The past 10 years have seen exponential growth in both grassroots and professional AFLW; however, there continues to be room for development so women can be offered the same sporting opportunities as men. (Image: Kerrie_)

By Lucy Montgomerie | @lucymontgomerie

Running up onto the oval, all Eloise Jones can see are faces. 

She settles herself into position, trying to focus on the match ahead.

The match is the 2019 AFLW Grand Final at Adelaide Oval. 

The countdown starts over the loudspeaker, descending from 10. 

The crowd roars. 

Nine, eight …

Jones scans the oval in disbelief. 

Seven, six, five …

She tries focusing on the countdown as it melts into the crowd’s cheers. 

Four, three, two, one …

The siren rings and the ball bounces, but Jones and her opposing player miss the game’s initiation. 

Instead, the 19-year-old and her opponent stand in disbelief at the 53,000 faces watching them.

Beat the boys 

Jones’ football career began at five-years-old, participating in the Australian Football League’s (AFL) Auskick alongside the boys.  

“When I was coming through, female footy wasn’t a thing, so I wasn’t able to play with the girls,” Jones says. 

Jones turned to basketball and volleyball before female football was offered by her school when she reached year 11. 

“[I] made state teams and then when I had left school in 2016, I was able to play SANFL,” Jones says. 

Jones played for the Glenelg Football Club in the women’s South Australia National Football League (SANFL), one of only four teams at the time. 

“It was very repetitive … but that was the first proper women’s league that we had really seen in Australia,” Jones explains. 

Soon, rumours of a potential women’s Australian Football League (AFLW) circulated. 

“It was very much a moment of [realisation that] my dream could actually become true,” Jones admits. 

“I always had this weird idea in my head that I just had to get fitter and stronger than all of the other girls because I was going to have to compete against the boys.”

Jones was selected with Pick No.24 at the 2017 draft by the Adelaide Crows. 

“The draft was actually a Facebook live stream which you had to click on to watch,” Jones says.

“I was home alone in bed, … four people had been picked up, but my name still hadn’t been read out, so I actually turned off [the stream].”

Jones only discovered she had been selected by the Adelaide Crows when her mum sent her a congratulations message.

Game on

Despite women participating in football since its creation in the mid-19th century, it took over 150 years for a professional female league to be developed in Australia.

The first official AFLW match was played on February 3, 2017.

It was predicted a crowd of five to ten thousand spectators would attend the opening match. 

Instead, over 24,500 people squeezed into the stands.

The Adelaide Crows were crowned premiers in the inaugural year, defeating the Brisbane Lions, 35 to 29.

While Jones didn’t debut until the following year, she helped continue the Crows’ success in 2019 and 2022, making her a two-time premiership player.

AFL’s action plan

Jones recalls feeling underprepared when joining the AFLW at age 18. 

“I was not eating right … and I just thought you roll up to training and then you go home and that was that,” she says.

“Whereas now you’ve got girls that have been spending time at the gym and know what to do with their diets and … sleep.”

The AFL’s Phase 1 of the Women and Girls Action Plan, implemented between 2022 and 2025, aimed to expand opportunities for girls to participate in AFL via all-girls junior competitions and Auskick programs. 

The plan helped increase women and girls’ participation in football by over 45 per cent with more than 144,000 participants registered across the nation.

Phase 2 of the plan, which will run from 2026 to 2028, aims to continue growing participationwithin younger age groups, specifically by improving experiences for girls aged five to nine. 

Additionally, the phase aims to develop leadership positions and opportunities for women and girls, improving overall retention in the sport. 

Part-time professionals 

The AFLW League is a part-time commitment due to the season only spanning 12 rounds compared to the AFL’s 25.

“We are kind of at this tipping point where we’re still … not full-time professionals but we’re definitely heading that way,” Jones explains. 

Full-time would extend the women’s competition to 18 rounds, allowing every AFLW club to play against one another and giving players more game experience. 

“AFLW is a business, and people don’t want to invest if your business is no good,” Jones says.

“It is very much on the athletes to produce good football, so people want to come and watch.”

However, the league needs to be supported financially for this to occur.

“From a player’s perspective, when we get paid more, it means we can be at the club more, meaning we can work on skills and execution,” Jones says.

“We fought really hard for [a pay increase] in the last CBA … so now the bare minimum is enough for players to live off.”

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)’s pay rises in 2023 for both AFL and AFLW players resulted in a 10 per cent boost for the men and a 29 per cent increase for the women.

A new 2027 pay deal will see the average AFL player earn $519,000, while AFLW players will be paid an average salary of $82,000, up from $46,000 previously. 

Additionally, AFLW players now receive 12-month contracts as well as the opportunity to sign multi-year deals. 

“Back in the day, [we] were living and breathing at the footy club, but the pay didn’t reflect that,” Jones says.

“We had nurses, doctors, police officers, firies; all of these girls doing shift work, coming off the night shift and training [whilst] trying to get two hours of sleep here and there.”

Now in 2026, the bare minimum pay allows girls to focus purely on football and make a living from playing AFLW.

100 for the Hawks

Sarah Kirsanovs joined Adelaide Football League’s Mitcham Hawks Football Club in 2015 and has been there ever since. 

The club received support from the Government of South Australia’s ‘The Power of Her – Infrastructure and Participation Program’ and helped provide funding for dedicated facilities, programs and equipment for women’s sport. 

The Mitcham Council was granted $440,000 to build new female-friendly change rooms and amenities at the Mitcham Hawks home ground. 

Recently, Kirsanovs became the first ever women’s player to play 100 games for Mitcham, a special milestone for any senior player. 

Despite her achievements and long-term loyalty to the club, Kirsanovs still feels the need to push for improvements for the women’s team.  

Sarah Kirsanovs celebrating her 100 game milestone with the Mitcham Hawks Football Club earlier this year. (Image: Sarah Kirsnovs.)

“I think it comes from men typically being in charge in football clubs and them maybe not having so much knowledge of what women need,” Kirsanovs explains. 

A significant challenge being the time slots the girls receive for training times. 

“We used to train on a Monday night, which was really tough being …. a one-day break from when we play [our match],” Kirsanovs says.  

“Now we have started training on a Wednesday, but that is the night that all the juniors train, meaning we have to share the oval with a minimum of two junior boy teams for the first 45 minutes of our training.” 

However, Kirsanovs is optimistic circumstances will improve as girls become more comfortable in their clubs and vocal with their needs.

The next bounce

Despite the enormous growth AFLW has experienced over the past 10 years, Jones believes “there are not too many studies that focus on women athletes as a whole.”

“We need education around what works best for women’s bodies and female sport,” Jones says. 

Thomas Grech joined the SANFL women’s program at Norwood Football Club four years ago and is now the head of high performance with a major focus on developing female performance data. 

“I have seen quite a few changes with how coaches and high-performance staff interact with players, but also with the funding and technology space,” Grech says.

A variety of fitness tests have been altered to be more suited for women, an example being the traditional two kilometre running time-trial changed to a 1.6 kilometre distance.  

Team testing occurred at the beginning of Norwood’s season and again two months later, after a structured training block; however, these results showed a decrease in performance. 

“We did research in elite sport … [and discovered that] women sync [menstrual] cycles,” Grech says.

“We had 70 per cent of our athletes on their periods when we were doing our [second round of] testing.

“It was absolutely unbelievable how much of an effect it has on their performance.

“We have to place so much attention to the menstrual cycle.” 

The women’s program follows an individualised approach through the application of GPS analysis to best cater for each player. 

This individualised approach is now being requested in the men’s program.

“Even though we have an all-male staff … [who] don’t necessarily understand what is going on, it is absolutely something that we take the athlete’s word for and work with to look out for the welfare for these athletes.,” Grech says.

“I am excited to see how hard Norwood are pushing to give these athletes the same opportunity that the men’s program has.”

Play on

Jones acknowledges the importance of providing opportunities for AFLW to have a spotlight and continue growing. 

“We tend to lose a lot of women in sport at a young age,” Jones says.

A study published by the Flinders University found 60 per cent of girls aged 15 and older in Australia drop out of organised sport with majority not returning, compared to 42 per cent for males.

“Sometimes there can be a little bit of toxic masculinity and … misogynistic ideas, so that’s probably the next step from a community level,” Jones says. 

Having never had the opportunity to play football, Brooke Montgomerie* joined the Port Lincoln’s Marble Ranges Football Club women’s team at the ripe age of 40-years-young. 

“I just kind of thought … that girls don’t play footy, so it never really crossed my mind that I could play,” Montgomerie shares.

“I feel like [football] would have been my sport [when I was younger] because I would have loved the adrenaline of it.”

Despite the Women’s Port Lincoln Football League starting up in 2022, each year is a battle to make up teams. 

“People travel … from three hours away to come and play because Port Lincoln is the only place you can play women’s football [in the area],” Montgomerie says. 

Montgomerie admits that the quality of women’s country football is generally poor as most players are new to the sport. 

“Unfortunately, I feel you have to grow up playing these sports and … it takes years to build the skills,” she explains. 

“It can be quite dangerous because new people don’t know how to tackle or how to get the ball off the ground without … diving in headfirst.

“So, I think that puts a lot of fear in people to start.”

Montgomerie won a premiership in her first year of playing, and her team was the first women’s side to play on the Marble Ranges Football Oval. 

“I am proud that in 20 years time, we will look back to see we paved the way for that next generation because it was unheard of for women to play footy,” she shares.

“I do wish I had the opportunity [to play when I was younger], but I’m also glad that I was part of the change.”

Ultimately, AFLW’s progress must be celebrated.  

“Hopefully in another 10 years, I’d love to see the ALFW as big as the men’s,” Jones expresses. 

AFLW’s first decade transformed the game but this match is only getting started. 

*Brooke Montgomerie is a relative of the author