AFL National Women's League

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:22): Australian Rules Football is a name synonymous with Australian culture and our national identity. Nevertheless, it is men who have traditionally played the sport that so many hold dear, the sport that rules and divides our workplaces and family rooms nationally. This year is different. A few Saturdays ago, I had the privilege of watching the Adelaide Crows women's team take on Greater Western Sydney. After a lifetime's wait for many keen, able women footballers, it took less than a minute for the Adelaide Crows women's football team to let it be known that women's football had arrived. What a feeling!

The Adelaide Crows ran onto the field and through the banner, which read, 'We've pushed the barrier, made dreams come true. Now let's make some history. We have a job to do.' The year 2017 marks the national women's football league's inaugural season, over 150 years after Australian football was first played in this country. As the siren blew, four quarters later, the Crows had cemented their place as big players in this new competition.

The founding of the AFLW is the culmination of many years of advocacy on the part of community football clubs and the AFL's own commitment to the establishment of a national televised women's league. In 2010, the Australian Football League commissioned a report into the state of women's football around the country. The findings showed that women were highly represented in the sport nationally, which spurred the AFL Commission to begin working towards the establishment of the national women's league.

The success of exhibition matches in 2013, 2014 and 2015 accelerated the AFL's plans for a nationwide women's competition to 2017. There are eight teams competing in this year's competition representing the established football clubs: Adelaide Crows, Brisbane Lions, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs. Other state teams have expressed their interest to play in the competition in the future. In its third week, the women's league is gaining unprecedented momentum, with calls for upsizing the stadium capacities for upcoming matches and averaging a TV viewership in the hundreds of thousands, up to a million.

Though it is the national women's football league that is currently holding the public's attention, women's football has been a prominent aspect of the Australian sporting world for many years. Women's Australian rules football began to grow rapidly in 2000, with the number of registered teams increasing by a phenomenal 450 per cent. Moreover, in 2015, 163 new women's Australian rules football teams were formed and 284,501 players took part in organised games. This number continues to rise, with 380,000 players taking part in organised games last year, not to mention the millions of female spectators who represent approximately 50 per cent of all spectators at matches across Australia, a proportion unique to the Australian game.

The rising popularity of the AFLW is also cultivating South Australia's SANFL Women's League and the South Australian Women's Football League. This weekend is the start of the inaugural SA state women's league season. The women's state league will address the current gap in the competition pathway between the existing South Australian Women's Football League and the inaugural AFL women's league. This elite state-level league competition will provide South Australian women with the opportunity to compete against the state's best.

In SANFL, North Adelaide's captain, Jessica Edwards, will be at the helm of a strong side of girls eager for the cup. Edwards played for the Adelaide University side last year and, despite early reservations about tackling, Edwards now says it is one of her main passions. She would love to be at the AFL level at some point and thinks this is a great pathway to get there. It is likely the state competition will unearth the rising stars of the AFLW.

Late last year I met the Gaza women's football team at Klemzig. I have also seen them out at training at Klemzig and, last Sunday, I met some of the young girls registering to play. It made me reflect on my own experiencing playing football at my local primary school. I was made an example of by the deputy principal, Mr Woods, who had me stand out the front of the school assembly, informing all present that I would miss out on my lunch times for the whole week because 'we all know girls don't play football'. Well, for the record, Mr Woods, you were wrong.