AFL women's league

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AFL women's league (provisional title)
Sport Australian rules football
Inaugural season 2017
CEO Gillon McLachlan
No. of teams 8
Country Australia
Headquarters Melbourne ("AFL House")
Related competitions Australian Football League
Official website afl.com.au

The AFL women's league is a future Australian rules football competition. It will be the first national women's Australian rules football league in Australia. The league will be run by the Australian Football League and will consist of a subset of clubs from that competition. The first season of the league is due to begin in 2017.

History

The competition was announced in 2008 and was slated to commence in 2013 with four to eight teams, but this was changed after it was found that the new teams from the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney would not have time to submit their bids in full.[1] The starting number of teams has also been increased due to the growth of women's football since 2008.

Since 2012, the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne Demons have played a series of women's exhibition matches. One game, played on 16 August 2015, was broadcast on free-to-air television and attracted strong ratings. This prompted the AFL to accelerate its plans for a nationwide women's competition, bringing the start date forward from 2020 to 2017.[2]

Structure

The league will consist of eight clubs. All eighteen clubs in the Australian Football League had until 29 April 2016 to place a bid for a licence to field a team in the women's competition. The thirteen clubs that chose to bid were Adelaide, Brisbane Lions, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Geelong, Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs.

The eight clubs selected to be part of the competition are likely to include four clubs from Victoria and one each from New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.[3]

As the only teams to bid in their respective states, Adelaide, Brisbane and Greater Western Sydney will be granted licenses to compete in 2017. The remaining teams will be announced by the AFL in June. [4]

References

  1. ↑ Review could lead to Women's AFL competition
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Women's league bidding heating up, with teams scrambling for licenses
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