Port Adelaide set to form women’s team to compete in the AFLW from the 2022-23 season

Port Adelaide – along with Hawthorn, Sydney and Essendon – have been granted licences to join the successful AFLW league.

Port Adelaide has vowed to bring the club’s trademark power-to-win, aggression and tradition to the AFLW after being granted a formal licence by the AFL to form a women’s team.

The Power will field its inaugural AFLW side in season seven of the successful competition, with their first team to run out onto the oval in December, 2022.

Port was one of four AFL clubs alongside Essendon, Hawthorn and Sydney, to not yet have an AFLW team, but the league announced on Thursday that it would embrace an 18-team women’s competition starting from the 2022-23 season.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said the inclusion of the four remaining sides would accelerate the growth of the AFLW competition and allow for more opportunities for women footballers.

“The decision to expand the competition again, after the AFLW was expanded from eight teams to 10 teams in 2019 and then to 14 teams in 2020, comes as the number of women and girls playing football has grown to more than 600,000 nationally,” McLachlan said.

Jemma Whitington-Charity, Brooke Boileau, and Molly Brooksby look forward to joining the AFLW competition. Picture: Sarah Reed

“With an additional four clubs entering the Competition in Season Seven, we will grow to 540 AFLW players across all 18 clubs, the largest employer of female athletes in the country, presenting further opportunities for women and girls involved in women’s football pathways, from Auskick to the elite competition.

“It has been often said that clubs haven’t felt whole if they didn’t have an AFLW team, and I am proud to say that our competition will now be complete with the addition of the new four clubs.”

Each of the clubs put forward a submission to the AFL Commission last month, to prove their readiness to enter the national competition, including detailing their resourcing, list build strategy, corporate support, and investment into their AFLW program, fan base growth and facilities.

Among key pillars of Port’s pitch were that their women’s captain will wear the coveted No. 1 jumper, spectators will belt out “Never Tear Us Apart” before games and that all home games will be played at Alberton Oval, which is undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation to, in part, develop new women’s change rooms and create a “premium AFLW match-day venue”.

The Power also told the AFL that the club was ready financially to support the team, with both new and existing corporate sponsors already on board.

The club hopes its first game is a showstopping AFLW Showdown I against cross-town rivals Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

AFLW general manager Nicole Livingstone said she couldn’t wait to welcome a cohort of new fans from season seven.

“Our primary objective is to provide women and girls with an equal opportunity to play elite Australian Football and to increase the female participation and interest in our game,” Livingstone said.

“Over the past five (AFLW seasons), we have seen more women and girls picking up a footy across all levels of our game, and we can’t wait to build on that momentum.

“As we welcome four new clubs to the competition, we will continue to work with the AFLW players, the AFLPA and the clubs over the coming years to make AFLW the sport of choice for women and create legitimate career opportunities for women within our game.”

The entire Port Adelaide Football Club – including staff and players – can’t wait to join the AFLW competition. Picture: Sarah Reed

Originally published as Port Adelaide set to form women’s team to compete in the AFLW from the 2022-23 season