Caley Ryan, 12, can now share the AFL dreams of her male counterparts. Credit:Jason South These will be teams we already know, only unveiled in a fashion and combination never previously seen. At this game-changing announcement – to be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, no less – the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne will be front and centre for sure. Collingwood will almost certainly be there too, and perhaps Richmond, or – if not – one of Geelong, North Melbourne, Carlton or St Kilda. Guaranteed to be involved from beyond the borders of Victoria are the Giants, Brisbane and Adelaide. It's expected Fremantle will be confirmed as having edged out cross-town rival West Coast in their particularly competitive battle to win a place.

From 2017, women will play in a new AFL-sanctioned, AFL-supported national competition. They will wear the same jumpers, play on the same fields, sing the same club songs and share the same club headquarters as Robert Murphy, Jeremy Cameron, Eddie Betts, Tom Rockliff and Jesse Hogan. Overnight, your local girl Auskicker has won the opportunity to become a 200-game AFL legend. She now stands to be applauded – and awarded – for her feats on field in a way that men around Australia have for decades. She now stands to earn a living from pursuing sport as a full-time career.

Women, from 2017, will be crowned AFL Brownlow medallists, or a more appropriately named equivalent prize for being their competition's best player. Women will be named in AFL All-Australian teams. They will be AFL club captains. Their kicks, marks and handballs will be broadcast on television and on radio. They will win sponsorships. In elite sporting surrounds they will be professionally coached and groomed. The breakthrough offers opportunities for the likes of 12-year-old Caley Ryan. Caley picked up AFL full time this year, for the Beaumaris Football Club, but to do so she had to drop her first love - dancing.



The budding midfielder's favourite part of AFL is tackling, she says. "You can't do that in dancing," her father, Craig Ryan, says.

Caley's three older brothers all play for the Sharks, and in a few years will be of drafting age. The launch of the women's AFL competition means Caley can share their dreams. First bounce in what will begin as a two-month season – which will steadily grow - is pencilled in for February. The AFL, at long last, joins soccer, cricket and Olympic sports in not merely saying women athletes deserve this stage, but giving it to them. Just a click into his second year as the code's chief executive, this is a legacy moment for Gillon McLachlan. It's something the AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, on the tail end of his time steering the league, can take with him. Both men can - and surely will on Wednesday - thank the AFL's first female commissioner, Sam Mostyn, who recently stepped aside from that role, for helping them see women's footy first-hand so they could understand and believe what is possible. Since bringing the AFL women's competition launch forward from the original 2020 vision, McLachlan has clearly delighted in declaring the time of "revolution".