THIS weekend's Toyota AFL Grand Finalists, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, have a history in women's football that extends beyond the NAB AFLW competition.

The two are the pioneer clubs who embraced women's footy in a time when there were only state competitions, with open-age national championships the pinnacle of the sport.

The first AFL-sanctioned exhibition game occurred in May 2013 at the MCG, as part of the then-annual women's round and as a curtain-raiser to the men's Demons-Dogs clash.

Recent Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee Debbie Lee was instrumental in getting the game up and running, as well as former AFL Commissioner Sam Mostyn among others.

A draft was held involving players from around the country (see full list below), with Peta Searle leading the Western Bulldogs and Michelle Cowan taking the reins at Melbourne for the Hampson-Hardeman Cup.

The trophy is named after Barb Hampson and Lisa Hardeman, who developed the women's national championships, and the two teams continue to play for the cup to this day.

As she still does, Daisy Pearce captained Melbourne in that very first game, with Aasta O'Connor skippering the Bulldogs. O'Connor went on to play in the 2018 flag with the Dogs, before finishing her career this year at Geelong.

One-fifth of the 50 players came from VWFL powerhouse Darebin Falcons alone, and there were plenty of familiar faces on the field.

Four of the top-five selections are currently AFLW captains, with Emma Kearney, Ellie Blackburn, Katie Brennan, Alicia Eva and Emma Swanson taking that number out to 10.

Former AFLW captains Katie Loynes, Melissa Hickey, Lauren Arnell and Leah Kaslar also participated in the game, while now-Eagle Kellie Gibson was the youngest to take to the field.

The AFL announced plans to introduce a national women's competition (now AFLW) in 2020, but as the annual exhibition games began to pick up steam, those plans were fast-tracked to 2017.

In hindsight, it was a brilliant move, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic cutting the 2020 season short. The momentum loss of a cancelled inaugural season would have been difficult to regain.

Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs continued to play exhibition matches over the years in the lead-up to the 2017 season.

The exhibition series expanded in 2016 with intrastate matches. South Australia fielded two SANFL representative sides against each other, while local derbies were played between GWS and Sydney, Fremantle and West Coast, and Brisbane and Gold Coast.

The exhibition series culminated in the 2016 edition of the Hampson-Hardeman Cup, played in September during the AFL's bye week before the finals series.

Broadcast live on Channel Seven on a Saturday night, the audience peaked at 1.05 million and was the most-watched game in Melbourne across the entire home and away season.

Moana Hope kicked six goals for the Dogs with Ellie Blackburn feeding her plenty of the footy from the middle, while unsurprisingly, Pearce and Karen Paxman starred for the Dees.

Just five months later, the first AFLW game was played between Carlton and Collingwood at Ikon Park, in front of a crowd so large the gates were locked halfway through the first quarter.

THE 2013 DRAFT