2019

2019 Summary

The 2019 AFL Women's season was the third season of the elite women's Australian rules football competition. Ten teams competed in the league, two more than the previous season, all of which are associated with existing Australian Football League (AFL) clubs. To accommodate the extra teams a conference system was implemented. The first game was played on the 2nd of February and the season concluded with the 2019 AFL Women's Grand Final between Adelaide and Carlton on the 31st of March. Adelaide won by a margin of 45 to win their second premiership. The two new teams, Geelong and North Melbourne joined the competition, bringing the total number of teams to ten.

People of 2019

Coach: Daniel Harford
Captain: Brianna Davey
Vice-Captain: Katie Loynes
Leadership Group: Shae Audley, Kerryn Peterson, Sarah Hosking, Darcy Vescio
Best and Fairest Award: Brianna Davey and Madison Prespakis
Leading Goalkicker: Tayla Harris 7 goals

New Players for the 2019 AFLW Season (and guernsey numbers).

4 Madison Prespakis, 5 Abbie McKay, 8 Amelia Mullane, 13 Kirby Bentley, 14 Brooke Walker, 15 Chloe Dalton, 20 Charlotte Wilson, 22 Rhiannon Watt, 25 Jessica Edwards, 27 Emerson Woods, 36 Jayde Van Dyk.

Milestones

Debut: Kirby Bentley, Chloe Dalton, Jessica Edwards, Amelia Mullane, Madison Prespakis, Jayde Van Dyk, Rhiannon Watt, Brooke Walker, Abbie McKay, Charlotte Wilson, Emerson Woods.
Debut (Coach): Daniel Harford

Honours

AFLW Rising Star Nominees: Madison Prespakis, Georgia Gee.

Awards

Rising Star Award: Madison Prespakis
Mark of the Year: Tayla Harris

AFLW Players Association Awards
Best Captain: Brianna Davey
Best First Year Player: Madison Prespakis

Home & Away Attendance

Total: 34,653
Average over 7 Games: 4,950
Home Games: 9,265
Average Home Games: 3,088

Ladder

Despite the introduction of new teams, the league retained a seven-round home-and-away season. This was achieved by splitting the competition into two conferences. Each team play four games against their fellow conference members and three "cross-over" matches against teams from the other conference. Conference membership was based on the final ladder positions of the 2018 season. The finals series was expanded to include preliminary finals for the first time; the two teams who finish the highest in each conference at the end of the home-and-away season qualified for the preliminary finals. The winners of these games played in the AFL Women's Grand Final. The make-up of the conferences, along with the fixture, was released in October 2018. The conference system proved controversial as the teams in Conference A consistently outplayed the teams on Conference B, resulting in the first, second, fifth and sixth best overall teams making the finals.

Conference A

Conference B

Finals Series
Preliminary Finals
Adelaide 11.7 (73) d Geelong 1.1 (7)
Carlton 9.10 (64) d Fremantle 4.4 (28)

Grand Final
Adelaide 10.3 (63) d Carlton 2.6 (18)