The AFL Commission has announced the approval of more than $5 million in a new investment package for phase one of the 2022 Women and Girls Action Plan.

The action plan will hope to help the league achieve its goal of equal participation and representation by the end of the decade, as outlined in the Women’s Football Vision released in 2021.

The $5 million investment will be delivered over the next three years in addition to the AFL’s $8 million extra investment into community football revealed in December to aide the recovery of grassroots competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically, the action plan will deliver girls-only offerings at every NAB AFL Auskick Centre and deliver all-girls competitions from U9 upwards in every region, as well as an equal gender split of all AFL-run school programs and competitions.

On top of the participation side, the action plan set out clear goals for the development of women coaches, umpires and administrators.

Discussing the investment and the first steps of the action plan, AFL general manager women’s football, Nicole Livingstone, said the growth of women and girls’ participation in Australian football since the launch of the AFLW in 2017 is continuing to surge.

“Football has made incredible progress in developing the game for women and girls at all levels and this action plan is another big step forward,” Livingstone said.

“The Women’s Football Vision set out to make our elite level players the best paid female athletes in domestic sport by end of the decade and as part of that we have increased pay by 94 per cent for the upcoming AFLW Season Seven, which starts in August and will involve all 18 AFL clubs for the first time.

“From a community football perspective, we now have 600,000 women and girls participating in our game and it is important we continue to strengthen participation from NAB AFL Auskick to junior and senior community football in environments that are equally safe and inclusive at all levels.

“This is why we have committed to these actions, to ensure that what we are aspiring to will become reality.

“We want to drive the growth of female football across the board with players, coaches, umpires and administrators,” she said.

AFL executive general manager, Rob Auld, said: “It is a priority for the AFL to continue to create and support more opportunities for women and girls in every part of our game and at all levels, to ensure everyone has a positive experience with Australian football.”

“These actions set out what we are committed to delivering from a participation perspective, to support the AFL’s aspiration of driving equal participation and representation across all levels of community football by 2030…

“The initial $5 million investment for 2023-25, approved by the AFL Commission, underlines our commitment as a code to driving the number of women in our game in every position, at every level.

“It starts in local football where women and girls need to see it to be it,” Auld said.