WAFL Women's (WAFLW) is an

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 ...

league based in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia. The WAFLW is the premier women's football competition in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, and from 2023 is contested by eight teams owned and operated by clubs in the men's

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WAFL). The league was established in 2018 by the

West Australian Football Commission The West Australian Football Commission is the governing body of Australian rules football in the state of Western Australia. Operations The WAFC was formed in 1989 to manage the sport in Western Australia. The commission is registered as a not-f ...

and

West Australian Women's Football League 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 Wes ...

, the latter having been the governing body and league for women's football in the state from 1987 to 2018, and has been run by the WAFC after the WAWFL was dissolved in 2021. The league runs from February to August, and ran partially concurrently with the

AFL Women's 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 ...

(AFLW) until Season 7 of the AFLW. It is also the second primary women's football competition for West Australian footballers underneath the semi-professional national competition, and one of the three elite leagues in women's Australian rules football (the AFLW, SANFLW and WAFLW).

Clubs

Five of the ten WAFL clubs fielded teams in the inaugural 2019 WAFLW season: Claremont, East Fremantle, Peel Thunder, Subiaco and Swan Districts. South Fremantle joined the league the following year, with West Perth joining the league in 2022. Neither of the state's two AFL teams (

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

and

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

) field teams in the league: Fremantle was an AFLW foundation club in 2017, while West Coast entered the AFLW in 2019 after playing scratch matches in 2017-2018.

Future expansion

While East Perth will join the league in 2023, it is currently unknown when Perth will join the WAFLW due to the club's ongoing finanical and administrative problems.

South Western Football League The South Western Football League was an English association football league composed of clubs from Cornwall and west and north Devon. It consisted of a single division at the eleventh overall tier of the English football league system, the seven ...

officials have also called for the WAFLW to admit an SWFL composite team to the league.Strong calls for SWFL women's team to join WAFLW

Honours

Premiers

* 2020: * 2021: * 2022:

Dhara Kerr Award

* 2020: Danika Pisconeri * 2021: Ella Smith * 2022: Sharon Wong

References

External links

* {{WAFL Women's Australian rules football leagues in Australia Australian rules football competitions in Western Australia 2019 establishments in Australia Sports leagues established in 2019