Melbourne will honour its inaugural AFL Women’s players with specially designed rings

MELBOURNE will honour all 27 of its inaugural AFL Women’s League players with specially designed rings to celebrate their recruitment to the Demons.

Melbourne marquee recruit Daisy Pearce. Picture: Getty Images

MELBOURNE will honour its inaugural women’s players with specially designed rings.

All 27 players drafted by the Demons for the AFL Women’s competition will receive a ring in recognition of their recruitment to the Demons.

Melbourne women’s football operations manager Debbie Lee believes the rings are a great way to celebrate the launch of a new competition.

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“We thought ‘what can we give the girls that they can take away with them and they can have for life?’” Lee told Melbourne TV.

“(We wanted) something that reminds them of the Melbourne Football Club. As a result, we’ve come up with the idea of developing the rings.

“The girls can wear them from day-to-day, if they choose or they can keep them in the gifted box.

To commemorate our inaugural women's list, every player has received a ring in recognition of their recruitment to the club #DreamBigger pic.twitter.com/mkdvsUZvSR

— Melbourne FC (@melbournefc) November 18, 2016

“It is the first time we are going to have a fully-fledged competition and I think a great way to celebrate that is with these rings.

“They can fell like they have a sense of belonging to the Melbourne Football Club whether they play one, two or 10 years with us.”

Melbourne plans to make the ring presentation a yearly tradition, with all new players drafted to the club set to receive one.

Each ring will be engraved with the number in which the player joined the Demons.

For example, the first player drafted by the Demons next year will have their ring engraved with the number 28.

Melbourne marquee recruit Daisy Pearce, who helped come up with the idea, has no plans of taking her ring off.

Daisy Pearce is a marquee player for the Demons. Picture: Michael Klein

“It is not very often that the AFL, which has been around for 150 years, starts up a new competition,” she said.

“We wanted it to be something that would last and show how much this club really values and sees the women’s footballers as an important part of the club.

“It’s a reminder to me that this is the AFL and a reminder that they’ve been a part of something really big and special.

“Hopefully in its own little way, it helps to build that unity moving forward.”

Originally published as Melbourne will honour its inaugural AFL Women’s players with specially designed rings