A Brief History of the Tasmanian Women's League
The Tasmanian Women’s Football League was formed in Tamania in 2007 by Vanessa Mayer and Toni O’Bree.
Through newspaper articles, and word of mouth Toni was able to form a team in Launceston (affiliated with the Launceston Football Club) and Vanessa was able to form a team in Hobart (affiliated with the Clarence Football Club).
Both teams developed their skills through weekly training sessions and on 30 June 2007 the first game of women’s footy was played in Tasmania at the half time break of the Tasmanian Devils game at Bellerive Oval. A second game was played in Launceston in July 2007.
In 2008, Launceston and Clarence played a 6 game roster, the result of which saw the first TASWAFL Premiership awarded to Clarence.
Through the encouragement and support of the Launceston girls, by the end of 2007, a women’s team was emerging at the East Devonport FC. By 2008, although not part of the 6 game rosters, the newly formed East Devonport Women’s team played three scratch matches against Launceston and Clarence.
In 2009 the Tasmanian Women’s league developed considerably with the introduction of a third team in East Devonport as well as scratch matches against a team from Spreyton. The roster was formalised and expanded to a 12 game fixture, with a Grand Final for the top 2 teams, played at Pontville Oval in September and again won by Clarence. Official umpires were used at most games, the Footy Web system and a player report process was introduced, and the league was given an official logo.
Interest in women’s footy grew significantly throughout 2009, and by 2010 TASWAFL was a six team State wide competition, with North Hobart, Spreyton and Yeoman all joining the fixture. After a hard fought top 4 final series, Launceston were victors, winning their first Premiership.
In 2013 Lauderdale joined the renamed and rebadged TWL making it a 7 team competition; Spreyton aligned to the Devonport Football Club, and Yeoman aligned to the Burnie Dockers. Clarence took home the silverware and Jessica Wuetschner was awarded both the League B&F and Goalkicking medal for the third consecutive year.
In 2017, the Tasmanian Sate League Women's (TSL W) competition was formed to be the premier women's competition in Tasmania. Underpinning the TSL W are regional compeitions, TWL North West & TWL North. The SFL now manage their own regional women's comeption, Southern Football League Women's (SFL W)
