2018 AFL Women's season

The 2018 AFL Women's season was the second season of the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition, the highest-level senior women's Australian rules football 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 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 and Alice Springs 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 and Western Australia.
 * All starting times are local.

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.

Awards

 * The league best and fairest 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.
 * The minor premiership was awarded to.
 * AFLW Players Association awards
 * The most valuable player was awarded to Courtney Gum.
 * The most courageous player was awarded to Chelsea Randall.
 * The best captain was awarded to Daisy Pearce.
 * The best first year player was awarded to Chloe Molloy.
 * Chelsea Randall was named the captain of the 2018 AFL Women's All-Australian team. The grand finalists, Western Bulldogs and Brisbane Lions, along with Melbourne 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.

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.