While the AFL only a week away from celebrating the valuable contributions women continue to make to the national code, the fun for many of the sport’s best female athletes has already begun with the biennial National Women’s Championships underway in Cairns last week.

The code has never been in better shape with record participation numbers attending the championships this year.

In what was already promising to be an exciting Division One format for Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, Arafura has brought an entirely new dynamic to the Division Two circuit with players from the Northern Territory, Far North Queensland and Papua New Guinea participating for the first time.

For AFL’s General Manager National and International Development Andrew Dillon, the Women’s titles will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase the country’s best female football talent.

“More than 136,000 females play Australian football which represents the AFL’s highest growth segment.

“The standard of play is at very high and I look forward to see if Victoria can defend their title,” he told aflq.com.au.

The Victorians will be hoping to reclaim the bragging rights after taking out the 2011 carnival by defeating Western Australian in Adelaide.

The 2013 Division One Grand Fine will be played at 4:20pm Saturday 22 June at Cazaly’s Stadium, with the best player of the carnival to receive the honorary Debbie Lee Medal.

The inaugural Melissa Backhouse Medal will also be presented to the most outstanding rising star player of the carnival.

Fixture and result details are available here

Matches played at Cazaly Stadium will be live streamed at this here

Follow the championships on twitter: #aflkicksforchicks and for quarter by quarter scores @kicksforchicks