IT MIGHT be 'Australia's game', but more than 17,000km away from the sport's heartland, Australian football has been growing steadily in Europe, with one tournament in particular turning heads.
And it's an entirely women's footy event.
In line with International Women's Day on March 8, 10 women's teams from across Europe descended upon Stade de la Grenouillère in Antony, France last weekend for the ninth iteration of the Gallia Cup – a round-robin, nine-a-side competition.
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Starting in 2017, the Gallia Cup was created by women in Paris who wanted to play more footy. With the French national women's league still two years away from starting, the Paris Cockerelles organised a one-off game against the North London Lionesses, and the event grew each year to become the thriving tournament it is today.
Now featuring more than 150 players and officials, the tournament brought together women from across France, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Poland to take part in Europe's biggest women's footy event.
The recently appointed general manager of AFL Europe, Jay Treloar, has lived in the UK for 21 years and despite his previous experience at the North London Lions as both a club president and coach, he hasn't seen anything quite like it.
"For my first experience of the Gallia Cup, to say I was impressed is an understatement. It was really fantastic and quite easily the biggest all-female tournament in AFL Europe," Treloar said.
"This tournament is a great platform for us to say, 'Well it's here. Football is happening and football is really exciting and a great opportunity for female participants.'
"And there's great opportunities for female players to get along and play in addition to their regular leagues. In addition to the Champions League, we run the Euro Cup where people get the chance to represent their country. This type of tournament brings more excitement to the game and gives it a bit more credibility and validity."
Women currently make up just over 30 per cent of total participation in AFL Europe but the sport is not only gaining credibility amongst female players – women's teams are paving the way for Australian football in Europe to be taken more seriously in general, contributing to an increase in overall club participation.
"I can speak to that from having been a club president… [The North London Lions] experienced a huge growth in recruitment (with a women's team)," Treloar said.
"We went from sort of having three men's grades to having three strong men's grades to all three grades competing because we were recruiting more players. When the female participants were coming, they were bringing friends… it's brought a really fantastic, inclusive dynamic to the community.
"There are three or four (European) countries trying to get their women's international teams either up and running for the first time or get them back up and running since COVID, again, because they all recognise the benefit of having female participants.
"It just grows the game naturally with just pure numbers, but also it gives it a greater perception in the local community of being an inclusive environment.
"[It shows] it's actually a legitimate football club, a legitimate sporting club, a legitimate community to become involved in."
President of the Paris Cocks Australian Football Club (and Paris Cockerelles midfielder), Joséphine Vidonne says it was that inclusive environment that saw her fall in love with the sport, despite never attending an AFL or AFLW match in her life.
"It's really random for me because I've never been to Australia. I want to go. It's on my bucket list, but I haven't been," Vidonne said.
"A colleague of mine was playing, and she invited me to a training. I went and I just fell in love because I fell in love with the sport, with the atmosphere and the good vibes from the Australians and you know, it's very complete. I just loved it and now I'm the president of the club."
Alongside Antony Blues president Alessandro Systermans, Vidonne is in her second year as the volunteer host of the Gallia Cup. As the tournament grows each year, she hopes the event will attract more players to each country's respective championship league.
"The fact that we had so many players coming to a dedicated event and saying they loved it, it's shown that it's very important for everyone to showcase that not only guys play footy, but also women. And it really developed a very strong feeling of sorority in the girls in their own team and even between the teams," Vidonne said.
"We actually travel a lot (to play) but I want to see the championship growing, and more teams getting involved. And we are hoping that footy is going to be at the Olympics in (Brisbane) 2032 so it will raise a bit of awareness about the sport and help us recruiting players … it would be so cool. Finally, I can tell people that I meet that I play a sport that is at the Olympics, and they won't need to ask me about a sport they've never heard before.
"Here in France, it's very unknown so I try to explain the rules. I try to show them some videos. Everyone thinks it's very strange and very impressive as well because of all the jumping, the marks, the speccies."
Despite it still being a relatively unique sport for French native Vidonne to play, she's not alone. Their Paris Cockerelles team for the Gallia Cup was made up of mainly French women … and one Aussie.
"The girls we get in a team in France are mostly rugby players or soccer players," she said.
"It would be good to recruit some basketball players for the ruck, because we are very a small team in terms of height. But yeah, soccer and rugby are the main back grounds of players.
"Probably the teams from London have the most (Australians), but for Paris, we only had one, actually, and all the rest of the team was French."
This year's Gallia Cup saw an increase of participation from six teams in 2025, to 10 this year.
Treloar says the overwhelming success of the tournament could open the door for a larger scale event for its 10-year anniversary in 2027.
"I think what this year has demonstrated, with the right amount of effort put in, getting some sponsors on board we can probably turn it up to make it even bigger again," he said.
"I think there's a real argument for it now to say, well, this deserves a lot of attention and a lot of support, but also hopefully something that we're working on more centrally in Europe is some genuine investment. We're looking for commercial support outside of the grants that we've received from AFL headquarters.
"I think it definitely deserves that, that planning from now to next year, because it demonstrated that it can really become one of the trophy events of our calendar."
The Gallia Cup is just one piece of the puzzle to get more eyes on AFL in Europe, with each club across the continent opening their doors to showcase their sport.
"I think for us, one of the biggest currencies we can have at the moment is awareness," Treloar said.
"Just that people know that footy exists over here, but not just that it exists, that it exists so broadly and that there's so many people playing.
"You can go to Switzerland, there's five clubs in Switzerland now; you can go to Poland, there are multiple clubs in Poland. You can go to Denmark, to Sweden, to Austria, to Czech Republic.
"I think the (Gallia) Cup itself is a real reflection on the passion that non-Australians had for our game, because it's come from people who aren't Australian, but it has come from people who have experienced stuff in Australia, that they've fallen in love with our game and brought it back to their home countries.
"Follow the various countries online, follow the clubs online, find a favourite club if you're coming over for a holiday. Visit, have a kick, join a social event. Everyone here operates an open-door policy and everyone's always welcome. It's a really inclusive and welcoming and friendly community."