VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level

women's Australian rules football Women's Australian rules football (in areas where it is popular, known simply as women's football or women's footy or women's AFL), is the female-only form of Australian rules football, generally with some modification to the laws of the game. ...

league in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. The league initially comprised the six premier division clubs and the top four division 1 clubs from the now-defunct

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 with a total of over ...

(VWFL), and has since evolved into what is also the second primary competition for

AFL Women's 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 ...

(AFLW) clubs in Victoria. Following the 2017 season, the VFL Women's was reconfigured to affiliate teams more closely with AFL clubs. Since 2021, twelve teams have appeared in the competition; nine of the ten Victorian AFL clubs either field their own women's team or have an affiliation of sorts with an existing club in the VFLW, with the other teams being the VFL-affiliated , and independent club . The reigning premiers are . The competition was not held in 2020 due to the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

; the grand final was also cancelled in 2021 due to the pandemic, with no premiership being awarded.

History

AFL Victoria AFL Victoria (formerly Football Victoria) is the state-level sport governing body for Australian rules football in the state of Victoria, Australia. Responsibility AFL Victoria, as part of the sport's national governing body the Australian Fo ...

launched the VFL Women's competition on 21 March 2016, with its inaugural season featuring twelve doubleheaders with the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL). The league initially comprised the six Premier Division clubs (, , Eastern Devils, , St Kilda Sharks and ) and 2015's top four Division 1 clubs (, , and ) from the

(VWFL). Melbourne University already had an existing partnership with

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL) club . Following the 2016 season, the Geelong Magpies were replaced with the AFL-aligned , and Knox's license was purchased by (then subsequently re-licensed to in 2018). Following the inaugural

(AFLW) season in 2017, the league made further changes to the competition to affiliate clubs more directly with AFL clubs and the AFL Women's competition. Five other foundation clubs departed, leaving Darebin, Melbourne University and Western Spurs as the only remaining foundation clubs. The departing clubs were replaced by the AFL-aligned , , , and Southern Saints, the VFL-aligned and , and the

North East Australian Football League The North East Australian Football League (NEAFL ) was an Australian rules football league in New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The league was formed in November 2010, and its inaugural ...

(NEAFL)-aligned ; Northern Territory aligned with 's AFLW team, giving Crows players an opportunity to play in the Victorian competition. The joined in 2018 under a shared license with the Western Spurs, with the senior Spurs team competing as the Western Bulldogs and wearing red, white and blue. The Western Spurs' license was handed over entirely to the Bulldogs ahead of the 2019 season, with the Spurs fielding teams solely in the Northern Football Netball League. In 2019, 's AFLW team played five invitational matches in Victoria against teams having a bye. Following the 2019 season,

AFL Northern Territory AFL Northern Territory Limited (AFL NT) is a subsidiary company of the Australian Football League (AFL) which operates some Australian rules football competitions and teams in Northern Territory (NT) of Australia (see also Australian rules f ...

ended Northern Territory's involvement in the NEAFL and VFLW competitions, and Williamstown aligned with Adelaide in Northern Territory's place. Melbourne University's license was also taken over by , ending the clubs' ten-year partnership and allowing North Melbourne to field its own standalone team. In 2020, amidst the

, AFL Victoria decided to cancel the 2020 VFL Women's season and instead hold a four-team Super Series in September to give 120 footballers the chance to push their case to be selected in the

2020 AFL Women's draft The 2020 AFL Women's draft consists of the various periods when the 14 clubs in the AFL Women's competition can recruit players prior to the competition's 2021 season. Signing and trading period A significantly delayed trade period was annou ...

; this was later cancelled as well due to the increase of restrictions around COVID-19 in Victoria. The

Coburg Football Club The Coburg Football Club, nicknamed the Lions, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg, Victoria, Coburg. It has been based at Coburg City Oval since 1915. Coburg's men's team currently plays in the Victor ...

, already competing in the VFL, formed a women's team in 2020 with a plan to join the VFLW in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

. However, the plan did not eventuate. In 2021, joined the league, replacing Richmond, which initially left the competition due to financial issues before entering into a formal alignment with the VFL club. The competition also shifted to a February commencement, running concurrently with the AFLW season and mirroring other second-tier leagues like the

SANFL Women's SANFL Women's League (also known as the SANFLW or the Hostplus SANFL Women's League) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in South Australia. History The league was launched in February 2017, initially comprising f ...

and

WAFL Women's WAFL Women's (WAFLW) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The WAFLW is the premier women's football competition in Western Australia and is contested by eight teams, all of whom are owned and operated by clu ...

. In 2023, the competition commenced in March, and Hawthorn transferred its license back to Box Hill. In

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, the home-and-away season included matches against New South Wales

teams and ; the New South Wales teams were not premiership eligible, but there were premiership points available for the Victorian clubs in the matches. This arrangement did not continue in

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

. Ahead of the 2025 season, Port Melbourne became a stand-alone side as Richmond ended their second-tier alignment with the club and ceased any involvement in second-tier women's state football. Meanwhile reigning premiers North Melbourne entered into an affiliation with VFL club , becoming known as the North Melbourne Werribee Kangaroos and playing up to four games a season at

Chirnside Park Chirnside Park is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 38 km east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Chirnside Park recorded a population of 11,779 at the . Hi ...

Clubs

Current clubs

Future clubs

Former clubs

Honours

Premiers

* 2016: * 2017: * 2018: * 2019: * 2022: * 2023: * 2024:

Lambert–Pearce Medal

* 2016:

Daisy Pearce Daisy Pearce (born 27 May 1988) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club#AFL Women's team, Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) and is the current AFLW senior coach of the West Coast Eagle ...

() * 2017: Katie Brennan () * 2018:

Jess Duffin Jessica Evelyn Duffin (; born 27 June 1989) is an Australian sportswoman. In cricket, she has made 117 international appearances and won four world championships as a member of the Australia women's national cricket team, Australian women's te ...

() * 2019:

Lauren Pearce Lauren Pearce (born 12 January 1993) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's competition. She was drafted by Melbourne with their fourth selection and twenty-fifth overall in the 2016 AFL Wom ...

() * 2021: Georgia Nanscawen () * 2022: Georgia Nanscawen () * 2023: Jordan Mifsud (), Akayla Peterson (), Charlotte Simpson () (tied) * 2024: Dominique Carbone ()

References

External links

* {{AFL Women's VFL Women's Women's Australian rules football leagues in Australia Australian rules football competitions in Victoria 2016 establishments in Australia Sports competitions in Melbourne Sports leagues established in 2016