Summary

Digital colour image of Layla Murphy handing over her hand-made banner to Museums Victoria Curator Dr Moya McFadzean at Arden Street football ground, North Melbourne, 10 September 2023. The photo was taken by Layla's mother Michelle Murphy.

Layla Murphy plays Aussie Rules in mixed and girls' teams in Swan Hill, and aspires to one day emulate her cousin Ruby Tripodi who plays for the North Melbourne AFLW club and play for the AFLW.

This is one of 20 digital photographs of Layla playing footy in and around Swan Hill and in Melbourne, and at the Arden St and Princes Park football grounds barracking for the North Melbourne AFLW team and her cousin Ruby Tripodi taken between 2021 and 2025. The collection also includes a home-made banner made by Layla and used to support her cousin Ruby in the North Melbourne AFLW match against Carlton at Arden Street Oval North Melbourne on 10 September 2023. The collection also holds Layla's first pair of football boots.

Physical Description

Digital image

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 commenced 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 in 2022), flyers, buttons, posters, cards, a Western Bulldogs guernsey signed by the Western Bulldogs team in 2017, and most recently, Pride and Indigenous Round guernseys worn by Richmond and Geelong Football Club (AFLW) players. The collection holds primarily generic material not tied to a particular personal story making this banner, images and story of a regionally-based supporter and aspiring AFLW player particularly significant.

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