AFL Women's Under 18 Championships

The NAB AFL Women's Under 18 Championships are the annual national Australian rules football championships for women players aged 18 years or younger. The competition is seen as one of the main pathways towards being drafted into a team in the professional AFL Women's competition (AFLW). Originally known as the AFL Youth Girls National Championship, the competition has teams of players representing their states and territories in a round robin tournament. The tournament is currently sponsored by the National Australia Bank. The winner of the 2019 tournament was Vic Metro.

AFL Women's Under 18 Championships
Most recent season or competition:
2019 AFL Women's Under 18 Championships
FormerlyAFL Youth Girls National Championship
SportAustralian rules football
Inaugural season2010
AdministratorAustralian Football League
No. of teams10
CountryAustralia
Most recent
champion(s)		Vic Metro
(2019)
Sponsor(s)National Australia Bank
Related
competitions		AFL Under 18 Championships
Tournament formatRound-robin

History

A 2008 series between Queenslander and Victorian teams was the predecessor to a national state-based competition for young female footballers. The inaugural competition was conducted in September 2010, in Craigieburn, Victoria. Six teams competed: Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, a combined New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory side (NSW/ACT) and two Victorian squads. These were divided into two pools: an East, made up of NSW/ACT, Queensland, AFL Victoria Development; and a West, made up of South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria. Teams played three regular games against the sides from the opposite pool before a finals series.[1]

Several team changes occurred in 2013 and 2014. In 2013, the Victorian sides became Victoria Metro and Victoria Country.[2] A combined Northern Territory–Tasmania team known as the Thunder Devils and an Indigenous Australian side called the Woomeras entered the tournament in 2014.[3][4]

The 2017 introduction of AFL Women's, a national women's league, made the tournament into a pathway to the professional competition.[5] For 2017, the name of the competition became AFL Women's Under 18 Championships; it was previously known as the AFL Under 18 Youth Girls Championships. Changes were also made to tournament structure. The tournament was played over two rounds; in the first round, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory played in a separate division. The best players from the states combined to form an Allies team, which competed in the second round against the other states. (The Woomeras did not compete).[6] In 2018, a similar Eastern Allies team was established (made up of NSW/ACT and Tasmania players), bringing the total number of teams to 10.[7][8]

Tournaments
YearDivision 1 PremiersD1 B&FDivision 2 PremiersD2 B&FRef.
2013 Vic Metro[9]
2014 Western AustraliaHayley Miller (Western Australia)[10]
2015 Vic MetroTayla Harris (Queensland) South AustraliaSarah Allan (South Australia)[11]
2016 Vic Metro/ NSW/ACT[12]
2017 Vic CountryMadison Prespakis (Vic Metro)[13]
2018 Vic Country Madison Prespakis (Vic Metro) [14]
Nina Morrison (Vic Country)
2019 Vic MetroGeorgia Patrikios (Vic Metro)[15]
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See also

References
  1. "About the U18 AFL Youth Girls National Championships". AFL Community. SportsTG. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  2. "Youth Girls Vic Metro & Vic Country Restructure". aflvic.com.au. AFL Victoria. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  3. "AFL Youth Girls National Championships 2014 Record" (PDF). Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  4. Flanders, Kris (18 May 2016). "These Indigenous girls are the future stars of AFL". SBS Online. Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  5. Lusted, Peter (3 May 2016). "Professional AFL contracts up for grabs at Youth Girls National Championships". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  6. "Women's Under-18 Championships kick off in Adelaide". AFL.com.au. Telstra Media. 12 May 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  7. Arnold, Caitlin (7 June 2018). "Eastern Allies squad announced for upcoming 2018 NAB AFL Women's Under-18s Champs". aflnswact.com.au. AFL NSW/ACT. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  8. "2018 Under 18s Teams". womens.afl. Telstra Media. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  9. "YOUTH GIRLS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS". AFL Victoria. SportsTG. 2 May 2014. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  10. "2014 U18 AFL Youth Girls National Championships". Western Australian Womens Football League. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  11. "Girls National Championships decided". AFL Media. Telstra Media. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  12. "2016 AFL Youth Girls National Championships Results". AFL Community. SportsTG. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  13. Black, Sarah (14 July 2017). "AFLW U18 wrap: Vic Country, Allies undefeated". AFL Media. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  14. "2018 NAB AFL Women's U18s Fixture & Results". AFL Women's. Archived from the original on 20 September 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  15. Black, Sarah (12 July 2019). "Patrikios crowned player of the U18 Championships". AFL Media. Telstra Media. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
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