Summary

One of a pair of pink Australian Rules football boots with black laces which belonged to Layla Murphy and worn by her in her early football matches in and around Swan Hill, 2021-23. Layla also wore these boots at an Aus Kick session at Marvel Stadium on 15 May 2021 and she finally stopped wearing them in 2023 when she grew out of them. Layla purchased the boots with her father at Sportspower in Swan Hill along with a clear mouthguard.

The boots relates to a placard and 20 digital images (including one of Layla wearing the boots) to tell the story of a young girl's experiences playing Australian Rules in Swan Hill in regional Victoria and her support for her North Melbourne AFLW-playing cousin Ruby Tripodi. Layla Murphy plays Aussie Rules in mixed and girls' teams in Swan Hill, and aspires to one day emulate her cousin Ruby and play for the AFLW. Ruby played in the premiership team in 2025 and the Murphy family were present.

Physical Description

Left pink lace-up football boot, SFIDA Hyper-Lite, size US 3, synthetic studded soles and uppers with signs of dirt on uppers.

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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