AFL Barwon Female Football is a women's

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

competition based in the greater

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

region. The first season of senior football held for women in the area was 2018. The senior competition has since swelled to multiple divisions incorporating 20 teams. A further eight underage girls divisions are also competed for in the 2023 season.

Background

AFL Barwon is the governing body overseeing

in the

and greater district. After many years in which only junior girl's competitions were organised, a senior women's football competition commenced in 2018 under the banner of AFL Barwon Women's Football. Rather than being organised by the GFL, GDFL, or the BFL, the competition is managed under the AFL Barwon banner. The competition was renamed to AFL Barwon Female Football ahead of the 2019 season. 2018 inaugural season competing teams: *

Bellarine Football League The Bellarine Football Netball League (BFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in the Bellarine Peninsula region of Victoria, Australia. Established in 1971 as the Bellarine & District Football League, the competition ...

: ::

Barwon Heads Barwon Heads (previously known as Point Flinders) is a town on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the west bank of the mouth of the Barwon River below Lake Connewarre, and is bounded to the west by fa ...

; Drysdale; Geelong Amateur; Ocean Grove *

Geelong Football League The Geelong Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball league in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is widely regarded as the highest-standard Australian rules football league in regional Victoria, with sever ...

: ::

Grovedale Grovedale is a southern suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. At the , Grovedale had a population of 14,869. History Toponymy The locality was originally named ''Germantown'' because several families of German Lutheran origin had settled th ...

;

Lara Lara may refer to: People * Lara (name), can be a given name or a surname in several languages * Lara (mythology), a naiad nymph, daughter of the river Almo in Ovid's ''Fasti'' Places *Lara (state), a state in Venezuela * Electoral district ...

; St Joseph's; St Mary's *

Geelong & District Football League The Geelong & District Football Netball League (GDFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball league in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, being the oldest surviving competition in the region. It is one of three leagues in the Geelong area, t ...

: :: Bell Post Hill;

Geelong West Giants The Geelong West Giants are an Australian rules football and netball club based in the Victorian suburb of North Geelong. The club fields teams in both the Geelong Football Netball League (GFNL) and Geelong & District Football Netball League (GDF ...

;

North Geelong North Geelong is a suburb of Geelong in the Australian state of Victoria. The suburb was bypassed by traffic from Melbourne coming from the Princes Freeway by the creation of the Geelong Ring Road, which was complete in 2009. At the , North G ...

* Colac & District Football League: :: Colac Imperials The competition has held grading games at the start of the seasons in 2018, 2021–2024 in order to compose divisions to try to make matches as competitive as possible. In March 2024, following extensive consultation AFL Barwon announced that the competition would transition from playing mostly on Sundays to scheduling Saturday matches from 2025.

Current clubs

Division 1

Division 2

Former clubs

Premiers

Division 1

Division 2

Division 3

Best and Fairest Award

;Division 1 * 2018 — Charlotte Thorne (North Geelong) ''39 votes'' * 2019 — Stephanie Abfalter (Geelong Amateur) ''19 votes'' * 2021 — Isabella Hill (Grovedale) ''21 votes'' * 2022 — Alana Tully (Grovedale) * 2023 — Danielle Sgarbi (Geelong Amateur) * 2024 — Janessa Fitzgerald (Grovedale) ''19 votes'' ;Division 2 * 2018 — Emma Allen (Barwon Heads) ''23 votes'' * 2019 — Charlotte Thorne (North Geelong) ''27 votes'' * 2021 — Temikka Beeston (North Geelong) ''18 votes'' * 2022 — Tara Smith (Drysdale) * 2023 — Daisy Wilson (South Barwon) * 2024 — Elara Dillon (South Barwon) ''19 votes'' ;Division 3 * 2021 — Charlotte Simpson (St Joseph's) ''18 votes'' * 2022 — Maggie Caudullo * 2023 — Tara Smith (Drysdale) * 2024 — Monique Martin (Modewarre) ''14 votes''

Leading Goalkickers

;Division 1 * 2018 — Ashleigh Bond (St Mary's) ''28 goals'' * 2019 — Ashleigh Bond (St Mary's) ''23 goals'' * 2021 — Bianca Cheever (St Mary's) & Rhianna Arnold (Geelong Amateur) ''16 goals'' * 2022 — Allesha McLean (St Mary's) ''25 goals'' * 2023 — Lucy Were (Geelong Amateur) ''23 goals'' * 2024 — Emily Kenshole (Thomson) ''27 goals'' ;Division 2 * 2018 — Teagan Barber (Colac Imperials) ''23 goals'' * 2019 — Melissa Egan (Drysdale) ''61 goals'' * 2021 — Melissa Egan (Drysdale) ''20 goals'' * 2022 — Bianca Deckker (Drysdale) ''28 goals'' * 2023 — Emily Kenshole (Thomson) ''31 goals'' * 2024 — Bella Gilham (St Joseph's) ''32 goals'' ;Division 3 * 2021 — Charlotte Simpson (St Joseph's), Rebekah Lane (South Barwon) & Camille King (Anglesea) ''21 goals'' * 2022 — Rebekah Lane (South Barwon) ''28 goals'' * 2023 — Bianca Deckker (Drysdale) ''24 goals'' * 2024 — Dakota Harrington (St Albans) ''24 goals''

Sponsorship

The divisions has had the following organisations as

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

partner for each season: * 2018: :: Epworth Health (Division 1) :: Corio Bay Health Group (Division 2) * 2019, 2021–present: :: Epworth Health (Divisions 1–3)

Representative matches

In May 2019, an AFL Barwon Female Football representative team coached by Geelong

AFLW AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

player

Melissa Hickey Melissa Hickey (born 18 December 1984) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club and the Geelong Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She served as Geelong captain in the club's first two AFL Women' ...

, and captained by Barwon Heads' Emma Allen, played the

Northern Football Netball League The Northern Football Netball League (NFNL), formerly known as the Diamond Valley Football League (DVFL) and later the Northern Football League (NFL), is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in the Diamond Creek, Victori ...

References

External links

Official website

PlayHQ Results & Ladders (2022)
{{Aussie Rules in Victoria Australian rules football competitions in Victoria (state) Women's Australian rules football leagues in Australia Sport in Geelong 2018 establishments in Australia