Emily Bates is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Hawthorn Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She previously played for the Brisbane Lions from 2017 to season 7. Bates was selected by the Western Bulldogs in the inaugural national women's draft in 2013, and represented them in the first three years of the exhibition games staged prior to the creation of the league. She represented Brisbane in 2016, the last year that the games were held, and was drafted by the club with the second selection in the 2016 AFL Women's draft prior to the inaugural AFL Women's season.
Daisy Pearce is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) and is the current AFLW senior coach of the West Coast Eagles.
Jessica Evelyn Duffin is an Australian sportswoman. In cricket, she has made 117 international appearances and won four world championships as a member of the Australian women's team. A right-handed batter with a reputation as a big game performer, Duffin was named Player of the Final in both the 2012 ICC Women's World Twenty20 and 2013 Women's Cricket World Cup tournaments. She also won the 2013 Belinda Clark Award for being adjudged Australia's best international women's cricketer over the previous year. Her domestic career has included playing for Victoria in the Women's National Cricket League and captaining the Melbourne Renegades in the Women's Big Bash League.
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, 14 teams in 2020 and 18 teams in 2022. The league is run by the Australian Football League (AFL) and is contested by each of the clubs from that competition. The reigning premiers are the Brisbane Lions.
Melissa Hickey 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's seasons. She also played in the Victorian Women's Football League/VFL Women's for eleven seasons, representing the St Albans Spurs, Darebin and Geelong. In the VWFL/VFLW, Hickey won seven premierships, represented Victoria on three occasions and featured in the VFL Women's team of the year.
Kaitlyn Ashmore is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Hawthorn Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She has previously played for Brisbane and North Melbourne. She was drafted by Brisbane as a priority signing in the 2016 AFL Women's draft.
Elise O'Dea is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Carlton Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She served as Melbourne co-captain for the 2019 season.
Kate McCarthy is a former Australian rules footballer, media personality and sports commentator who played for the Brisbane Lions, St Kilda Football Club, and Hawthorn Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW).
Karen "Paxy" Paxman is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). A defender, 1.70 metres (5.6 ft) tall, Paxman plays primarily on the half-back line with the ability to push into the midfield. She first played football at sixteen years of age and won a premiership and league best and fairest in her first year. She played in the premier division of the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) from the 2008 season and won three VWFL premierships with St Albans and Darebin, in addition to a VFL Women's premiership with Darebin. Her accolades in football include three league best and fairests, state representation on four occasions, best-on-ground in a grand final, and five-time AFLW All-Australian honours.
Lauren Pearce 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 Women's draft. She made her debut in the fifteen point loss to Brisbane at Casey Fields in the opening round of the 2017 season. She played every match in her debut season to finish with seven games.
Shelley Scott is an Australian rules footballer playing for Geelong in the AFL Women's competition. She was drafted by Melbourne with their sixth selection and forty-first overall in the 2016 AFL Women's draft. She made her debut in the fifteen point loss to Brisbane at Casey Fields in the opening round of the 2017 season. She missed one match during the season, the round five match against Greater Western Sydney due to a shoulder injury.
Emma Humphries is an Australian rules footballer who plays for West Coast in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition. She has previously played for Melbourne and North Melbourne.
Ainslie Kemp is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Hawthorn Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition. Kemp previously played with the Melbourne Football Club.
Catherine Phillips is an Australian rules footballer, playing for Essendon in the AFL Women's competition. She was recruited by Melbourne as a category B rookie in October 2016. She made her debut in the fifteen point loss to Brisbane at Casey Fields in the opening round of the 2017 season. She played every match in her debut season to finish with seven games.
Meg Downie is a retired Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition.
Libby Birch is an Australian rules footballer who plays for North Melbourne in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She previously played for the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne. She previously played netball and captained Victoria at the National Netball Championships. Birch is currently studying a Physiotherapy degree at La Trobe University. In 2016, Birch switched from netball to Australian rules football and was recruited by the Western Bulldogs as a rookie after having only played football for three months for the Darebin Falcons in the VFL Women's.
VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in Victoria. 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 (VWFL), and has since evolved into what is also the second primary competition for AFL Women's (AFLW) clubs in Victoria.
Chantel Emonson is an Australian rules footballer playing for Geelong in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She played cricket at state and national levels before competing in the VFL Women's. Emonson previously played for Melbourne and was one of Melbourne's rookie signings in the 2018 AFLW off-season and debuted in the opening round of the 2019 season.
The 2020 AFL Women's season was the fourth season of the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition, the highest-level senior women's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 14 clubs and ran from 7 February to 22 March; it was intended to comprise an eight-round home-and-away season followed by a three-week finals series featuring the top three clubs from each conference, however the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March saw the season curtailed and finally abandoned without a premiership being awarded. Australian Football League (AFL) clubs Gold Coast, Richmond, St Kilda and West Coast featured for the first time in 2020.
The 2018 VFL Women's season was the third season of the VFL Women's (VFLW). The season commenced on 5 May and concluded with the Grand Final on 23 September 2018. The competition was contested by thirteen clubs.
