The AFL has released a stunning plan for women's football in Australia, with the aim of making AFLW players the highest paid female athletes in the country.
The 10-year vision also outlines bold plans to make 50 percent of coaches in the AFLW system female, achieve equal participation and representation in community footy, and have the most engaged audience across any women's sporting competition in Australia.
The 'Women's Football Vision', announced on Wednesday, is striving to achieve these goals by 2030.
The strategic plan does not reveal whether the AFLW season will be moved to the winter to align with the AFL, or if a full-length season played by full-time athletes is a target.
The AFL has also launched a female coaching acceleration program, to help fast-track their development and pathway into the senior coaching ranks.
"Women have been playing football for more than 100 years ... there are countless moments where women have overcome significant barriers to be able to play the game they love and it is a credit to those who paved the way for current and future stars on and off the field," AFL GM of women's football Nicole Livingstone said.
"Our Women's Football Vision is a reflection of the AFL's absolute commitment to continuing to build on the work of those pioneers and to progress Australian football at every level of the game."
Women's football has achieved significant growth since the AFLW's inception in 2017, with more than 200,000 women and girls playing the sport from a community level.
Based on 2019 figures, 10.5 percent of umpires and 6.8 percent of coaches are women.
"We are working towards a future where women's sport continues to be more visible and more valued, where there is equal opportunity for women to play, coach, umpire, administer and govern the game, where talent pathways are visible and well-resourced, where we have 18 teams in high-performance environments and where our AFLW players are the highest paid domestic sportswomen in the country," Livingstone said.
"Five seasons in and our AFLW competition has made great headway, however we have much work to do. Our mission remains to accelerate the growth of the AFLW economy to create greater opportunities on and off the field for our best women players and administrators."
The 2022 AFLW season gets underway when St Kilda hosts Richmond on Friday, Jan. 7.