followed by a three-week finals series featuring the top six clubs.
won the premiership, defeating by 18 points in the 2021 AFL Women's Grand Final. Adelaide won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 7–2 win–loss record. 's Kiara Bowers and 's Brianna Davey tied for the AFL Women's best and fairest award as the league's best and fairest players, and 's Darcy Vescio won her second AFL Women's leading goalkicker award as the league's leading goalkicker.
Format The previous two AFLW seasons were formatted with the assistance of conferences, which split the league's clubs into two ranking tables. The AFL elected to remove the conferences for the 2021 season and revert to a single ladder. Under the terms of the existing contractual bargaining agreement between the players and the AFL, teams will play nine regular season matches, before a three-week finals series for the top six teams occurs. Owing to the fact clubs will not get the opportunity to play all of their opponents once, the AFL placed the teams together in a single 2020 ladder and then broke them up into brackets to attempt a fair fixture for the 2021 season.
The season was played during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the season began, Australia had largely settled into a paradigm of most states maintaining zero COVID-19 cases outside of their international travel quarantine systems; this allowed football games to be played in front of crowds, usually with reduced capacity, and unhindered interstate travel was permitted without quarantine. However, the different state governments often responded quickly to small numbers or even single virus cases being discovered in the community; this meant border restrictions or quarantine periods were at times re-introduced at short notice, impacting interstate travel for games; and, in some cases, that city- or state-wide lockdowns could be imposed within the impacted states, precluding football activities altogether. The season's original nine-round fixture was discarded due to such restrictions after only one week, in favour of a floating fixture released around any restrictions in place at the time.
Home-and-away season All starting times are local time.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Ladder
Progression by round Numbers highlighted in green indicates the team finished the round inside the top 6. Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished in first place for that round. Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place for that round.
+Team1234567891 2Brisbane Lions 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Finals series
Qualifying finals
Preliminary finals
Grand final
Win–loss table
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 QF PF GF Ranking X 2 Brisbane Lions X 1 X X X 7 X 3 X X 5 X X X 13 Gold Coast X X X 14 X X X 9 X 4 X X 6 X X X 10 X X X 11 X X X 12 X X X 8
Awards
League awards The league best and fairest was jointly awarded to Kiara Bowers of and Brianna Davey of , who polled 15 votes each. The leading goalkicker was awarded to Darcy Vescio of , who kicked 16 goals during the home and away season. The Rising Star was awarded to Tyla Hanks of . The best on ground medal in the AFL Women's Grand Final was won by Kate Lutkins of . The goal of the year was awarded to Courtney Hodder of . The mark of the year was awarded to Danielle Ponter of . AFLW Players Association awards: The most valuable player was awarded to Brianna Davey of . The most courageous player was awarded to Chelsea Randall of . The best captain was awarded to Ellie Blackburn of . The best first year player was awarded to Ellie McKenzie of . The AFLW Coaches Association awards: The champion player of the year was awarded to Kiara Bowers of . The senior coach of the year was awarded to Craig Starcevich of . Brianna Davey was named captain of the All-Australian team. Twelve of the fourteen clubs had at least one representative in the 21-woman team. The minor premiership was won by . The wooden spoon was "won" by .
Best and fairests Club Award name Player Ref. Club Champion Ebony Marinoff Brisbane Lions Best and fairest Ally Anderson Best and fairest Darcy Vescio Best and fairest Brianna Davey Fairest and bestKiara Bowers Best and fairest Amy McDonald Club Champion Lauren Ahrens Gabrielle Trainor Medal Alyce Parker Best and fairest Tyla Hanks & Karen Paxman Best and fairest Jasmine Garner Best and fairest Monique Conti Best and fairest Georgia Patrikios Best and fairest Ellie Blackburn Club Champion Isabella Lewis
Leading goalkickers Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the season's goal kicking tally at the end of that round. RankPlayerTeam123456789Total1Darcy VescioCarlton11010134262819514216162Gemma HoughtonFremantle331426060651111211311414Chloe MolloyCollingwood2213142639211011213114Katie BrennanRichmond000000223516392113145Dakota DavidsonBrisbane Lions1145271808210010111213136Erin PhillipsAdelaide221314481921101111201212Isabel HuntingtonWestern Bulldogs2213142639092110111128Kate HoreMelbourne22241505051639211011119Courtney WakefieldRichmond110112352718190911010Cora StauntonGreater Western Sydney0000004404043718210 Source:
Coach changes Club Outgoing coach Manner of departure Date of vacancy Incoming coach Date of appointment Resigned 11 April 2021 2 June 2021 Resigned 10 May 2021 29 June 2021 Resigned 24 June 2021 2 August 2021 End of contract 7 September 2021 7 September 2021
Club leadership Club Coach Captain(s) Vice-captain(s) Leadership group Ref Matthew Clarke Chelsea Randall Sarah Allan, Ange Foley, Eloise Jones Brisbane Lions Craig Starcevich Emma Zielke Breanna Koenen Emily Bates, Shannon Campbell, Kate Lutkins Daniel Harford Kerryn Harrington, Katie Loynes Alison Downie, Nicola Stevens, Darcy Vescio Stephen Symonds Steph Chiocci, Brianna Davey Sharni Norder Trent Cooper Kara Antonio Ebony Antonio, Kiara Bowers, Hayley Miller, Gabby O'Sullivan Paul Hood Meg McDonald Jordan Ivey Renee Garing, Madeline Keryk, Nina Morrison, Aasta O'Connor David Lake Hannah Dunn, Sam Virgo Sarah Perkins, Jade Pregelj, Jamie Stanton Alan McConnell Alicia Eva Jessica Dal Pos, Pepa Randall, Cora Staunton, Britt Tully Mick Stinear Daisy Pearce Karen Paxman Libby Birch, Maddi Gay, Tyla Hanks, Kate Hore, Sarah Lampard, Lily Mithen Darren Crocker Emma Kearney Jasmine Garner, Emma King, Ashleigh Riddell Ryan Ferguson Katie Brennan Sarah Hosking Christina Bernardi, Harriet Cordner, Sabrina Frederick, Phoebe Monahan, Alana Woodward Peta Searle Cat Phillips, Hannah Priest, Kate Shierlaw, Rhiannon Watt Tilly , Kate McCarthy Daniel Pratt Emma Swanson Dana Hooker Courtney Guard, Alicia Janz, Parris Laurie Nathan Burke Ellie Blackburn Brooke Lochland Ashleigh Guest, Bailey Hunt, Isabel Huntington, Kirsty Lamb, Bonnie Toogood
Notes
References
External links Official AFL Women's website