The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest

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 ...

league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

across seven divisions with a total of over 1,000 players.

History

Early years

The Victorian Women's Football League was formed in 1981 with four teams competing at open level. In 1995, Sal Rees caused controversy when she nominated for the 1995 AFL draft: the nomination was subsequently voided, with the AFL amending its draft rules to prevent any repeat of this incident. The VWFL grew quickly, increasing dramatically the number of players and participating teams with a Division 3 added in 2001. In 2002, VWFL player Debbie Lee made headlines for pushing to play against men in the made-for-television team the Hammerheads. She has commented, "My whole idea with the Hammerheads was to promote women's football. At no point in time did I really think I was going to play against the men, and frankly it wouldn't really have been smart for me to do that. My whole idea was to cause a bit of activity." An U17 Youth Girls Competition was established by

Football Victoria Football Victoria is the state governing body for soccer in Victoria, Australia. It is affiliated with Football Australia, the sport's national governing body. History Football Victoria began operation in 1884 under the name Anglo Australian F ...

in 2004, primarily to provide a pathway to the VWFL. This was following legal action having been taken against them in the

Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) was formed by the ''Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act'' 1998 in the state of Victoria, Australia. As part of the Victorian Justice system the tribunal sits 'below' the Magistra ...

(following a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission) by junior players Penny Cula-Reid, Emily Stayner, and Helen Taylor. In May 2004, the first VWFL game was played at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

(MCG), with the Melbourne Uni Mugars defeating St Albans Spurs on

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in Mar ...

. A second game was played at the MCG later in the same year, featuring the Mugars and St Kilda Sharks reserves teams.

A quarter-century of competition

In 2005, the VWFL celebrated its 25th season, and created a reserves competition for Division 1. In 2006, the league posted a $6000 loss, however this was turned around in 2007 with a $19000 profit being posted at the end of 2007. 2007 saw five divisions (Premier seniors & reserves, North West, South East & Country) and 27 teams (from 20 clubs), and culminated in an Australian crowd record for women's Australian rules football at the 2007 Grand Final held on 19 August at the Preston City Oval in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Two finals matches were also held at the

for the first time. The work done by the VWFL Media Manager Leesa Catto was instrumental in increasing media coverage across the competition. A significant partnership was negotiated with the Leader News group and weekly coverage was captured across the Melbourne Metropolitan area. Events like the participation of two VWFL players

Shannon McFerran Shannon McFerran (born 13 June 1979) is an Australian rules football player in the Victorian Women's Football League. She currently plays at Gisborne Bulldogs Womens Football Club. Playing career McFerran began playing for a St Albans FC boys' ...

and

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 ...

in the E. J. Whitten Legends Game also helped lift the profile of the league. The VWFL integrated into

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 ...

in 2013.

Dissolution

At the end of the 2016 season, it was announced that the VWFL would be dissolved, with the forty-seven clubs and sixty teams of the VWFL joining ten Victorian community leagues in 2017, along with additional clubs and teams from a further eighty clubs that had expressed interest in joining women's Australian football competitions. AFL Victoria would retain management of the ten-team

VFL Women's VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The league initially comprised the six premier division clubs and the top four division 1 clubs from the now-defunct Victori ...

league, with the remainder of the expected 150 teams to play in regional leagues.

Final clubs

Premier Division

Division 1

Division 2

Division 3

Goldfields

North West

South East

Former

Records

Division One/Premier Division

Source:

Premier Reserves

Premiers: North West Conference

Premiers: South East Conference

Premiers: Country Conference

2007 Melton Centrals
2006 Geelong Cheetahz

Premiers: Division One

Premiers: Division Two

Premiers: Division Three

Premiers: Division Four

Premiers: Division 5

Premiers: East Division

Premiers: West Division

Premiers: Goldfields Division

VWFL Life Members

2009 Leesa Catto
2009 Bron McGorlick
2008 Kerryn Stephen
2006 Chyloe Kurdas
2005 Di Smith
2004 Belinda Bowey
2003 Sal Rees, Rohenna Young
2002 Debbie Lee, Kerry Saunders
2001 Nicole Graves
2000 Lisa Hardeman
1999 Ann Rulton
1998 Julie Allen
1997 Dianne Vaux
1996 Bernadette Marantelli
1995 Coral White
1990 Jan Wilson, Janet Graham
1983 Helen Lambert

250 Games (as at end of 2011)

Debbie Lee (East Brunswick Scorpions/Sunshine YCW/St Albans Spurs)
Kerry Saunders (Darebin Falcons/St Kilda City)
Belinda Bowey (St Kilda Sharks/Keysborough)

References

External links

*
VCAT ruling (PDF)

Analysis of VCAT ruling
{{Aussie Rules in Victoria Women's Australian rules football leagues in Australia Australian rules football competitions in Victoria (state) 1981 establishments in Australia Sports leagues established in 1981