AFL women's league

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

For a number of years 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.^[1]

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.^[2]

References

1. Gorr, Libbi; Goswell, Gus (18 February 2016). "AFL promises 2017 women's competition as eager starters call for more details". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
2. Matthews, Bruce (29 April 2016). "Decision time as 13 clubs want women's team". Australian Football League.