AFL Barwon Female Football

AFL Barwon Female Football is a women's Australian rules football competition based in the greater Geelong region. The first season of senior football held for women in the area was 2018. The senior competition has since swelled to three divisions incorporating 20 teams. A further eight underage girls divisions are also competed for in the 2023 season.

Background
AFL Barwon is the governing body overseeing Australian rules football in the Geelong and greater district. After many years in which only junior girl's competitions were organised, a senior women's football competition commenced in 2018 under the banner of AFL Barwon Women's Football. Rather than being organised by the GFL, GDFL, or the BFL, the competition is managed under the AFL Barwon banner. The competition was renamed to AFL Barwon Female Football ahead of the 2019 season.

2018 inaugural season competing teams:
 * Bellarine Football League:
 * Barwon Heads; Drysdale; Geelong Amateur; Ocean Grove


 * Geelong Football League:
 * Grovedale; Lara; St Joseph's; St Mary's


 * Geelong & District Football League:
 * Bell Post Hill; Geelong West Giants; North Geelong


 * Colac & District Football League:
 * Colac Imperials

The competition has held grading games at the start of the seasons in 2018, 2021–2024 in order to compose divisions to try to make matches as competitive as possible.

In March 2024, following extensive consultation AFL Barwon announced that the competition would transition from playing mostly on Sundays to scheduling Saturday matches from 2025.

Premiers
Division 1 Division 2 Division 3
 * 2018 — North Geelong
 * 2019 — St Mary's
 * 2020 — Season cancelled due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.
 * 2021 — Not awarded
 * 2022 — Geelong Amateur
 * 2023 — Geelong Amateur
 * 2018 — Barwon Heads
 * 2019 — North Geelong
 * 2020 — Season cancelled due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.
 * 2021 — Not awarded
 * 2022 — St Joseph's
 * 2023 — Geelong West Giants
 * 2021 — Not awarded
 * 2022 — Anglesea
 * 2023 — Modewarre

2018
Note: Drysdale and St Joseph's started the season in Division 1

2020
Season cancelled due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

2021
On 19 September 2021, due to ongoing restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria, AFL Barwon was forced to cancel the remaining weeks of the competitions without premierships being awarded.

2022
Source:

2023
Source:

Best and Fairest Award
Division 1
 * 2018 — Charlotte Thorne (North Geelong) 39 votes
 * 2019 — Stephanie Abfalter (Geelong Amateur) 19 votes
 * 2021 — Isabella Hill (Grovedale) 21 votes
 * 2022 — Alana Tully (Grovedale)
 * 2023 — Danielle Sgarbi (Geelong Amateur)

Division 2
 * 2018 — Emma Allen (Barwon Heads) 23 votes
 * 2019 — Charlotte Thorne (North Geelong) 27 votes
 * 2021 — Temikka Beeston (North Geelong) 18 votes
 * 2022 — Tara Smith (Drysdale)
 * 2023 — Daisy Wilson (South Barwon)

Division 3
 * 2021 — Charlotte Simpson (St Joseph's) 18 votes
 * 2022 — Maggie Caudullo
 * 2023 — Tara Smith (Drysdale)

Leading Goalkickers
Division 1
 * 2018 — Ashleigh Bond (St Mary's) 28 goals
 * 2019 — Ashleigh Bond (St Mary's) 23 goals
 * 2021 — Bianca Cheever (St Mary's) & Rhianna Arnold (Geelong Amateur) 16 goals
 * 2022 — Allesha McLean (St Mary's) 25 goals
 * 2023 — Lucy Were (Geelong Amateur) 23 goals

Division 2
 * 2018 — Teagan Barber (Colac Imperials) 23 goals
 * 2019 — Melissa Egan (Drysdale) 61 goals
 * 2021 — Melissa Egan (Drysdale) 20 goals
 * 2022 — Bianca Deckker (Drysdale) 28 goals
 * 2023 — Emily Kenshole (Thomson) 31 goals

Division 3
 * 2021 — Charlotte Simpson (St Joseph's), Rebekah Lane (South Barwon) & Camille King (Anglesea) 21 goals
 * 2022 — Rebekah Lane (South Barwon) 28 goals
 * 2023 — Bianca Deckker (Drysdale) 24 goals

Grand Final Best on Ground
Division 1
 * 2022 – Cheryl de Groot (Geelong Amateur)
 * 2023 – Danielle Sgarbi (Geelong Amateur)

Division 2
 * 2022 – Tamika Lewis (St Joseph's)
 * 2023 – Teagan Tatlock (Thomson)

Division 3
 * 2022 – Ruby Manson (Anglesea)
 * 2023 – Monique Martin (Modewarre)

Sponsorship
The divisions has had the following organisations as naming rights partner for each season:
 * 2018:
 * Epworth Health (Division 1)
 * Corio Bay Health Group (Division 2)


 * 2019, 2021–22:
 * Epworth Health (Divisions 1–3)

Representative games
In May 2019, an AFL Barwon Female Football representative team coached by Geelong AFLW player Melissa Hickey, and captained by Barwon Heads' Emma Allen, played the Northern Football Netball League.