As the AFLW enters its 18-club era, the record-breaking numbers could speak for themselves: There were 48,000 AFLW members in season six, more than 1 million people attending matches since the league's inception, and 600,000 women and girls now playing footy across Australia.
However — while the ever-tumbling records are evidence of the investment and commitment from players, coaches, and administrators — when it comes to the AFLW those raw numbers are only part of the story.
Fans have taken a surprising approach to supporting the AFLW, eschewing the traditional rules of fandom that stipulate devotion to one club, and finding joy in a footy league that is both familiar and different in all the important ways.
Jomo Kigotho is one such fan whose interest in the league goes beyond one-eyed support of his original AFL club, St Kilda.
As well as St Kilda, he holds AFLW memberships with Carlton, North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.
When he found himself attending matches all over Melbourne, Kigotho decided it made sense to sign up as an AFLW member of several clubs.
As a fan of footy, first and foremost, it was the opportunity to see more of the sport throughout the year that originally attracted him, but the environment at matches has kept him returning.
Kigotho describes himself as "a brown guy" and says stories of racism in men's footy have affected his engagement with the sport.
On top of that, with women only just starting to play the game professionally, Kigotho feels a lot of people in the crowd at an AFLW match have been excluded at some stage or another.
"If feels a bit more welcoming, because they kind of get that," he said.
Opportunities to return to the game
As a proud member of five AFLW clubs, Fearn Harrison just pips Kigotho at the membership post.
A Collingwood die-hard since childhood, Harrison experienced a home invasion in 2012 that left her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
It meant the end of her time as a passionate barracker in the outer.
"I wouldn't go to the men's games anymore, because I didn't feel safe and lost a lot of trust in men," Harrison said.
When the AFLW launched and Collingwood were granted an inaugural licence, she finally saw an opportunity to return to watching elite footy without triggering her trauma.
She became one of Collingwood's first foundation AFLW members and has been their biggest supporter since.
Without forgetting her Magpie family, Harrison has been collecting AFLW memberships along the way. She considers the AFLW unique for the way fans can get to know the footballers personally.
As players left Collingwood to join expansion teams, or her favourite VFLW players got picked up by AFLW clubs, Harrison decided to support them all by taking out memberships of their new clubs.
She's now an AFLW member of St Kilda, GWS, North Melbourne, and Hawthorn in addition to Collingwood.
Just a few years after nearly being lost to the game altogether, Harrison is somewhat of a celebrity in the AFLW community, for her passionate support of players across the league. She also serves as the AFLW Representative on the committee of the AFL Fans Association.
Multi-club members the new style of footy fan
Multi-members like Kigotho and Harrison are part of a trend of AFLW supporters who are less tied to an individual club, and more invested in individual players or women's footy as a whole.
The league and clubs have been slow to catch on to the phenomenon. The ABC spoke to five AFL clubs who said they don't collect data on whether club members are also members of another club.
Kigotho confirmed that he wasn't asked about other memberships when he signed up with any of his teams.
Clubs also have limited data on how many members have switched from an AFLM membership to an AFLW membership, rather than holding both.
Two fans whose allegiances have switched exactly as described are Andy Pullar and Andrew Dower.
'I hadn't experienced sport like that'
Pullar became a supporter of the Collingwood men's team when he was dragged along to a match by a cheer squad-member friend. He was soon a loyal fan, attending matches often, but struggled to reconcile the love of his club with troubling things occurring off-field.
"I had to look past, or turn a blind eye to, a lot of things that felt really wrong with it," Pullar said, mentioning drink driving and sexual assault allegations against players, and systemic racism within the club.
As a trans man, Pullar didn't know what he was missing before the AFLW started, but now has little interest in returning to men's matches.
"Now that I have experienced [the atmosphere at AFLW matches], it's really difficult to go back," he said.
"Now that I do know that there is actually a much more pleasant way to experience it."
"Particularly the environment of queer people in the crowd. I hadn't really experienced sport like that. And just that feeling of safety and the unspoken acceptance of not having to feel uncomfortable, not having to hide anything, just purely being myself was such a draw card."
Pullar sees his own identity and experiences reflected in the players and supporters of a league featuring many proud, queer footballers.
"When Darcy [Vescio] came out as non-binary, I'm just like, 'Oh, there's one of me except they're on cereal boxes and stuff'," he said.
This sense of inclusion is reinforced by the league's celebration of a Pride round each season, in which all teams wear a specially designed guernsey.
Playing with heart and soul
Andrew Dower was a Carlton fan of old, growing up in Melbourne. When he moved to Queensland 15 years ago, he lost interest in the game.
Then, in 2019, a friend's daughter was drafted to Geelong and Dower fronted up for the new-look Cats' practice match against Brisbane.
"At that game, I was really blown away by the intensity and the determination and the fierceness of the players," Dower said.
"It reminded me of country football, where people play with their heart and their soul."
He hasn't missed a Brisbane women's home match since.
It was the on-field grit of the players that originally attracted Dower, but he also feels that the environment at an AFLW match is more welcoming.
"You've got a big group of people going to women's games who haven't grown up with a footy background or don't know much about it. I think, for someone who's never supported AFL, men's or women's, it's easier for them to attend a women's game and feel like they're part of the community."
Much of what fans such as Dower love best about the AFLW — the ability to build connections with players after training and matches, the personality the footballers show on social media and in interviews, and the community feel of smaller crowds at local grounds — are emblematic of a fledgling league.
As the push for full professionalisation of the AFLW gathers steam, elements of the supporter experience are bound to change. However, the inclusive environment that staunch fans have built is worth protecting.
It's brought diehards such as Harrison back from the brink.
"The AFLW is different. I feel safe. I feel happy. I can be myself," she said.
ABC Sport is partnering with Siren Sport to elevate the coverage of Australian women in sport.
Louise Scarce is a lawyer and writer living in Naarm/Melbourne. She’s written about sport for VICE, Junkee, and The Telegraph in the UK.
