Summary

Bumper sticker for the AFL Women's competition North Melbourne Season 8 2023 club members. The sticker was distributed to North Melbourne supporters at the Grand Final match played between North Melbourne and Brisbane Lions at Princes Park on 3 December 2023. The sticker was collected by the curator at Princes Park Football Ground. The sticker features the blue and white colours of the club with images of three players, the club logo and the words 'Greater Than Season 8 AFLW Member'. Brisbane defeated North Melbourne 7.2 (44 points) to 4.3 (27 points) to win the premiership.

This is part of a group of AFLW paper-based ephemera collected at four matches during the 2023 AFLW Home and Away and Finals series and the Grand Final 2023. The items were either being distributed to fans by club officials, the result of purchase (the tickets and footy records) or found items discarded by fans.

Physical Description

Long thin sticker with blue and white colour scheme, images of players and text, with a peel back reverse side for adhering.

Significance

This item is part of a collection documenting the Australian Football League Women's competition, which was launched on 3 February 2017. This was an event of enormous historical significance - while women have been recorded as playing professional competition Australian Rules football since the early 20th century, and the AFL finally supported the introduction of two demonstration matches (Melbourne and Western Bulldogs) in 2015-16, the 2017 competition marked the first offically recognised and supported competition by the AFL. In 2023, the season commences in September, with 14 rounds including ten home and away matches and four finals.

The Museum's AFLW collection is a work in progress, and includes: footy records (which ceased printed production for home and away seasons in 2022), flyers, buttons, posters, cards, a Western Bulldogs guernsey signed by the Western Bulldogs team in 2017, Pride and Indigenous Round guernseys worn by Richmond and Geelong Football Club (AFLW) players; and a fan banner, images and story of a regionally-based supporter and aspiring AFLW player.

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