The Alberta Footy Women's League (AFWL) is the largest women's

Australian football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

league playing regular matches in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. It is currently composed of teams from

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

and

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, who play for the AFWL Premiership Cup. The AFWL, along with the

Ontario Australian Football League AFL Ontario is the largest Australian football league in North America. It is currently composed of teams from the Greater Toronto Area, Southwestern Ontario and the National Capital Region, who play off for the Conacher Cup (named after Lione ...

and North West Pacific Football League is a member of

AFL Canada AFL Canada (formerly the Canadian Australian Football Association, ) is the governing body for men's and women's Australian rules football in Canada. AFL Canada was formed on 30 July 2004, when the Canadian Australian Football Association chan ...

, the governing body for the sport in Canada. In 2008, the AFWL had around 90 senior players consisting of over 70 Canadian nationals.

History

The league grew out of intra-club matches organized by the

Calgary Kookaburras The Calgary Kookaburras is a ladies Australian rules football club based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They play at the Queen Elizabeth School, Hillhurst and are members of AFL Canada. They were the first women's football club formed in Canada ...

in 2007. A move was made the next season to formalize the league, and Calgary's players were drafted into two clubs based in inner-suburban Calgary - Hillhurst and Kensington. The 2008 season ran from May to September and consisted of 12 rounds of matches. Hillhurst won the inaugural Premiership when they defeated Kensington 5.0.30 to 1.7.13 at Queen Elizabeth School on September 28, 2008. The

Edmonton Emus Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

were founded in 2009 to become the AFWL's third team and bring women's footy to central Alberta for the first time. The 2009 season ran from May to September, featuring five rounds of double-header matches and a finals series. Hillhurst defeated Edmonton 12.9.81 to 0.0.0 in the Preliminary Final and went on to defeat Kensington in the Grand Final - 5.7.37 to 1.7.13 - at McNally High School (Edmonton) on September 19, 2009.

Premiers

Clubs

Current clubs

References

External links

{{Aussie Rules in Canada