2022 AFL Women's season 6 was the sixth season of theAFL Women's (AFLW) competition, the highest-level seniorwomen's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 14 clubs and ran from 7 January to 9 April, comprising a ten-round home-and-away season followed by a three-week finals series featuring the top six clubs. It was the first of two seasons to take place in the 2022 calendar year, with the competition'sseventh season held from August to November.

Adelaide won thepremiership, defeatingMelbourne by 13 points in the2022 AFL Women's season 6 Grand Final; it was Adelaide's third AFL Women's premiership. Adelaide also won theminor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 9–1 win–loss record.Brisbane'sEmily Bates won theAFL Women's best and fairest award as the league's best and fairest player, and Adelaide'sAshleigh Woodland won theAFL Women's leading goalkicker award as the league's leading goalkicker.

The season was formatted mostly the same as the previous season, with each of the fourteen clubs ranked on a single ladder and the top six teams qualifying for the three-week, single-elimination finals series. The only change was extension of the home-and-away season by an additional round, allowing each team to play 10 matches.^[1] The season was originally planned to start in December 2021, but in August 2021 it was decided to delay this to January 2022 in the hope of minimisingCOVID-19 pandemic interruptions.^[2] This was the last season to be contested by 14 teams, with the four remaining AFL clubs (Essendon,Hawthorn,Port Adelaide andSydney) joining the AFLW competition in 2023.^[3]

The 2022 season was played during the third year of theCOVID-19 pandemic. At the start of the season, the roll-out of Australia's original two-dose vaccination program was almost complete with more than 90% uptake. Across all states except forWestern Australia, most social and interstate travel restrictions which had been in place through the latter half of 2021 had been lifted;^[4] cases of the virus, particularly theomicron variant which became dominant in December 2021, were widespread in the community for the first time in the pandemic; and confirmed cases and their close contacts were still required totest and isolate, although for shorter periods than earlier in the pandemic.^[5] In contrast, Western Australia opened the season with very few virus cases in its community, and with its state borders closed to the rest of Australia, with a planned full reopening date of 5 February 2022 which was later changed to a restricted reopening, with the full reopening indefinitely delayed.^[6]

The main impacts of the pandemic to the AFLW season were:

• The league implemented a Vaccination Policy requiring all players and football department staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19;^[7] equivalent requirements were implemented by some state governments.^[8]
• Fremantle andWest Coast, following a Round 1Western Derby in Fremantle, travelled to Victoria and were based there until the Western Australian borders had their restricted opening.^[9] Late season matches were brought forward into this window to try to minimize the impact of the border restrictions,^[10] while the league received permission for teams to travel into Western Australia for matches after the opening.^[11]
• A match Rescheduling Policy was put in place to allow for a match to be rescheduled, redrawn or cancelled if one of its clubs was unable to field at least 21 players – including at least 16 from its primary list with five train-on players – due to absences from the team.^[12]

All starting times arelocal time. Source:Australian Football

• The leaguebest and fairest was awarded toEmily Bates of theBrisbane Lions, who polled 21 votes.^[29]
• Theleading goalkicker was awarded toAshleigh Woodland ofAdelaide, who kicked 19 goals during the home and away season.^[30]
• TheRising Star was awarded toMimi Hill ofCarlton.^[31]
• The best on ground medal in theAFL Women's Grand Final was won byAnne Hatchard ofAdelaide.^[32]
• The goal of the year was awarded toEbony Antonio ofFremantle.^[33]
• The mark of the year was awarded toTahlia Randall ofNorth Melbourne.^[33]
• AFLW Players Association awards:
  • Themost valuable player was awarded toEmily Bates of theBrisbane Lions.^[34]
  • The most courageous player was awarded toKirsty Lamb of theWestern Bulldogs.^[34]
  • The best captain was awarded toDaisy Pearce ofMelbourne.^[34]
  • The best first year player was awarded toCharlie Rowbottom ofGold Coast.^[34]
• TheAFLW Coaches Association awards:
  • Thechampion player of the year was awarded toEmily Bates of theBrisbane Lions.^[35]
  • The senior coach of the year was awarded toMick Stinear ofMelbourne.^[36]
• Emma Kearney was named captain of theAll-Australian team. Nine of the fourteen clubs had at least one representative in the 21-woman team.^[37]
• Theminor premiership was won byAdelaide.^{[citation needed]}
• Thewooden spoon was "won" byWest Coast.^{[citation needed]}

• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the season's goal kicking tally at the end of that round.
• Numbers underlined indicates the player did not play in that round.

Source:^[39]

• Official AFL Women's website

• 2022 AFL Women's season 6
• AFL Women's seasons
• 2022 in Australian rules football

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