AFLW has changed society, says women’s footy trailblazer

Debbie Lee will be the 2025 NAB AFLW Premiership Cup Ambassador.

FEMALE football pioneer Debbie Lee believes AFLW has changed society’s perception of women playing the game.

Lee, a women’s football advocate for over 30 years, has been involved in every step of the game’s evolution. From player, coach, team manager, to president of the Victorian Women’s Football League, Lee has been involved at every level, continually pushing for opportunities for women to play the game.

It’s only fitting that Lee has been named as the 2025 NAB AFLW Premiership Cup Ambassador in the competition’s 10th season, another nod of recognition to the endless hours, days, months and years she has dedicated to the game.

But for Lee, who grew up hiding the fact that she played football from others, one of the most rewarding aspects of the introduction of AFLW is seeing how society now views women and girls playing football.

“(The AFLW) has absolutely normalised it,” Lee said.

“You only have to go out into the suburbs on a Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon and you see young girls playing the game. The competitions have just exploded in terms of community and not just women’s, it’s young girls, it’s Auskick, it’s under nines. The amount of visibility we see with the young girls now, there’s no stigma that’s attached to that.

Debbie Lee (left) celebrates the Western Bulldogs’ AFLW Grand Final win with Ellie Blackburn on March 24, 2018. Picture: AFL Photos

“When I was driving down in Gisborne the other day I saw two teenagers, one was a girl, one was a boy, and they were both in their footy shorts watching the footy. And I just thought that was just the coolest thing ever.”

Society’s views on women’s football haven’t always been this accepting, but Lee has been a driving force behind its meteoric rise.

Lee established the first women’s team in Melbourne’s west in 1993 when she started the Sunshine YCW Spurs, she was the Victorian Women’s Football League president for eight years, a member of the AFL Women’s Advisory Group, and held positions in the women’s programs at Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs. Lee is now the National Women’s and Girls Football Lead at the AFL.

“I just had this drive that I guess it came back to a core value, which is fairness,” Lee said.

“Why can’t women play footy? That was always the question. Why can’t we play footy interstate? Why can’t we play footy for AFL teams? And the reason why I was involved was because I was just so passionate about it and I just believed in it and I just knew that it was the right thing to do.”

When starting the Sunshine YCW Spurs in 1993, Lee didn’t go in with ambitions to start a national competition. Instead, she focused on continually making small progressions forward, which, 24 years later, resulted in the introduction of the AFLW in 2017.

“It started from, let’s just get women on the park from a local point of view. Then that grew into let’s get more women. Then it grew into let’s play a state of origin, which was South Australia versus Victoria,” Lee said.

“Then it was let’s turn that into a national comp so we can get all states and territories. Then it was like, how do we get the young girls playing in the Youth Girls competition? So it was a rolling evolution.

“Then it was like, why can’t we play AFL? Why can’t we have an AFL competition? So it was this progression that was evolving over time that we kept saying, well, why can’t we?

“It just kept revolutionising the sport to the time where we got, well, we were ready to go and question, why can’t we have an AFLW competition?”

For Lee, women playing the game was a no brainer, there were only benefits in allowing half the population to play the game.

“I just knew that would benefit many. It wasn’t driven by self-motivation, which often some people thought, I just knew it would benefit so many,” Lee said.

Western Bulldogs general manager of women’s football Debbie Lee chats to Melbourne captain Daisy Pearce after round two, 2020. Picture: AFL Photos

“It would benefit the women. Then it would benefit clubs. Then it would benefit the community. Then it would benefit the AFL. So I could see that it was just going to really benefit everyone. So let’s get on and do it.”

Lee was recognised for the role she played in women’s football when in 2021 she became the first female to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Though proud of her achievement, Lee saw the bigger picture, instead viewing her induction as another step forward for women in football.

“There’s been many women and men, but mainly many women, that have forged the way for the AFLW competition in many, not only Victoria, but other states as well,” Lee said.

“The Hall of Fame, I was very humbled and grateful to receive that acknowledgement. But I also saw it as an acknowledgement of women’s football. Because I was in there because of women’s football, it wasn’t because of the men’s game.

“So I thought that was a great acknowledgement to women’s footy that we’ve now made another step and there’s another acknowledgement for our sport. Take me out of the equation.”

Heading into the 10th season, Lee is looking forward to seeing the AFLW take the next step and is calling on women’s football fans to come out and support their teams and players.

Ellie Blackburn and Debbie Lee after the Bulldogs’ 2018 AFLW premiership win. Picture: AFL Photos

“This season we’ll see new players come in, which is going to be really exciting, and we know that the talent coming in is getting better and better each year,” Lee said.

“We’ll see some great contests. What I do want to see, and I guess this is a shout out to everyone, is we actually want to see people come to the games. We actually want to see fans of the game come.

“We always hear we want to support women’s footy. The best way we can do that is turn up to the games. And we want to actually start filling some stadiums because that’s also going to help us move the dial.

“So how do we actually do that is by everyone turning up and supporting their club. And I just want to see, I just want us to have fun and keep the uniqueness of our game because I think it is unique.”

Women’s footy trailblazer Debbie Lee. Picture: AFL Photos

When asked if she has any predictions as to who she will be handing the premiership cup over to in November, Lee has narrowed it down to four clubs.

“I’d say North (Melbourne) because I think they’ve got a really good, strong list. They’ve done really well in their recruiting from keeping the experienced players but also topping up with some younger players,” she said.

“So, I would back in North Melbourne being in the Grand Final and between probably Brisbane and Adelaide. And I do like the Dees, but Brisbane or Adelaide.”