Victorian Women's Football League

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The League's logo.

Players in action at the 2005 Division One Reserves Grand Final: Melbourne University MUGARS (black and blue) defeated the Darebin Falcons.

Melbourne University player jostles for best position in a marking contest.

Darebin Falcons Player is wrapped up in a gang tackle by two Melbourne University opponents in the 2006 WVFL senior women's Grand Final. The field umpire (in orange) is about to signal "holding the ball" to penalise Darebin and award Melbourne University a free kick.

The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) is the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, made up of clubs from Victoria, Australia. It is an open age Women's Footy competition. It began in 1981 with four teams. Division 3 was added in 2001 and Division 1 Reserves in 2005. In 2004 the League affiliated with Football Victoria. In 2005 there were three divisions (and one reserve division) and 24 teams (from 20 clubs) in total, with over 800 women taking part.

The League adopts the rules of the Australian Football League with few alterations. The official ball used by the League is slightly smaller ball than the official AFL ball, to minimise hand injuries.

Related competitions that take part throughout the season include the Vic Country vs Vic Metro match, the women's National Championships and the picking of an All Australian Team. In 2004 the Country vs Metro match was an exhibition match played as a curtain raiser to an AFL match at Optus Oval. The winners in 2004 were Vic Metro, evening the score to 2003's inaugural match won by the Vic Country side. The National Championships is a competition between state sides in which Victoria inevitably humiliates everyone else. In 2005 Victoria entered an under 19s side, which to the surprise of the competition did so well it competed in the grand final with the Victoria senior side.

The League President for 2005 is Debbie Lee, who has been involved with the executive since the late 1990s. In 2002 she 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." ^[1]

[edit] Milestones

Several milestones were reached in 2005. As the League celebrated its 25th birthday, Sal Rees made history by playing her 200th game of footy. She began playing in 1990 and has also been involved with the League's executive committee. She caused a stir in 1995 by applying for the AFL's national draft, which until then did not disallow women from taking part. ^[2] Chyloe Kurdas, another long-standing player and executive member, reached her 100th match. ^[3]

[edit] Game development for younger players

A U17 Youth Girls Competition was established by Football Victoria in 2004. This was following legal action taken against them in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (following a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission) by Penny Cula-Reid, Emily Stayner, and Helen Taylor. The three schoolgirls were banned from playing in junior leagues, with fears of expensive insurance liability in case of injury and "medical reasons" being cited by Football Victoria (i.e. the physical differences between the bodies of boys and girls). The court found in favour of the girls in February 2004. In response to the ruling, the U17 Youth Girls Competition began in May, with 122 girls participating.

Auskick, a national program designed to introduce the game to primary school aged children, has over 140,000 participants each year, about 12% of which are girls. Football Victoria has promoted the sport to high school girls in 2004, leading to leading to nearly 12,000 high school girls taking part in Australian Rules as a school sport.

[edit] Clubs

[edit] Facts and figures

[edit] Premiers: Division One

2006 Darebin Falcons
2005 Melbourne University MUGARS
2004 St Albans Spurs
2003 Melbourne University MUGARS
2002 Melbourne University MUGARS
2001 Parkside Magpies
2000 Parkside Magpies
1999 St Kilda City Sharks
1998 St Kilda City Sharks
1997 Albion Cats
1996 Fairfield Falcons
1995 Ballarat Lions
1994 Northcote Park Scorpions
1993 East Brunswick Scorpions
1992 Ballarat Lions
1991 East Brunswick Scorpions
1990 Ballarat Eagles
1989 Parkville Scorpions
1988 Parkville Scorpions
1987 Parkville Scorpions
1986 Gladstone Park 'Burras
1985 Aberfeldie Scorpions
1984 Aberfeldie Scorpions
1983 Hallam Cobras
1982 Broadmeadows Scorpions
1981 Broadmeadows Scorpions

[edit] Premiers: Division Two

2006 St Kilda Sharks
2005 Lalor Bloods
2004 St Kilda Sharks
2003 Melbourne University MUGARS
2002 East Geelong Eagles
2001 Hadfield Hawks
2000 North Heidelberg Bulldogs
1997 St Kilda Sharks

[edit] Premiers: Division Three

2006 Diamond Creek 'Creekers'
2005 Diamond Creek 'Creekers'
2004 Berwick Wickers
2003 Surrey Park Panthers
2002 Mordialloc Redbacks
2001 Ferntree Gully Kangaroos

[edit] VWFL Life Members

2004 Belinda Bowey 2003 Sally Rees, Rohenna Young 2002 Debbie Lee, Kerry Saunders 2001 Nicole Graves 2000 Lisa Hardeman 1999 Ann Rulton (whom the Volunteer Award is named for) 1998 Julie Allen 1997 Dianne Vaux 1996 Bernadette Marantelli 1995 Coral White 1990 Jan Wilson, Janet Graham 1983 Helen Lambert (whom the Division One Best and Fairest is named for - she is also the founding President of the League)

[edit] Top 10 Most Games Played (as at end of 2004)

195 Sally Rees (Darebin Falcons) 184 Di Smith (Darebin Falcons) 179 Kerry Saunders (Darebin Falcons) 177 Andrea Dalgleish (Melbourne Uni Mugars) 168 Di Vaux (Parkside Magpies) 166 Debbie Lee (St Albans Spurs) 163 Peta Searle (Darebin Falcons) 161 Belinda Bowey (St Kilda Sharks) 153 Nicole Graves (Darebin Falcons) 144 Kerri Piner (St Albans Spurs)

[edit] 2004 All Australian Team Members

(Victoria) Lauren Bazeley Moana Hope Meg Hutchins Debbie Lee (captain) Shannon McFerran Lesley Ann McGannon Liz Skinner (ACT) Toni Alexandrow Emily Diprose Alana Lowes Alison Smith (NSW) Stephanie Foster (voted Best & Fairest by the umpires) Jemma Stills Kerry Taylor Megan Webster (NT) Shannon Byrne Natasha Medbury (SA) Kris Britt Lauren Ebsary Sheron Ford (Australian Defence Force) Emma Hender Kelly McFarlane Coach: Greg Seton-Lonsdale (ACT)

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of Australian rules football women's leagues
• List of Australian rules football leagues in Australia
• Women's Footy

[edit] External links

• VWFL Official website - fixtures, results, history, photographs
• VCAT ruling (PDF)
• Analysis of VCAT ruling