AFLW season wrap: the goals, the dramas and the special triumphs which made 2021 so memorable
Long after the Brisbane Lions have finished celebrating their first AFLW premiership, the 2021 season will go down as a “seminal moment” in the history of women’s football. Here’s why.
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At the W-Awards on Tuesday night, AFL chief executive officer Gillon McLachlan started official proceedings with a speech. In it he described the 2021 women’s league season as a “seminal moment” in the history of Australian football.
From bigger scores, to faster transition through the midfield, to global audiences, the season has entertained and been filled with thrilling twists and turns.
Here are just some of the moments that made 2021 a memorable season:
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COVID’S HAVOC
The global pandemic — which shut down the 2020 season without a premier declared — didn’t let up early on in the AFLW this season.
Greater Western Sydney were forced into a training hub in early January when a COVID outbreak on the Northern Beaches sent much of the city into lockdown followed by nationwide border closures.
In an effort to save the season, the Giants relocated to Albury for a fortnight and then travelled onto Adelaide for another two weeks before they were able to head home.
The Giants should be applauded for their willingness to do what was necessary, often under trying conditions, to ensure the season could start.
They weren’t the only team to be affected. After Round 1, both West Coast and Fremantle were sent into a week-long lockdown following an outbreak in Perth, while the Crows were forced into self-isolation in return from the WA city.
Late fixture changes, match location changes and travel — particularly for Brisbane which was on the road four times in the final five weeks — were common.
But in the end, it meant that the 2021 season could be played in full, with the Lions crowned premiers.
EYEBALLS ON SCREENS; BUMS ON SEATS
For the first time in AFLW history, all women’s games were ticketed events, with adults charged $10.
There were 13 sellout games and the number of AFLW members reached an all-time high, registering 24,423 members. The season then ended with almost 23,000 spectators purchasing tickets to the Grand Final at Adelaide Oval.
On top of this, the television audience rose to more than five million in the home-and-away season, which eclipsed the previous record set in 2020 by a staggering 35 per cent, not to mention a 49 per cent increase on 2019’s audience figures.
GOALSCORERS
Carlton’s Darcy Vescio became the first woman to win two league leading goal-kicker awards with 16 majors in 2021. She now sits on top of the all-time leading goalkicker ladder, with 44 goals from her 39 career games.
League superstar, Crow Erin Phillips, kicked 14 goals — her biggest tally since the competition began — while Lion Courtney Hodder won the Goal of the Year accolade in her inaugural season and showed more of what’s to come from her crafty boot.
And who didn’t love watching fan favourite Sarah Perkins kick two goals in her first game for new club Gold Coast?
PLAY WITH MEANING
For the first time, the league played dedicated rounds, emulating the men’s competition.
Not only was there a dedicated Pride Round, but also a league-wide Indigenous Round.
Both rounds gave players a unique opportunity to tell their stories, with North Melbourne captain Emma Kearney and St Kilda co-captain Kate Shierlaw opening up about their relationship for the first time, helping promote the AFLW’s stance on the importance of LGBTIQ inclusion.
The Indigenous Round saw the footballers play on grounds with the Aboriginal symbol for “woman” emblazoned on them.
It gave Kangaroos players Kaitlyn Ashmore and Mia King the chance to reveal publicly for the first time their Indigenous heritages that had once been long-held family secrets.
“My Pa grew up in a world where Indigenous people were frowned upon and he hid that part of himself,” Ashmore said.
“I can’t even imagine that now.
“But because Pa hid it for so long, it’s been really hard to find out information … we’re finding out information in dribs and drabs.
“We’ve only just started, but it’s a journey that is quite exciting. The more we find out, the more exciting it’s becoming.”
TRIBUNAL DRAMAS
Which season would be complete without drama at the tribunal.
It started in January, when Crow Ebony Marinoff was charged with Rough Conduct (dangerous tackle) by the Match Review Officer for a collision with Giants’ Brid Stack in a pre-season game that saw Stack hospitalised — and ruled out for the rest of the season — with a fractured neck.
Marinoff was originally suspended for three games, which set a record for the lengthiest suspension in AFLW history.
She took her case to the tribunal and after a week-long adjournment the charge was quashed entirely and Marinoff was able to play in Round 1.
Then in late March, the MRO offered Fremantle’s Kiara Bowers a one-match suspension for a dangerous tackle, which would have ruled her out of contention for the league’s Best and Fairest medal, but had the charge successfully downgraded at the tribunal to a financial sanction.
She went on to become the first joint winner as the AFLW’s best-and-fairest player, alongside Collingwood’s Bri Davey.
The tribunal wasn’t so kind to former W-Award winner Carlton’s Madison Prespakis. The 2020 best-and-fairest player was ruled out of medal contention in late February after the Tribunal threw out her challenge to a one-game ban for a dangerous tackle.
RICHMOND WIN
It took Richmond until its 11th ever AFLW game to score its first win, and when the Tigers finally did — with a whopping 47-point, Round 5 win over Geelong — the celebrations were a joy to behold.
The Tigers, who entered the AFLW in 2020, went on to win three games, finishing 10th on the ladder.
This season highlighted that there is still some way to go for the four expansion clubs, which came into the competition in 2020: Gold Coast finished winless and on the bottom of the ladder, while West Coast had two wins, and St Kilda three.
Geelong, who joined the AFLW in 2019, had one win and finished 13th.
The top five teams in 2021 at the end of the minor rounds — Adelaide, Brisbane, Collingwood, Melbourne and Fremantle — were all inaugural clubs from the 2017 season.
EXPANSION
Which takes us into expansion. Many AFLW supporters are wondering when the final four AFL teams will be permitted entry into the women’s league: Hawthorn, Essendon, Port Adelaide and Sydney.
But premiership-winning Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich has poured cold water on expanding the competition too quickly, saying consolidation was required to ensure the AFLW had the depth of talent to make it strong before adding another four teams into the mix.
“We have (had) 16 players go to other clubs so we have done our bit to grow the competition,” he said after his team’s two-goal win over Adelaide in the 2021 Grand Final.
“It is painful when it happens, now calm the farm for a little while and wait for a few years.”
While he might have been downplaying expansion, he did say that it could be time for the AFLW’s medal for best on ground in a grand final to be given a name and he had one suggestion for it: Erin Phillips.
“Erin has had a massive input and her legacy should be acknowledged,” he said.
CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS
We’ve seen some exceptional leadership from the captains of the AFLW clubs in 2021, but if there’s one who epitomised courage, it was Adelaide’s Chelsea Randall.
Despite being “gutted, devastated, sad” about missing her side’s third grand final appearance, she graciously accepted the AFL’s new concussion protocols that sidelined her with a mandatory 12-days rest after she had a head knock a week earlier.
She said she would not try to find a technicality that would allow her to play.
“I decided not to take any further action … because what kind of message would that be sending to grassroots football? Concussion is serious. It is scary,” she told the Crows website.
Originally published as AFLW season wrap: the goals, the dramas and the special triumphs which made 2021 so memorable
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