VFL Women's

AFL Victoria launched the VFL Women's competition on 21 March 2016, with its inaugural season featuring twelve doubleheaders with the Victorian Football League (VFL).[1] The league initially comprised the six Premier Division clubs (Darebin, Diamond Creek, Eastern Devils, Melbourne University, St Kilda Sharks and Western Spurs) and 2015's top four Division 1 clubs (Cranbourne, Geelong Magpies, Knox and Seaford) from the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL). Melbourne University already had an existing partnership with Australian Football League (AFL) club North Melbourne.[2] Following the 2016 season, the Geelong Magpies were replaced with the AFL-aligned Geelong Cats, and Knox's license was purchased by Box Hill (then subsequently re-licensed to Hawthorn in 2018[3]).

Following the inaugural AFL Women's (AFLW) season in 2017, the league made further changes to the competition to affiliate clubs more directly with AFL clubs and the AFL Women's competition. Five other foundation clubs departed, leaving Darebin, Melbourne University and Western Spurs as the only remaining foundation clubs. The departing clubs were replaced by the AFL-aligned Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond and Southern Saints, the VFL-aligned Casey and Williamstown, and the North East Australian Football League (NEAFL)-aligned Northern Territory;[4] Northern Territory aligned with Adelaide's AFLW team, giving Crows players an opportunity to play in the Victorian competition.[5] The Western Bulldogs joined in 2018 under a shared license with the Western Spurs, with the senior Spurs team competing as the Western Bulldogs and wearing red, white and blue.[6] The Western Spurs' license was handed over entirely to the Bulldogs ahead of the 2019 season, with the Spurs fielding teams solely in the Northern Football Netball League.[7]

In 2019, Greater Western Sydney's AFLW team played five invitational matches in Victoria against teams having a bye.[8] Following the 2019 season, AFL Northern Territory ended Northern Territory's involvement in the NEAFL and VFLW competitions,[9] and Williamstown aligned with Adelaide in Northern Territory's place.[10] Melbourne University's license was also taken over by North Melbourne, ending the clubs' ten-year partnership and allowing North Melbourne to field its own standalone team.[11] In 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, AFL Victoria decided to cancel the 2020 VFL Women's season and instead hold a four-team Super Series in September to give 120 footballers the chance to push their case to be selected in the 2020 AFL Women's draft;[12][13][14][15][16] this was later cancelled as well due to the increase of restrictions around COVID-19 in Victoria.[17]

The Coburg Football Club, already competing in the VFL, formed a women's team in 2020 with a plan to join the VFLW in 2021. However, the plan did not eventuate.[18]

In 2021, Port Melbourne joined the league, replacing Richmond, which initially left the competition due to financial issues before entering into a formal alignment with the VFL club.[19][20] The competition also shifted to a February commencement, running concurrently with the AFLW season and mirroring other second-tier leagues like the SANFL Women's and WAFL Women's.[19] In 2023, the competition commenced in March, and Hawthorn transferred its license back to Box Hill.[21]

Starting in 2024, the home-and-away season included matches against New South Wales AFL Women's teams Greater Western Sydney and Sydney; the New South Wales teams are not premiership eligible, but there will be premiership points available for the Victorian clubs in the matches.[22]

• AFL Women's
• Victorian Football League
• Victorian Women's Football League

• VFL/VFL Women's official website