The new AFL women’s league to be launched next year will have eight teams, with Carlton, Collingwood, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs among the clubs to receive licences.
Women’s AFL, which up until the announcement of the new league has been played simply as one-off exhibition matches, mainly as lead-in games to the men’s competition takes on a new level of relevance with a fully fledged competition endorsed by the AFL and its clubs.
Only four Melbourne-based clubs have been granted teams, with the likes of St Kilda, Richmond, North Melbourne and Geelong to miss out with the AFL opting to send the other four licences interstate.
Those interstate teams who have been selected are the Freemantle Dockers, Brisbane Lions, Greater Western Sydney Giants and the Adelaide Crows, meaning the league will make its way into every state currently used in the men’s AFL competition.
It also means five teams miss out on licences after the Hawthorn Hawks, Sydney Swans, Gold Coast Giants and Essendon Bombers chose not to enter the bidding war for a team ahead of the first season, with the West Coast Eagles out-bidden in the west.
Geelong are said to be the unluckiest to miss out on a team, having put in a large bid and having the geographic coverage that other Melbourne teams couldn’t provide, being situated in the west but were overlooked in the end for a team.
The five unsuccessful bidder have been granted a provisional licence with the AFL announcing they may look at expanding the competition from 2018 – incorporating more clubs depending on the success of its inaugural season.
The yet-to-be-named competition will be played in February and March next year.
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