The 2026 VFL Women's season was the tenth season of the VFL Women's (VFLW), the state-level senior women's Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season began on 16 May and concluded with the grand final on 20 September.
Background League membership In September 2025, the Australian Football League (AFL) announced that the Tasmania Football Club would join the VFL Women's in 2026, thereby increasing the number of teams in the competition to 13. Tasmania will field a senior women's team in the VFLW in 2026 and 2027, before graduating to the AFL Women's (AFLW) in 2028, upon which it is expected to field a reserve women's team in the VFLW. Though a Tasmanian team played in the Victorian Football League (VFL) men's competition from 2001 to 2008, this marked the first time a Tasmanian team had competed in the VFLW.
Fixture dates The competition calendar was shifted for the second consecutive season, with the league to be played between May and September, as opposed to between April and August. In announcing the change, Jennie Loughnan, the AFL's head of state league competitions, said "the decision to push back the VFLW season dates ensures more crossover with the NAB AFLW competition." The fixture dates were confirmed on 11 February 2026. This was the first occasion in which the VFLW grand final was held on the same weekend as the VFL men's grand final. Though the top six teams still qualified for the finals series, the format of the series was altered, with two elimination finals (3rd vs 6th and 4th vs 5th) held in the first week, followed by the preliminary finals hosted by the top two teams in the second week (1st vs lowest-ranked elimination finals winner and 2nd vs highest-ranked elimination finals winner), and the grand final between the two preliminary finals winners in the third week.
Broadcast arrangements As per previous seasons, each VFLW game was made available for live streaming on the AFL website and official app. In addition, expansion side Tasmania had their first six home matches broadcast on the Seven Network and their streaming platform 7plus, marking the first occasion that VFLW games (outside of past grand finals) have been broadcast on free-to-air television.
Clubs Venues and affiliations Club Home venue(s) Capacity AFLW affiliation Box Hill City Oval 10,000 IKON Park 13,000 Casey Fields 9,000 Victoria Park 10,000 Preston City Oval 5,000 NEC Hangar 3,500 Windy Hill 10,000 Deakin University 10,000 Arden Street Oval 4,000 Avalon Airport Oval 8,000 ETU Stadium 6,000 WS Trevor Barker Beach Oval 6,000 North Hobart Oval 11,135 rowspan=3; UTAS Stadium 17,000 Dial Park 3,000 Mission Whitten Oval 10,000 DSV Stadium 6,000
Coach appointments Incomplete list New coach Club Date of appointment Previous coach Georgia Walker 24 November 2025 N/A
Home-and-away season Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 15
Round 16
Ladder
Finals series Elimination finals
Preliminary finals
Grand Final
Awards Lambert–Pearce Medal (league best and fairest): Emily Eaves () – 21 votes Rohenna Young Medal (leading goalkicker): Mia Zielinski () – 32 goals Debbie Lee Medal (rising star): Stella Huxtable () Coaches MVP: Ava Seton () – 76 votes
Team of the Year
Club best and fairest + Club Winner Kayley Kavanagh Hannah Scott Octavia Di Donato Meg MacDonald Dominique Carbone Lucy Marescuk Georgia Foran Charlotte Taylor Ellie Bishop Emily Eaves
Representative match For the second consecutive season, an interstate representative match was arranged against the SANFL Women's League (SANFLW). As was the case with the 2025 fixture, the match was timed to coincide with the AFL's Gather Round fixtures in Adelaide. The match was held as part of a double-header with the equivalent men's interstate match.
See also 2026 VFL season
References
External links
2026 VFLW season at VFLW Stats