Australian rules football, is also becoming popular amongst women in Australia and the United States. Many women's leagues also fall into the emerging 9-a-side footy or Metro footy formats. Competitions AFLW National league A national competition backed by the AFL began in 2017. Bids for a licence to participate were submitted by 13 existing AFL teams, with eight teams awarded licences to participate in the inaugural season. All 18 AFL clubs have fielded an AFLW team since the second season of 2022. The competition had been announced in 2008 and was slated to commence in 2013 with four to eight teams, but this was later postponed to 2020 following an AFL Commission review into the state of women's football, while it was also found that both newly admitted clubs, the and , would not have time to submit their bids in full. While a licence had been granted to Fremantle under the umbrella of the Women's Football League in February 2010, due to this review and logistical issues surrounding the admission of the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney to the AFL, this licence was recalled. After the announcement of the foundation of the AFLW in 2017, this licence was reissued to the club. National Championships Women's Football Australia were responsible for the annual AFL Women's National Championship, which ran from 1992 to 2015. After the 2015 edition, the AFL arranged the 2016 Exhibition Series and announced the formation of the AFLW in September 2016: with this, the raison d'etre for the Championship and Women's Football Australia ceased to exist, and they were dissolved. In its history, eleven teams - two from Victoria (a senior team and an under-19s team), and single teams from the ACT, Northern Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, the Australian Defence Force, Queensland, Papua New Guinea and Tasmania - participated, with Victoria winning all of the championships (all but one by their senior team). International competition There was a women's division at the 2008 Australian Football International Cup with Australia, US, Canada and Papua New Guinea competing. There is also International Rules Football with a women's Australia women's international rules football team competing against the Ireland women's international rules football team. The 2006 tour helped to lift the profile of the sport slightly in Australia. The first ever full international was held between the US "Freedom" and Team Canada in Vancouver on Saturday