46-706: The West Australian Women's Football League (WAWFL) was the governing body of women's Australian rules football in the state of Western Australia from 1987 until its dissolution in 2021. It organised the premier women's football league in Western Australia from 1987 to 2018, which was superseded in 2019 by the WAFLW league, a joint initiative of the WAWFL and the West Australian Football Commission . The WAWFL football league
92-516: A QAFL Women's competition was formed in Brisbane in 2001, Queensland's first women's league after one off matches from as early as the 1970s. The first national junior championships for girls were established in 1992 with the advent of the first AFL Women's National Championship , while junior sides later took part in the first AFL Women's Under 18 Championships in 2008–2010. Women's Australian rules football began to rapidly grow in 2000, with
138-546: A 30-minute match was played on Adelaide Oval between workers of the Charles Moore & Co. factory and the Mirror Shirt and Pyjama Factory. Although the match was not a standalone event, newspapers at the time did refer to it as the main attraction of the day. A moth biplane dropped the game ball to start the match. In 1930, the club captain and secretary Veronica O'Callahan announced that the Charles Moore's club
184-520: A game took place at Alberton Oval between Port Adelaide and another club representing Thebarton. Port Adelaide was captained by Eileen Rend. Perth's successful "Shopgirls Premiership" competition continued after the war and through the 1920s and included teams from Brennan's drapery and Foy & Gibson among others. Women's teams were formed at Riverton, South Australia , to play scratch matches in 1920. The first match to be played in Melbourne
230-485: A licences to participate by 13 existing AFL teams, with eight teams awarded licences to participate in the inaugural season with the competition to be known as "AFL Women's" or AFLW for short. The inaugural AFLW match was held at Ikon Park in February 2017 between traditional rivals Carlton and Collingwood and attracted 27,500 fans, however over 2,000 people were locked out due to security concerns. The AFL apologised for
276-414: A match in front of a large crowd at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne. In 1933, a match played between Carlton and Richmond women's teams at Princes Park stadium in Melbourne was incorrectly billed on Sydney company Cinesound Newsreel as the "first women's rugby match"; the teams were composed mostly of female netball and track-and-field athletes eager to try Australian rules. Women's football
322-654: A representative team known as the Underdogs while participating in the TG4 reality show of the same name. During the show, the Underdogs played against Meath , Laois and Cork . In 2008 while playing ladies' Gaelic football at Gaelic Park in Keysborough , an opponent suggested Duryea should try women's Australian rules football and invited her to a training session with the VWFL team, Melbourne University . After
368-652: A round-robin competition was held at Glenferrie Oval featuring VFL clubs, with South Melbourne, Footscray, Hawthorn and St Kilda competing in an all-female competition. The league competed through the 1950s and was actively promoted by Footscray VFL champions "Mr Football" Ted Whitten and Jack Collins . Regular girls football was also being played in North West Tasmania, with clubs in Ulverstone and Devonport playing in 1946. Tasmanian Football League clubs Launceston and Clarence added women's teams to
414-588: A season with Melbourne University, Duryea switched to Diamond Creek . She subsequently played for Diamond Creek in seven VWFL Premier Division grand finals, helping them win the 2012 VFWL Premiership Cup. In 2016 Duryea was recruited to play for Melbourne in the AFLW . On 5 February 2017 she made her AFLW debut against Brisbane at Casey Fields . In the opening game of the 2018 season she played for Melbourne against Cora Staunton , making her debut for Greater Western Sydney . Duryea and Staunton were
460-470: Is one of the most popular women's football competitions in the world with an average attendance in 2019 of 6,262 a game. The record attendance is 53,034 which was set at the 2019 AFL Women's Grand Final which, prior to the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup , held the record for the most attended fixture in Australian women's sport. Women's Australian rules has also grown rapidly outside of Australia since
506-531: Is significant evidence of a continuity in competition from the end of World War I spanning several Australian states. Both world wars were a great liberator for women; as the men fought in the war, women were often called to perform many tasks typically done by men, including spectator sports. In August 1880, a group gathered at Sandhurst (Bendigo) in Victoria responding to a postcard from signed "Lover of Football" to form an all-ladies football club. The idea
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#1732787987703552-874: Is the daughter of Ian Corrigan, an Irish country singer. Her father and brothers played Gaelic football for Drumlane . She was educated at Loreto College, Cavan and RMIT . In 2008 Duryea arrived in St Kilda, Victoria while travelling. She ended up staying in the Melbourne area and eventually settled in Rosebud , Mornington Peninsula . In 2016 she married Richard Duryea. While living in County Cavan , Duryea played for Drumlane and Erne Gaels. After moving to Melbourne she played for Sinn Féin. Duryea has also played senior ladies' Gaelic football for Cavan and Victoria . In 2006 Duryea played for
598-525: Is the second most played code among women and girls in Australia behind soccer . The first Australian rules football matches involving women were organised late in the 19th century, but for several decades it occurred mostly in the form of scratch matches , charity matches and one-off exhibition games . The first all-female matches began early in the 20th century, and regular competition first emerged after World War II . State-based leagues emerged between
644-576: The Australian Football International Cup . She originally played senior ladies' Gaelic football for Cavan and Victoria however decided to switch preferring the increased physicality of Australian Football, and wore the number at Melbourne of the late Irish Hall of Famer Jim Stynes . Duryea is originally from Ireland . She was raised in the Drumlane , Belturbet and Milltown area of County Cavan . She
690-889: The Ballarat Arch of Victory . The Lucas girls won the match 3 goals 6 (24) to the Khakis 1 goal 2 (8) in front of 7,000 people, then the largest football crowd in Ballarat history. A photograph of the Lucas Girls Football team appears in the Ballarat Star in December 1918. In September 1918 the Australian Red Cross organised a number of fundraising "ladies football" matches including a match at Broken Hill, New South Wales between teams of
736-671: The Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney time to submit their bids in full. Not content to wait for the AFL, two of its member clubs, the Melbourne Football Club and the Western Bulldogs began organising women's matches against each other. Initially the clubs created representative teams drawn from local players from aligned VWFL clubs. In June 2013, they organised an AFL sanctioned exhibition match held at
782-485: The St Kilda Cricket Ground . Other high drawing matches were played in Western Australia between Kalgoorlie and Kalgoorlie Railways. In 1922, a Fitzroy female team travelled to Perth and played West Perth in front of 13,500 spectators. The 1923 Richmond ladies football team played against the men's side in Melbourne to raise funds for a junior trip. In 1929, as part of an annual charity day,
828-833: The 1980s and 2000s: the first was the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) formed in Melbourne in 1981, with others including the West Australian Women's Football League (WAWFL) formed in Perth in 1988 and the South Australian Women's Football League (SAWFL) formed in Adelaide in 1991. The AFL Women's National Championships were inaugurated in 1992. In 2010 the Australian Football League (AFL) assumed control of
874-478: The 2000s. The Women's International Cup has been run since 2011. Players to represent their country and be recruited at AFLW level include Laura Duryea , Clara Fitzpatrick (Ireland) and Kendra Heil (Canada). The game's governing body, the AFL Commission , has been criticised for its lack of acknowledgement of the history of women's football, taking credit only for the virtually overnight "revolution" of
920-666: The 27th Battalion and Artillery as well as several in South Australia including Morphett Vale took on Coo-ee, as well as matches involving the factory of Charles Moore and Co. Perhaps the highest profile match was between North Adelaide iand South Adelaide at the Jubilee Oval in Adelaide on the 21st. In South Australia, an early example of Women's football was a Port Adelaide Women's team in November, 1918 where
966-644: The AFLW also broke women's football attendance records in all states and territories except South Australia, including Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory where no teams were based. The inaugural Grand Final held on the Gold Coast set a new record for the women's game in Queensland with an attendance of 15,610. Following the AFLW season, the first State of Origin match in
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#17327879877031012-435: The AFLW while making only passing reference to its origins and development. While the Australian Football League has, in fact, played some role in the development of women's football in Australia, especially from the 2010s, it operated for 120 years without any official female teams, and was one of the last sporting competitions in the country to affiliate with a women's league. Overall public support for women's football in
1058-539: The Australian Football League (AFL) took over operations of Women's Football Australia and conducted a review of the organisation of its national organisation. This led to speculation that the AFL was investigating a national women's competition. Soon after, details of intentions emerged with the AFL slating a commencement in 2013 with four to eight teams. However the AFL would later miss this targe, postponing it until 2020 to allow its expansion clubs
1104-438: The Australian game passionately since the mid-19th century, accounting for approximately 50% of spectators at matches, a uniquely high figure among football codes. As early as 1862 women publicly questioned why they would not be able to play. Women's soccer became popular in the 1920s, and while documented mentions of football matches are often difficult to differentiate as to whether they were played under Australian rules, there
1150-702: The Federal Khaki Clothing Factory "Khaki girls" team (playing in khaki and white) travelled to Ballarat to play the Ballarat Eleanor Lucas's lingerie factory "Lucas girls" team (playing in pink and white and coached by Charlie Clymo ) at City Oval in Ballarat, Victoria in August which was, according to reports, a highly physical contest in front of a "huge crowd" and the even was met with substantial fanfare. The match funded
1196-582: The Melbourne Cricket Ground which attracted 7,500 spectators, then a record. The two teams competed annually over the next three years for the Hampson-Hardeman Cup. In women's Australian rules football in 2015, 163 new teams were formed, and a total of 284,501 players took part in organised games. In 2016 the AFL began a series of exhibition matches as double headers with men's matches. That same year it opened bidding for
1242-488: The Williamstown Chronicle. Costume football matches were popular from the late 1870s as a form of outdoor fancy dress theatre amusement mixing opera, comedy and pantomime. While early events were poorly documented, accounts from the time were over the top and gaudy affairs. However such matches provided a gateway for female participation and over time these there were more and more documented accounts of
1288-523: The Year Life members Women%27s Australian rules football Women's Australian rules football (in areas where it is popular, known simply as women's football or women's footy or women's AFL ), is the female-only form of Australian rules football , generally with some modification to the laws of the game . It is played by more than half a million women worldwide and with 119,447 Australian adult and 66,998 youth female participants in 2023
1334-476: The clubs competing in the men's Western Australian Football League . The current clubs are: Division 1 Division 2 (formerly Reserves) Fairest and Best The Medal is awarded to the best and fairest overall of the season as determined by the Umpires. This prestigious award is presented to the recipient at the end of season Presentation Dinner. Jo-anne Huggins Leading Goal Kickers Cath Boyce Rookie of
1380-487: The code for almost a decade, attracting 9,400 to Docklands Stadium to watch Victoria women's team take on the Allies . Laura Duryea Laura Duryea (born 14 December 1983), previously known as Laura Corrigan and also referred to as Laura Corrigan Duryea , is a women's Australian rules footballer best known for her professional career with Melbourne in the AFLW and for representing Ireland multiple times in
1426-495: The competition in 1947. Matches were also being played in the Wimmera - Mallee region of Victoria in towns such as Hopetoun , Lascelles and Camperdown . By 1947, the Adelaide women's competition had grown to seven teams. In 1953, a South Fremantle women's side took on and defeated Boans Limited at Perth Oval. In 1954, girls' football matches were held at Cobram. In 1959, a Victorian squad composed of Footscray players
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1472-493: The earliest all-female teams which included Nellie Stewart , Florence Maude Young , Jennie Lee , Violet Varley and Flora Graupner. Played at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground the match attracted one of the largest crowds ever seen to the ground and was declared a draw and the media lauded the performance of the female team: "the ladies, in fact, carried all before them". A repeat female vs male match
1518-555: The inclusion of female characters. In 1887 one of the earliest accounts of numerous "young ladies" participating was held in Ballarat, at the Eastern Oval in front of a huge crowd of 6,000. In 1892, a Bendigo woman was charged with nuisance for kicking a football in the street. In 1894, a high profile costume match was played to raise funds for the Australian Dramatic and Musical Association which featured one of
1564-405: The league's home of Melbourne has also lagged behind the rest of the country to an extent. Codified in 1859, Australian football had been played by men for almost half a century before the first all-women's football matches were played: exceptions to this included charity matches, such as patriotic fundraisers, which occasionally featured women players. Despite this, women have nonetheless followed
1610-405: The lock out which turned away fans stating that it had underestimated demand, expecting just 12,000 people. Despite this, the league later ruled out hosting women's matches at Docklands Stadium or the code's spiritual home Melbourne Cricket Ground deeming them to be too large for the women's game. As such, this was to remain a long standing record attendance for Victoria. During its debut season
1656-614: The number of registered teams increasing by a phenomenal 450%. In 2006 the Australian Services and the ADF conducted a national development camps for female players to form a services league. In June 2007, the organisers of the E. J. Whitten Legends Game included, for the first time, female participants - Daisy Pearce and Shannon McFerran , both of the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) - enabling them to play against former men's AFL players. This significantly raised
1702-527: The profile of women's football in Victoria, with some of the former AFL players being outplayed by the female players. It became one of the few high-profile mixed-gender exhibition matches featuring high-profile women's players. The first full international game was held between the USA Freedom and Team Canada in Vancouver on Saturday 4 August 2007 in front of a crowd of almost 2,500. In 2010,
1748-540: The sport with the intention of professionalising it and began restructuring competitions around the country to support an Australian national league, AFL Women's (AFLW), that commenced its inaugural season in 2017. By 2022 all 18 AFL clubs had begun fielding women's teams. The AFLW attracts a large audience of more than one million attendees and over two million viewers, and has managed to maintain its high levels of interest despite moving to primarily ticketed and subscription broadcasting models in 2021. The AFLW competition
1794-476: The years, women's football was rarely organised until the formation of the Victorian Women's Football League in 1981, with four teams competing at open level. With the West Australian Women's Football League 's formation in 1988, followed by that of the South Australian Women's Football League in 1991, there were competitions in the three major states in the sport. A women's competition in Sydney began in 1999 and
1840-701: Was being increasingly organised in northern Tasmania in the 1940s with the formation of several dedicated clubs and matches in Launceston. Archives also show a charity women's match occurred on Bassendean Oval in Perth, Western Australia, 27 August 1944. It is unknown whether the game had been played continuously in the state. Another match in 1944 was held in June at Memorial Oval Port Pirie, South Australia . Calls were made for big VFL clubs, including reigning premiers Essendon, to field women's sides in 1947. That year
1886-548: Was considered a novelty at the time, and did not proceed, though generated some attention across regional Victoria. In 1886, a local paper reported that a group of women in Williamstown were seen playing kick-to-kick . In the same year a call for a ladies football club affiliated with the North Williamstown Football Club suggesting a hybrid match against a women's lacrosse club was made in
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1932-624: Was defeated by a Tasmanian team. In 1967, a charity match was played in Regent's Park in London , between Aussie Girls and Wild Colonial Girls as a curtain raiser to a promotional men's match. In 1970 in Brisbane, Queensland, the Sherwood and Western Districts clubs began an annual women's competition which continued until 1985. The Mt Gravatt Football Club also had a dedicated women's team from 1973. Beyond this and occasional matches over
1978-439: Was formed in 1987. The first season of competition was played in 1988 between four clubs, with a team from Mount Lawley winning the inaugural premiership. A second division was added from 2007 and the two divisions were later renamed "League" and "Reserves", the format most commonly used in Australian football leagues. During the history of the league, some clubs which were originally formed independently have become associated with
2024-525: Was going into recess, claiming that the game is "too rough" to become popular with girls in Adelaide. Nevertheless, Port Adelaide Magpies reformed a women's team for the following year to play against a team from Queenstown. In August 1930, a charity match was organised in Perth on what is now the WACA Ground . In 1931, women protested against all-female matches being organised for Melbourne. That year, Oakleigh and Carnegie Football girls' clubs staged
2070-581: Was in 1921. According to the AFL Record, following World War I , a match in Melbourne was held to show that women could play what had previously been seen to be a man's sport. The first women's match attracted a large crowd and interest. The umpire wore a skirt. In 1921, a women's team in St Kilda organised a game with the women wearing kits donated by the St Kilda men's club and shorts rather than dresses. A team regularly practiced on Saturday mornings at
2116-668: Was played at the Theatrical Carnival at the Royal Exhibition Building in 1895. Women's role on the Home front during World War I saw the organisation of the earliest recorded all-women's matches. Records exist of a football side in Perth , Western Australia made up of department store staff playing as Foy & Gibson 's as early as 1915. Some of the first organised matches were played on Perth Oval , including one on 14 October 1917. In Victoria
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