The 2018 AFL Women's season was the second season of the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

(AFLW) competition, the highest-level senior

women's Australian rules football Women's Australian rules football (in areas where it is popular, known simply as women's football or women's footy or women's AFL), is the female-only form of Australian rules football, generally with some modification to the laws of the game. ...

competition in Australia. The season featured eight clubs and ran from 2 February to 24 March, comprising a seven-round home-and-away season followed by a grand final contested by the top two clubs. The won the premiership, defeating by six points in the 2018 AFL Women's Grand Final. The Bulldogs also won the

minor premiership A minor premiership is the title given to the team which finishes a sporting competition first in the league standings after the regular season but prior to commencement of the finals in several Australian sports leagues. Origins The etymolo ...

by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 5–2 win–loss record. The Bulldogs' Emma Kearney won the AFL Women's best and fairest award as the league's best and fairest player, and teammate Brooke Lochland won the AFL Women's leading goalkicker award as the league's leading goalkicker.

Rule changes

Three rules were changed heading into the 2018 season: *A free kick is paid against a player who last touches the ball before it goes out of bounds under the following conditions, :*A free kick will be awarded against a player who kicks or handballs the football over the boundary line without the football being touched by another player; :*Except where a player who does not have possession stops the football being touched by an opposition player by shepherding the football across the boundary line where the football could have otherwise been touched. :*If in doubt the umpires are instructed to throw the ball in. *The interchange has been reduced to five players from six players in 2017. *Time-on will occur during the last two minutes of each quarter.

Home-and-away season

The full fixture was released on Friday 27 October 2017. Notable features of the draw include: *Unlike the previous season, there were no double-headers with men's preseason matches. *, , and each played four home games, while the other four clubs played three. *Adelaide, , GWS, and Melbourne each hosted matches at grounds outside of their home metropolitan area with trips to Darwin, Moe,

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

and

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

respectively. *Carlton and Collingwood featured in the most free-to-air televised matches (three), Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs had two each, while GWS and Fremantle had one each. *Many games were scheduled for the late afternoon to avoid the summer heat, especially in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. *All starting times are local.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Ladder

Progression by round

*Numbers highlighted in green indicates the team finished the round inside the top 2. *Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished in first place on the ladder in that round. *Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round.

Grand final

In the absence of a finals series, the two teams who finished the highest on the ladder at the end of the home and away season played in the AFL Women's Grand Final.

Win–loss table

Attendances

By club

By ground

Awards

*The league

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

was awarded to Emma Kearney. *The leading goalkicker was awarded to Brooke Lochland of the , who kicked twelve goals during the home and away season. *The Rising Star was awarded to Chloe Molloy. *The best on ground in the AFL Women's Grand Final was awarded to Monique Conti. *The goal of the year was awarded to Aliesha Newman. *The mark of the year was awarded to

Tayla Harris Tayla Harris (born 16 April 1997) is a professional Australian sportsperson best known for her careers in Australian rules football with the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) and in professional boxing. She is a highly successfu ...

. *The minor premiership was awarded to . * AFLW Players Association awards **The

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

was awarded to Courtney Gum. **The most courageous player was awarded to

Chelsea Randall Chelsea Randall (born 14 June 1991) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Adelaide Football Club#AFL Women's team, Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's competition. She is one of the club's inaugural AFLW team co-captains, and ...

. **The best captain was awarded to

Daisy Pearce Daisy Pearce (born 27 May 1988) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club#AFL Women's team, Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) and is the current AFLW senior coach of the West Coast Eagle ...

. **The best first year player was awarded to Chloe Molloy. *

was named the captain of the 2018 AFL Women's All-Australian team. The grand finalists,

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

and

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

, along with

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

each had 4 players selected, with all eight clubs represented in the final team by at least one player. *The wooden spoon was "awarded" to .

Best and fairest

AFLW leading goalkicker

*Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the season's goal kicking tally at the end of that round. *Underlined numbers indicates the player did not play that round.

Coach changes

Club leadership

References

External links

Official AFL Women's website
{{AFL Women's AFL Women's seasons 2018 in Australian rules football