L-R: Ruby Schleicher, Blaithin Mackin, Daisy Pearce. Pictures: AFL Photos

A LOT has changed since that warm summer’s night in 2017 when nearly 25,000 eager fans packed into Ikon Park to witness the first ever AFLW game.

Since February 3, 2017 we’ve lived more than 3,000 days, experienced three Australian Prime Ministers and unfortunately endured a pandemic.

At the time of the first AFLW game, last year’s No.1 draft pick Ash Centra was 10 years old, the Western Bulldogs had just broken their 62-year AFL premiership drought, and Ed Sheerin’s Shape of You was the number one song on the ARIA singles chart.

It’s fair to say there have been a number of changes in the AFLW competition since that first match also. In the first season we had eight teams, there was only one Irish player and Erin Phillips was a basketballer.

As the 10th season of AFLW continues, let’s take a look at how the game has changed across that time.

The cross-coders

At the start of the AFLW competition you’d struggle to find an AFLW game where the commentators didn’t mention a ‘cross-coder’ or ‘dual athlete’.

In the first few seasons, it was common for athletes from other sports to try their luck at football. Clubs liked these dual athletes because they had transferable skills and elite training habits, which in most cases meant they immediately had an impact on the game.

Clubs were encouraged to sign “cross-code rookies”, players who must not have played organised football for three years prior to their selection.

Many dual athletes turned out to be absolute stars – Ange Stannett (soccer), Emma Kearney (cricket), Maddy McMahon (basketball), Ash Brazill (netball), Sharni Norder née Layton (netball), Cat Phillips (ultimate frisbee), Jess Duffin née Cameron (cricket), Jodie Hicks (cricket) and Mon Conti (basketball).

The most famous cross-coder of all was none other than Erin Phillips (basketball), who came to football after nine years in the WNBA. Phillips played eight seasons of AFLW with Adelaide and Port Adelaide, won three premierships and two league best and fairest medals.

But as the competition has grown, these cross-coders are far less common.

These days the majority of players selected in the draft have come through the AFL’s talent pathways, and have grown up as footballers with great skills, game sense and training habits.

As more of these young footballers enter the competition, the standard continues to grow.

Erin Phillips in action for Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Picture: AOC

The Irish

As Sarah Black reported earlier this year, a record number of Irish players have been listed with AFLW clubs in 2025.

This season, 39 Irish players represent 13 of the 18 clubs. Carlton and Fremantle have signed the most, with five Irish players each on their lists.

In 2017 there was one Irish player, Laura Duryea, who had been living in Australia for nine years before the AFLW started and playing local football for Diamond Creek in the VFLW.

Cora Staunton was the first international player to be drafted to an AFLW club when the Irish star was picked up by the Giants in the 2017 draft. Staunton’s success began an emerging trend of Irish players flying out to Australia to play AFLW.

From there, the connection between the AFLW and the Irish has continued to grow with the similarities between Gaelic football and AFL making it easy for players to play both sports.

Blaithin Mackin celebrates after Melbourne won the AFLW S7 Grand Final against Brisbane at Brighton Homes Arena. Picture: AFL Photos

The summer seasons

The first six seasons of the AFLW were played in summer, starting in January or February.

The belief behind the summer start was that it would provide the competition with ‘clean air’ so it didn’t compete with other sports for media attention and public interest.

The first four seasons began in early February, with the fifth and sixth seasons starting in January to accommodate more games in the season.

These matches were played in the peak of summer and it wasn’t uncommon for temperatures to reach in excess of 30 degrees.

In 2022 it was decided that the AFLW would shift to a more conventional time slot for football, starting in late August, early September during the AFL’s pre-finals bye.

This season, it changed again, starting in mid-August to allow for a 12-game season. With the first two weeks of the AFLW season coinciding with the men’s this season, it’s been a good opportunity to see how the two seasons can co-exist side-by-side.

Kerryn Harrington wears an ice vest during round four on January 30, 2022. Picture: AFL Photos

The teams

For the first two seasons there were just eight teams in the competition – Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.

Across the 10 years, clubs have been added in three instalments. Geelong and North Melbourne joined in 2019, Gold Coast, West Coast, St Kilda and Richmond in 2020, then Hawthorn, Port Adelaide, Essendon and Sydney in season seven, 2022.

The competition now has all 18 teams represented with over 540 players.

The conference system

In 2019, the League introduced a conference system into the AFLW.

The conferences coincided with the inclusion of Geelong and North Melbourne into the competition and the league split the 10 teams into two conferences of five: Conference A and Conference B.

Ironically, the two new teams, Geelong and North Melbourne, highlighted the inequity that came with conference system when in 2019 Geelong made the finals in the weaker Conference B having won just three games in the home and away season, whilst North missed the finals in Conference A despite winning five games, two more that Geelong, in the regular season.

The conference system only lasted two years before it was removed and the AFLW returned to a single ladder.

Courtney Gum is tackled by Denby Taylor during round seven, 2019. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

The pay

In the first season of AFLW, the minimum player wage for their six month commitment was $8500. Fast forward to 2025, the minimum a player can earn is $67,337, a huge step up from 2017.

But along with the increase in pay, there has been an increase in responsibility.

Players are now year-round athletes, training hours and loads have increased and clubs train during the day impacting a players ability to work full time.

These however are all steps in the right direction for AFLW players as the professionalism of the league continues to grow.

Melbourne players at AFLW training on May 28, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

The star factor

Away from the footy the field, AFLW players are making names for themselves as TV stars, social media influencers and models for global sports brands.

Turn on an AFL game and you’ll see former Brisbane and St Kilda player Kate McCarthy on the boundary line interviewing players and providing analysis as part of Channel Seven’s football coverage, or Collingwood captain Ruby Schleicher presenting on Fox Footy.

If you follow Nike on social media, you might just see Melbourne star forward Tayla Harris mixing with female athletes from across the globe in their marketing campaigns. If you don’t see Harris there, you’ve no doubt seen her starring in a Google commercial.

Don’t forget Collingwood’s Sabrina Frederick and Adelaide premiership player Abbey Holmes who participated in SAS Australia.

AFLW has given players a platform to go on to do some pretty special things.

Ruby Schleicher (left) interviews Callum Wilkie and Jack Sinclair (right) during AFL round eight, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

The national draft

A huge step forward was taken in 2024, when for the first time, players nominated themselves to be part of the national AFLW draft.

Prior to last year, there had been state based drafts with players nominating which state they would like drafted to, meaning that clubs only had access to the players who nominated their state.

In 2024 players entered the draft knowing that they could be picked up by any club across Australia, falling in line with the men’s competition.

The national draft will provide a level playing field in the competition and will allow all clubs access to the country’s best talent. With a more equal competition comes more entertaining matches and those clubs that have had limited options previously, now have access to everyone.

(Top L-R) Grace Belloni, Lucia Painter, Poppy Scholz, Emma McDonald, India Rasheed, Sara Howley, Sophie McKay; (Bottom L-R) Sierra Grieves, Havana Harris, Ash Centra, Molly O’Hehir and Zippy Fish during the 2024 Telstra AFLW Draft. Picture: AFL Photos

The players who now coach

If you look at the AFL competition, most head coaches are past players – Dean Cox, the Scott brothers, Alistair Clarkson, Sam Mitchell, and Damian Hardwick.. The list goes on and on. In fact, Chris Fagan at Brisbane is the only current head coach who hasn’t played at the highest level. Former AFL player and coach Rhyce Shaw is also now coaching Gold Coast’s AFLW team, making him the first person to coach both a women’s and a men’s team. 

The transition of AFLW players into coaching is starting to occur, with West Coast’s Daisy Pearce probably the most notable current coach, along with Lauren Arnell at Port Adelaide and Lisa Webb at Fremantle.

Pearce and Arnell are head coaches, but there are also plenty of assistants around the place making their impact on AFLW lists. Kara Antonio (Fremantle backline coach), Sam Virgo (Port Adelaide midfield coach), Aasta O’Connor (Carlton development coach), Elise Coventry (Geelong backline coach) and Shae Sloane (Melbourne forward and development coach) to name a few.

There are a number of current and ex-AFLW players coaching in the talent pathways also, who will hopefully be the next to come through the ranks.

The participants

No longer are football clubs for male players only. One of the biggest cultural changes to occur with the AFLW is that clubs, at the elite level right down to community level, are now places for both men and women.

Women’s participation in the game continues to grow. Since the AFLW’s inception in 2017, women and girls participation jumped by nearly 200 per cent, with more than 125,000 women and girls playing in 2,500 new teams across the country.

It’s no longer uncommon for you to walk down to your local football ground to see women’s and girls games in action or for a young girl to be bouncing a footy down the street.

Now more than ever, AFL is a game for everyone.