History of AFLW (Women's)

From a Discouraged World-War Charity Fundraiser to a Nation Wide Professional Competition: AFLW's Recent Historical Milestone Reaches International Attention

By Jazz Cowling.                                14th October 2025

CONTENT WARNING: Viewers are advised that the following content contains images and information of those who have passed, cultural protocols are encouraged from this point. 

In past times our great Aussie game has already gained international attention and interest from those all around the world. However in a recent historical milestone, the AFLW has made headlines all around the world in a major development stage of the game. 

From starting out as a game played as a charity fundraiser during both world wars and being extremely discouraged, to today being a nation wide elite level competition, The AFLW has experienced development like no other. In a public push for more professionalism and media coverage, today's society plays a huge part in the future development of our game and can build on from the extensive past of the game. 

The women's game has gone through a tremendous development to get to the level that we all know it as today, although many say that the game still isn't at the level that it should be at. Whilst the game has lived through some of societies hardest moments and even through points of doubt, the AFLW may just be one of the worlds greatest examples of persistance. 

The very start of Women's football dates back for over 100 years, something that is not known and appreciated by a lot of the football community. During the century that women's football has lived through, it has shown determination, passion and resilience in overcoming the harsh reality through the disgust from the community not believing in its development. Throughout this extensive amount of time, the game has come from being a discouraged charity fundraiser to one of the countries key games, the AFLW has made history like no other. 

During the times of the first and second world wars, women's football was used as a charity fundraiser to raise money for the important men in their lives as they "were away fighting and the women want to do their bit and have the opportunity given to them by their employers to raise money for the ANZACS". 

Even with the purpose behind these games being played, society during this time severely discouraged the participation of women as it didn't align with how women were expected to conduct themselves. The extent of supporters that we see at todays W games were near extinct during these times with an average of 600 spectators. 

However, despite the challenges, women's football has proved to gain more popular over the years, a key driver towards reaching what it is today. 

The women's side of the game faced its biggest decline in participation and popularity between 1926- 1976, due to the "unnecessary inclusion of women" into the game. Although matches are still played for charity fundraising, they become treated as novelties with media coverage and supporters severely lowering there presence at games.

The VFLW became the first state level competition for women to compete in in 1981 after a sudden rise in interest among women's football. This became the first structured women's competition and helped increase the publicity and "want" for other states to do the same.

In the early 2000's, other states followed in the footsteps of the VFLW with the SANFLW, WAFLW and QAFLW leagues also beginning to form. This provided a major foundation point for many young girls and women to pave their way into our great Aussie game. 

The rise of participation and interest in the game from both young girls and women were said to be " a major contributing factor" behind the inclusion of an "exhibition" match in 2007.

The idea behind these exhibition matches was to promote the game further through the inclusion of women's AFL teams.

"We would like to promote the inclusion of women's football to an extent that reflects professionalism through a new elite level competition" was stated by AFL CEO Andrew Demitriou in a public appearance surrounding this inclusion. 

A major development came in 2010 where the AFL made a promise to start investing more into womens football to to increasing public demand. This later contributed to the 2014 exhibition series which was held at Etihad stadium that proved to be a major point for later developments.

Whilst more exhibition matches continued, they started to be broadcast free-to-air for the first time in 2015. 

Following the idea of the exhibition matches, The Western Bulldogs and Melbourne Demons became the first AFL teams to field women's teams in another exhibition match in 2016. However, this match did not just gain the attention of tousands of Australians, but also spread to international lengths with other countrys picking up on the inclusion of women. 

Following the popularity of the exhibition match in 2016, this contributed to the development of the first national and elite level competition as the NAB AFLW series kicked off its first official season in 2017 with the first game played on February 3rd.

The series first kicked off with 8 teams including Adelaide, Western Bulldogs, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, GWS and Melbourne. In 2018, North Melbourne and Geelong rose the competition to 10 teams and in 2019 14 teams were officially alive with the inclusion of St Kilda, West Coast, Gold Coast and Richmond. 

Finally in 2022, the league expanded to all 18 teams with the inclusion of Hawthorn, Port Adelaide, Sydney and Essendon. 

This has been a popular and developing league that has experienced major changes in hopes to one day lift the women of our great Aussie game to the same level of professionalism, Fame and respect that our Men currently experience. 

This year the AFLW celebrates season 10 of the NAB AFLW, a major milestone in the progression of the competition.