AFLW is taking women’s sport to the next level with its 18 team competition
Within the space of five short years AFLW has opened doors that were never accessible to previous generations of females. These are the women who smashed through the barriers and ensured sport would never be the same again.
Sydney Weekend
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Half the year they’re professional athletes, dedicated to the sport they love. For the rest of their time, they’re farmers, psychologists, students – meet the women kicking goals to take the AFL women’s league to the next level.
A jewel in the women’s sporting crown, the AFLW is now a thriving elite competition featuring 18 AFL clubs for the first time in the sport’s history, and more than 500 women. There’s no denying that the game has become increasingly popular, with more than 600,000 women and girls playing football across the country. In the next year or two, its stars hope they will finally be offered the same as men – to be paid and recognised as the country’s top footballers.
On Sunday, Alicia Eva and Alyce Parker from the GWS Giants will take on Montana Ham and Brooke Lochland from the Sydney Swans.
ALICIA EVA, 31, midfielder
Eva has been kicking the footy since she was five. Growing up in Melbourne, she always loved the sport the state lives and breathes – but knew her time playing Aussie rules was limited.
“Because girls weren’t allowed to play and there was no professional pathway from the age of 14,” she tells Sydney Weekend.
“So we’ve kind of stuck in there and been part of this pioneering group of women who applied in the early phases of the AFLW competition, and it’s really special to say that young girls growing up now have a pathway.
“It’s really cool and really special to be part of not only a growing sport for women in Australia, but to be really building that in Sydney.”
Now playing for GWS – a club entering their seventh season in the AFLW – Eva says female football has been around for a long time in state leagues across the country but never at a semi-professional level, and certainly not paid.
“There have been so many women that have gone before us who, had they been born a few years later, would probably be running around in this competition,” she explains.
“They really paved the way. And I guess we get to play knowing that they did a lot of the hard work before us.
“We are working towards a full-time competition, and pushing for that to happen sooner rather than later.
“And the great thing is there are now 18 AFLW teams in the competition, which matches the 18 AFL teams – so every club now has a male and a female team.
“And with that comes pathways and opportunities for not just young boys, but young girls, to being a professional athlete, so that’s what we’re seeking as players. We would love to be full-time, professional athletes, paid full-time.
“We’ve seen how far the competition has come in only a short few years. We know the numbers are there in terms of participation, so with greater investment and continued backing from the AFL and all of our supporters, we know the game will get to that point.
“We play the same game. We wear the same club colours, the same organisational cultures – but there is a point of difference with AFLW at the moment in the sense that there’s a whole new support network that the AFL are capturing across Australia off the back of what the women’s game is doing, and the diversity.
“That inclusiveness is essentially what the AFLW was born out of – so it’s only making the environment a lot richer. And it’s changing the game of football in this country.”
In Eva’s first season she played for Collingwood, before making the decision to move up to Sydney. She has served as Greater Western Sydney’s captain since 2020.
“So I was part of that first ever game that was played in Ikon Park (against Carlton, who won) in front of 22,500 people – and that was a moment in time,” she says.
“I really feel like I’m part of growing the game up here and the Giants and the Swans are household names and we just want to get more girls playing footy and more people to games.”
Eva, who has two older sisters and a younger brother, says it was during primary school that she got hooked on AFL.
“During some lunch times we’d play cops and robbers or mums and dads – and then on every other day we’d play footy,” she says.
“I think when you’re that age, you don’t realise that you’re any different to your friends that you’re playing around with, so when my schoolmates went down to footy, that’s what I did, and it just took off from there.
“I was one of only a couple of girls at my footy club back then.
“Even through my junior footy days, I was one of very few girls playing – and over the last 10 or 15 years, it’s changed dramatically.”
Of course, people said girls couldn’t play footy. That didn’t stop her though – if anything, it made her hungrier to prove them wrong.
“Even back then, I used it as a motivating factor to play really well and play really hard and kick a few goals,” she says.
“I was ready to give it up at the age of 14, because that’s when you had to stop playing with the boys in Victoria – you could only continue playing if you wanted to go straight into senior women’s football, which at the age of 13 or 14, I wasn’t physically ready for.
“But when I turned 14, it’s when they created the pathway for girls 14 to 18 to keep playing. “There weren’t many teams, but I was really lucky that I went to school that entered a team in that program, so I didn’t have to fall out of the game like many women did.”
During the half of the year she’s not playing, Eva is coaching – something she started at the age of 19. Now she is the only woman coaching in the men’s league. She’s also just completed her masters degree in psychology.
“I wanted to work in football, but that wasn’t going to be as a player because there was no AFLW pathway at that point in time, so I invested a lot of my time into coaching, and I’m now a development coach within the AFL system,” she says.
“So part of me moving up to Sydney was to play first and foremost for the Giants but to also take up the coaching role which they offered me. So it has been really quite a tough journey in the sense that you do need to be resilient … as the anomaly.
“Like in any environment, there are challenges that you do need to face, but I wouldn’t change my journey so far, and I’m quite determined to make sure that there are opportunities for more women.
“And I actually see the fact that I am a woman to be of great benefit not only to my club, but to the footy environment.”
ALYCE PARKER, 22, midfielder
Starting at age 12, GWS star Alyce Parker was late to the game. The country girl grew up loving all sports, as well as agriculture – and when she was drafted to the women’s league during high school, it was a dream come true, and helped her make the decision to pursue a career on the field.
“Now, five years later, I’m absolutely loving it, and it’s certainly a huge part of my life where I actually live in Sydney for six months of the year playing for W and then return back home to the farm for the off season to continue my love and passion for agriculture, which I’m also studying,” she says.
Parker says a move to a full-time job in the AFLW would have “positives and negatives”. While it would be “an amazing opportunity”, she points out that “with only a six month commitment, I can go home to a completely different life for those six months in the off-season, and really freshen up to come back into my farming life”.
When living in Sydney, her teammates become flatmates – the perfect opportunity to develop amazing friendships on and off the field.
“Particularly at the Giants, a lot of us come from all over Australia,” she says.
“I think a term they used to use in the past was ‘the misfits’ as we have players all the way from Perth and then a couple of Irish players, so a lot of us are a long way from home.
“I guess the idea of having some family and strong connections up here is pretty important.”
Growing up, Parker was always competitive and loved all sports, with an innate desire to reach the top level that was possible for her.
“With AFL being quite a new sport, I wasn’t sure if I’d have the opportunity to do that,” she admits. “And then soon enough, it became a professional sport – so to me, it’s just an opportunity to play a game that I absolutely love.”
An elite swimmer from the age of eight, she trained with a national squad as a teenager and balanced netball, basketball, cricket and tennis. She also did athletics and cross country, but swimming was her main love. She soon had to choose between the pool and the footy field – and footy won.
“By the end of it, it was quite an easy decision – I was just enjoying footy too much and I probably hadn’t experienced anything like it,” she says.
“I’ve grown up playing a lot of non-contact sports and sports that traditionally females were playing – and we now have the opportunity to play footy.
“Which I think is something that’s incredibly accepted now.”
One of three sisters, she says her father is proud that she’s come so far in the AFL journey. All the way in fact, to a new role this season as Greater Western Sydney’s vice-captain.
And with four years left of her agricultural business management degree, she has all bases covered for both aspects of her life: city and country.
“He’s the person that taught me to kick from such a young age and we grew up watching footy together on the TV, but obviously we never knew that I’d end up playing AFLW myself.
“I think it’s pretty cool for both him and mum to say that they have a daughter that plays footy,” she says.
“I think the biggest driver behind this (growth in the sport for women) is opportunity. Particularly when I was growing up, there was such limited opportunity. And those who are older than me probably had no opportunity.
“So if you look now, seeing the statistics and numbers of people being involved – particularly in NSW, being not a traditional AFL state – that’s certainly the most exciting thing.
“I think going forward, we’re really just focused on the development from a young age – so getting girls playing footy from five years old – and imagine how good they’ll be when they they’re 17 or 18.
“For me, I’m in the city for footy and I love being here because it gives me an incredible opportunity to play professional sport. But I also have another life outside the city, back in the country.
“So post-playing, I probably see my future in the country, learning and living on the land, but while I’m here, obviously a huge part of my commitment is definitely paving the way for young girls to follow and supporting them if they find themselves at the Giants.”
MONTANA HAM, 18, midfielder
One of Montana Ham’s earliest memories playing AFL was being the only girl in a team of boys. Not that it worried the plucky teen, she knew she could hold her own.
And it wasn’t long before the boys knew it too.
“I remember I was in the forward line and I heard one of the boys say ‘I’ll take the girl’ and by half time it had changed to ‘you take the girl!’,” laughs the Sydney Swans midfielder.
“But seriously, things have come a long way in the game since then, I feel so proud when I see a team of little girls playing AFL now, it was so different when I was little.”
That feeling of pride was only enhanced when the brand new Sydney Swans AFLW team – the newest in the 18-club AFLW competition – ran out for their inaugural training session on the Sydney Cricket Ground, led by Ham.
“The boys formed a guard of honour for our first training,” Ham beams.
“To be a part of that was historic, there was Buddy Franklin, Dane Rampe, Callum Mills, forming a guard of honour, it was really special.
“It felt like our club was complete.”
Ham is one of five 18-year-olds in the inaugural Sydney Swans AFLW team and she isn’t the youngest – that would be Cynthia Hamilton – but Ham is the only one completing year 12, doing her VCE in Melbourne in and around playing and training for the Swans.
The former Western Jets player from Victoria still lives at home with her family in Melbourne, commuting to Sydney every weekend to train and play with her new teammates.
“During the week I am a year 12 student and on weekends I play AFL,” she says matter-of-factly.
“I don’t find it difficult because I try to be proactive on what’s in front of me; if I’m at school, I give it 100 per cent for that class and when I’m training, I’m only focused on that.”
It’s a good balance to find at such a young age, but it’s possible, she says, only because she has the full support of her school, her mates in Melbourne – who threw her a surprise draft party the night she was selected – and Swans HQ. And it’s also possible thanks to an almost-lifelong dream to play the game professionally.
The little girl who has been confidently walking onto the field from the age of four will continue to do so with a secret weapon by her side – the memory and support of her father, Roy, who died seven years ago.
And the number 18 which she chose for his birthday on her back.
“He’d be over the moon,” she says. “We had the dream together; we used to sit on the couch watching games and I would say I would play one day, without knowing there weren’t any girls’ teams back then, and he’d agree.
“I know he’ll be looking down on me every time I step out on the field.”
BROOKE LOCHLAND, 31, Forward
Brooke Lochland is not an athlete who lets opportunities pass her by. In fact, this philosophy has helped her rise to the top of not one, but two professional sporting careers.
And all by the age of 31.
The Melbourne-born midfielder played AFL when she was 11 and 12 but had to give it up because there was no opportunity for a young girl to continue playing back then.
She instead focused on speed skating, which took her to Europe, where she lived and competed for six years – rising to be fifth on the world rankings. When she retired at the age of 22, she took another opportunity, one she considers to be a fateful one to this day.
“I was waitressing and cleaning a table full of people and I heard then chatting footy and I asked them what team they were from,” Lochland recalls of the memorable conversation she had working in a pub on her return to Australia in 2015.
“They said they were from Montomorency Footy Club and one of the guys who played a big part in my footy career, Dave Schultz, he owned a gym and said ‘If you play a few games, I’ll give you free membership for a year’.
“I thought that sounded like a good deal, so I played a few games and absolutely loved it.”
Eight years later, Lochland’s experiences have placed her in the perfect position to mentor the younger girls coming through her new Sydney Swans club. Alongside Maddy Collier and Lauren Szigeti, she will share the role of captain.
While in Melbourne, she launched a training and conditioning business for young girls in AFL with Richmond player Sarah Hoskings called SH x BL and now in Sydney she works with the Sydney Swans Academy ensuring young female players have the opportunities that didn’t exist for her as a young player.
“I didn’t have those opportunities when I was a kid and so I want other young girls to have them,” she says of her mentoring role.
“The pathways for girls are definitely getting a lot better but we wanted to close that gap essentially.
“Helping these young girls is something I have a great passion for.
“AFLW has come a long way and I think it still has a long way to go. But these girls coming through have had the whole pathway.
“The future of AFLW looks really bright.”
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