Deborah "Debbie" Lee (born 1974) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

player and coach. She has campaigned for recognition of women's

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, giving up a WNBL career to focus on developing the sport. She was later appointed president of the

Victorian Women's Football League The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, across seven divisions and a total of ove ...

(VWFL). Apart from being the president of the VWFL, she played for the

St Albans Spurs The VU Western Spurs are a Women's Australian rules football club who compete in the Northern Football League (Australia) and the AFL Masters Victoria competition . Based in Footscray, they play home games at Henry Turner Oval. They were for ...

. She first played in 1990 with the East Brunswick Scorpions before forming her own club in 1992, the Spurs. Hall won the Helen Lambert Medal as the Victorian women's competition best and fairest five times and was an All-Australian named player six times. Lee worked as the head of the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

's AFL Women's operations in 2017 before leaving to take up the same role with the in 2018. She was at the same time appointed as the club's VFLW coach for the 2018 season. A key initiative of Lee's were the Melbourne-Western Bulldogs exhibition matches that ultimately paved the way for the formation of the

AFLW 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, 1 ...

. Lee was the first-ever female inductee to the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

in 2021 for her playing excellence and for being the driving force for women's AFL.

References

Victorian Women's Football League players 1974 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) {{AFL-bio-1970s-stub