Deborah Lee (born 1974) is a former

Australian rules 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 ...

player and coach. She has campaigned for recognition of women's Australian rules football in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, giving up a WNBL career to focus on developing the sport. She was later appointed president of the

Victorian Women's Football League The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia across seven divisions with a total of over ...

(VWFL). Apart from being the president of the VWFL, she played for the

St Albans Spurs Parkside Spurs is a women's Australian rules football club that competes in the Western Region Football League and AFL Masters Victoria competition. Based in Footscray, Victoria, Footscray, they play home games at Henry Turner Oval. History Th ...

. She first played in 1990 with the East Brunswick Scorpions before forming her own club in 1992, the Spurs. Hall won the Helen Lambert Medal as the Victorian women's competition best and fairest five times and was an All-Australian named player six times. Lee worked as the head of the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

's AFL Women's operations in 2017 before leaving to take up the same role with the in 2018. She was at the same time appointed as the club's VFLW coach for the 2018 season. A key initiative of Lee's were the Melbourne-Western Bulldogs exhibition matches that ultimately paved the way for the formation of the

AFLW 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 ...

. Lee was the first-ever female inductee to the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

in 2021 for her playing excellence and for being the driving force for women's AFL.

References

Victorian Women's Football League players 1974 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees 20th-century Australian sportswomen {{AFL-bio-1970s-stub