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 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 Brisbane.
Carlton and Collingwood players are contesting 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.
Melbourne's Elise O'Dea evaded Hannah Scott of the Western Bulldogs in Round 3, 2017.
Australian rules football in Australia
Australian rules football is the most watched and attended sport and the second most participated code of football in Australia. Since originating in Victoria in 1858 and spreading elsewhere from 1866, it has been played continuously in every Australian state since 1903 plus the two major territories since 1916.
Contesting for possession in an indigenous community football game in the Northern Territory
Engraving of the first intercolonial football match between Victoria and South Australia at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1879
The first national interstate competition was held in 1908
An Australian Football League match at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast. Adelaide's Matthew Clarke and Melbourne's Mark Jamar contest a centre bounce. The man in the green shirt is a central field umpire.
