The Melbourne Football Club continues to be an industry leader in supporting women in football. Through our AFL women’s team, and support of the senior and junior women’s football in Victoria, we actively work to encourage the growth and development of the sport from the grassroots level through to elite senior football.

Prior to this inaugural AFLW season, the pinnacle of our Club’s involvement in female football has been our participation in the AFL Women’s Exhibition Series since 2013. We are proud to have been the first club to successfully lobby the AFL to hold a sanctioned women’s match and to have been one of the two pioneering teams, along with the Western Bulldogs. It was this platform that was instrumental in developing the AFLW competition and it was this foresight that saw the AFLW competition come to fruition.

The club continues to play our role in developing the sport and is committed to connecting and integrating our players into community football, providing a complete football pathway, along with demonstrating behaviours and values as role models for young girls and women.   

The club is also a proud partner of the South Metro Junior Football League (SMJFL) and supports both the Hallam Senior College Sports Academy and the Melbourne Girls' Grammar Academy, which offers female secondary school students a unique Australian rules football development program.

The Club has also established the AFL Next Generation Academy, which is an excellent opportunity to develop women’s football more broadly. The Club is enthusiastic about delivering these programs to women and girls from non-traditional backgrounds in South-East Melbourne and Alice Springs, encouraging them to participate in football.