{"id":7167,"date":"2026-08-01T03:15:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/?page_id=7167"},"modified":"2026-08-01T13:12:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T03:12:30","slug":"our-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/our-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Our History"},"content":{"rendered":"

The TL;DR Version<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Established in 2014, Women\u2019s Australian Rules Football Radio (WARF Radio<\/strong>) is a broadcaster of women\u2019s Australian rules football matches at state, national and international matches, having broadcast live almost 500 matches as of late 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Detailed History<\/h1>\n

The initial idea of WARF Radio began back in April 2013 when 3WBC\u2019s VFL play-by-play caller\u00a0Peter Holden<\/strong>\u00a0received a late in the week phone call, asking him if he could pair up with then SEN1116 reporter Anthony Laughton and provide commentary to the video stream of the annual ANZAC Day eve match between the VWFL All-Stars and the Australian Defence Force.<\/p>\n

Researching for the call, Holden discovered the Victorian Women\u2019s Football League (VWFL) were live video streaming their games every one to two weeks, but most matches would be without commentary \u2013 thus a seed of an idea was planted.<\/p>\n

However, during the summer of 2013\/14 the VWFL would hand control of its competition over to AFL Victoria, and operating initially with limited resources, it was then deemed financially best to wind-back the video streaming.<\/p>\n

It was May 2014 though when a chance meeting would lead the creation of the then named \u201cVWFL Radio<\/em>\u201c.<\/p>\n

Following a Box Hill v Port Melbourne 3WBC VFL match broadcast, former Geelong-based VFL commentator\u00a0Daniel Hill<\/strong>\u00a0would catch up with Holden in the Box Hill social rooms, expressing a willingness to call football again, since his relocation to Melbourne\u2019s Eastern suburbs. After a few beers the decision was made; Holden would go out and purchase the broadcast equipment (and acquire some soon to be thrown out headsets from 3WBC) and the duo would begin commentating the VWFL from the following month.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The first ever match broadcast by VWFL Radio, with Holden and Hill on commentary, would be the Round 6 Premier Division match between Melbourne University and Darebin on Sunday June 15th 2014. For the record, Darebin won by 49 points, with future Western Bulldogs, and then Richmond, AFLW captain Katie Brennan being adjudged \u2018Best on Ground\u2019 for her three goal effort \u2013 winning herself a $50 Pancake Parlour voucher (the prizes also coming out of Holden\u2019s back pocket)!<\/p>\n

Throughout 2014, the then VWFL Radio would broadcast VWFL Matches across the Premier Division, as well as Divisions 1, 2 and 3, taking themselves and their equipment (almost always on public transport) to community grounds all over Melbourne. The new women\u2019s football commentary team would also have the honour of calling at (the then) Etihad Stadium, broadcasting the 2014 AFL Women\u2019s Exhibition Match. Two AFL International Cup women\u2019s matches were also covered in the debut year.<\/p>\n

Joining the commentary team across the season would be future SEN and Channel 7 AFLW Play-by-Play Caller\u00a0Jo Wotton<\/strong>, future AAP Sports Journalist\u00a0Anna Harrington<\/strong>, future AFL Executive General Manager\u00a0Laura Kane<\/strong>, AFL Victoria\u2019s\u00a0Darren Flanigan<\/strong>, Eastern Devils footballer\u00a0Olivia Crowe<\/strong>, Melbourne University footballer\u00a0Ash Bye<\/strong>\u00a0and soon to become permanent members of the WARF Radio team,\u00a0Katie Lambeski<\/strong>\u00a0and future SEN Play-by-Play Caller\u00a0Matthew Cocks<\/strong>. The season would conclude with VWFL Radio providing commentary for the video stream of all six VWFL divisions\u2019 Grand Finals at Coburg City Oval.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Prior to the 2015 VWFL season, Holden and Hill made the decision to move the volunteer operation from the semi-independent \u2018VWFL Radio\u2019 and align themselves with independent women\u2019s football website Girls Play Footy.<\/p>\n

The move saw the commentary team re-brand to \u2018Girls Play Footy Radio<\/em>\u2018 and in February of that year, Holden launch the \u2018Girls Play Footy Podcast\u2019. Members of the radio team would also then begin to contribute to the Girls Play Footy site, eventually leading to more than 17,000 Facebook followers and almost 8,000 Twitter followers for the brand.<\/p>\n

The 2015 season would see the radio coverage focus solely on the Premier Division of the VWFL, with Cocks becoming a more permanent presence alongside Holden in the call, as well as the debuts of future GWS Giants footballer\u00a0Tanya Hetherington<\/strong>\u00a0and then Morphettville Park (SAWFL) footballer\u00a0Kristy Williams<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Along with the VWFL coverage, two AFL Women\u2019s Exhibition Matches would be covered, the VWFL All Stars v ADF match and two senior women\u2019s interstate matches \u2013 including one at Subiaco, where Holden along with WA footballers\u00a0Ashlea Renshaw<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Julie Nichols\u00a0<\/strong>would witness Western Australia become the first state to defeat Victoria in senior women\u2019s football.<\/p>\n

One of the technical highlights of the year, would see the team split across two grounds for the final round, calling the St Kilda Sharks v Eastern Devils match, while providing live crosses to Melbourne University v Diamond Creek. The final four would be decided in the dying seconds of both matches!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2016 saw the creation of the Victorian Football League Women\u2019s competition (VFLW) with the previous year\u2019s six VWFL Premier Division teams and the top four VWFL Division One teams taking part.<\/p>\n

Kristy Williams relocation to Melbourne would see her join the commentary team as a permanent member, while CDFNL Play-by-Play caller\u00a0Max Blake<\/strong>\u00a0joined to help cover Geelong-based matches.<\/p>\n

In the competition\u2019s debut year the team called the first ever draw (Melbourne University v St Kilda), the Knox Falcons\u2019 only win of the year, and the moment future Collingwood & North Melbourne AFLW footballer Moana Hope kicked her 100th goal of the season.\u200b<\/p>\n

The \u2018Girls Play Footy Radio\u2019 coverage would again go interstate, with Holden joining future Fox Footy AFLW commentator\u00a0Jessica\u00a0Webster\u00a0<\/strong>and future Brisbane Lions AFLW Premiership coach\u00a0Craig\u00a0Starcevich\u00a0<\/strong>in calling the Queensland Women\u2019s Australian Football League Grand Final.<\/p>\n

In October, Holden would fly over to the United States and team up with USAFL Media Manager (and Podcast Reporter)\u00a0Brian\u00a0Barrish<\/strong>, to provide live coverage of every single women\u2019s match across both divisions at the USAFL Nationals in Lakewood Ranch, Florida.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The following year was the most historic for women\u2019s football, with the debut of the AFL Women\u2019s competition. \u2018Girls Play Footy Radio\u2019 was fortunate enough to be permitted to broadcast the practice match between Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs, two weeks prior to the AFLW opening round.<\/p>\n

During the AFLW season, a call was put out for more volunteers to join the team. Answering the call was Melbourne University footballer\u00a0Nimah Felton<\/strong>, 3RRR presenter\u00a0Andrew Donnison<\/strong>, future SEN Digital Content Coordinator\u00a0Nic Negrepontis<\/strong>, and future ABC Sport broadcaster and AFL.com.au journalist\u00a0Lucy Watkin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

2017 also saw the beginning of a new partnership, with the then \u2018Girls Play Footy Radio\u2019 reaching a handshake agreement with RSN927 for both the podcast (mid-week show) and live VFLW coverage to air on their DAB+ Digital Radio Channel \u2018Carnival\u2019. The first VFLW game to air on Carnival was the Round 2 match between Geelong and Seaford in Ocean Grove, and as result of the VFLW coverage being carried on digital radio, each match featured a one hour pre-game show \u2013 something not matched then or since by any of the official AFLW broadcasters.<\/p>\n

The season also saw the departure of all bar two of the original community clubs from the top tier of Victorian senior women\u2019s football, consigning them to history, but thankfully some of their finest moments called and archived by our team.<\/p>\n

Holden, Cocks, Watkin and Barrish also provided commentary for the 2017 AFL International Cup coverage, as well as the USA Liberty\u2019s tour of Melbourne. To round out the year, the USAFL Nationals were again covered, with more than a dozen women\u2019s matches recorded for YouTube.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2018 saw the doubling of the team\u2019s AFLW practice match coverage, calling Collingwood v Melbourne at Olympic Park Oval and the Western Bulldogs v Carlton in Ballarat.<\/p>\n

However, with the eventual closure of the Girls Play Footy site, a new name was required for the volunteer team and in April the name\u00a0Women\u2019s Australian Rules Football Radio<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 or WARF Radio for short \u2013 was chosen. A new name also meant a hard road ahead, having to start all social media presence essentially from scratch and also having to introduce the women\u2019s footy community to a new brand, after more than three years under the previous identity.<\/p>\n

It was not all gloom, as the standard of commentary went up another level with the introduction of future Herald-Sun NAB League Girls\u2019 live stream commentator\u00a0Sasha Dougherty<\/strong>, future Kayo Sports WNBL and AFL.com.au broadcaster\u00a0Julia Montesano,\u00a0<\/strong>plus\u00a0Sydney women\u2019s football legend\u00a0Lisa Roper.<\/strong>\u00a0The season also saw Lucy Watkin make the step up from Match Analyst to Play-by-Play caller, while the Grand Final call featured six women as part of the day\u2019s seven member calling team.<\/p>\n

It was a big year for the Women\u2019s Australian Rules Football Podcast, with its first ever outside broadcast at The Footy Almanac\u2019s Women\u2019s Footy Pie Night, plus the airing of the 100th Episode \u2013 a special featuring the founders of the Sydney Women\u2019s AFL, WAWFL and SAWFL. In our third year of the assisting the coverage of the USAFL Nationals, the Women\u2019s Division One final was aired on ESPN3.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The year kicked off with a double-header coverage of the 2019 AFLW practice matches, with Carlton v Geelong at Princes Park and the Western Bulldogs v Collingwood in Ballarat covered live.\u200b<\/p>\n

A handshake agreement was also reached with new online broadcaster GoFooty.Live to carry their coverage of Geelong VFLW matches, with almost 50 VFL Women\u2019s matches broadcast on digital radio in Melbourne. The year also saw the debut of women\u2019s footy legend\u00a0Nicole Graves<\/strong>\u00a0(just after her stint as Carlton AFLW General Manager), future ABC Grandstand Match Analyst\u00a0Meg Hutchins<\/strong>, future RookieMe Central journalist\u00a0Alyce Collett\u00a0<\/strong>and future 1116 SEN Overnights Host\u00a0Paul Sebastiani<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After Collingwood defeated the Western Bulldogs for the VFLW Premiership, Peter Holden jumped on a plane to re-join Brian Barrish in Florida to commentate the USAFL Nationals\u2019 two Women\u2019s Divisions, with the Division One Grand Final again shown on ESPN3.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then in 2020, the Coronavirus Pandemic would turn the world as we know it upside-down. As a result, the entire 2020 VFLW season would be scrapped.<\/p>\n

Despite no football for WARF Radio\u2019s commentators to call in person, the Women\u2019s Australian Rules Football Podcast continued producing episodes week-after-week, talking to women who were playing the game (until COVID-19 hit), all around the world.<\/p>\n

There were a number of notable episodes, including with those who had recently retired from playing in the AFLW, to an interview with an AFLW coach who had been let go due to budget cuts.<\/p>\n

In November of 2020, Holden was invited to be a speaker\/mentor for the \u2018Making the Call\u2019 pilot program, which initially aimed to introduce more women to art of live football broadcasting.<\/p>\n

The 2021 year began with a bump in the road, with the RSN927-WARF Radio handshake agreement coming to an end. However, as one door closed, another opened, with the AFL (now in control of the VFLW) electing to increase the number of VFLW video streamed games, with almost all taking the WARF Radio commentary.<\/p>\n

More members were added to the commentary team, including Physiotherapist\u00a0Lowana Williams<\/strong>, EDFL footballer\u00a0Sophie Fazzolari<\/strong>, journalism student\u00a0James Halley<\/strong>\u00a0and future ABC Sport AFLW broadcaster\u00a0Lauren Bordin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Julia Montesano returned to the team and stepped-up to become a play-by-play caller. On a sad note, after seven seasons and more than 200 episodes (including a special with one of the VWFL founders), the Women\u2019s Australian Rules Football Podcast came to an end, with Holden pointing to ever increasing shift work demands.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 would continue to mess with Victorian football, with multiple lockdowns disrupting the regular season fixture and in the end seeing the cancellation of the 2021 VFLW Grand Final, which would have been played between Collingwood and Geelong.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In 2022, WARF Radio expanded yet again, adding Casey Radio play-by-play caller\u00a0Brent Sternberg<\/strong>, former VFA footballer\u00a0Allan Mathews<\/strong>, future 10 News First Melbourne reporter\u00a0Sam Mills<\/strong>, and sports journalism students\u00a0Toby Hansen<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Ethan Wright<\/strong>. Later in the season, the crew would also be joined by Williamstown VFLW captain\u00a0Erin Meade<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The exposure of our commentators grew even more, with a separate \u201cB Kit\u201d being created, allowing (at one stage) up to four matches a weekend to called.<\/p>\n

However, with prospect of all VFLW games being streamed on AFL.com.au the following season (with the assumption WARF Radio callers would be poached) and a change in personal circumstances for Holden, a decision was made before the 2022 VFLW Grand Final for this to be the last WARF Radio produced VWFL\/VFLW broadcast. The Grand Final call team consisted of Brent Sternberg and Paul Sebastiani (Play-by-Play), Alex Docherty and Katie Lambeski (Match Analysts), Alyce Collett and Allan Mathews (Boundary Riders), with Peter Holden as Producer.<\/p>\n

The (then) official last WARF Radio broadcast (in association with the United States Australian Football League) was in October 2022 at the USAFL National Championships in Ontario, California.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The NAB AFL Women\u2019s era of WARF Radio<\/strong><\/p>\n

With WARF Radio seemingly closed for good, and the coverage of the VFLW reduced to just one game with commentary each round, a number of former commentators and players approached Holden to ask if there was any chance of WARF Radio coming back.<\/p>\n

As the 2023 VFLW season came to a close, Holden reached out to the Australian Football League (AFL) to ask if there was any chance WARF Radio could be permitted to call AFLW matches as a \u201ccomplimentary broadcaster\u201d, after being knocked back a number of times before (and unable to from a technical standpoint for 2022 \u2013 Season 7).<\/p>\n

This time, the news from AFL Headquarters was different. The green light was given for WARF Radio to be reborn as an AFLW broadcaster, streaming exclusively via the AFL Women\u2019s app and Womens.AFL<\/p>\n

The initial plan was for WARF Radio to broadcast just one game a week in Melbourne, and possibly fly interstate to maybe do two extra games at the most. Instead, WARF Radio got bigger in terms of coverage and commentary team members.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In Victoria alone, a second broadcast kit was purchased, allowing two games in Victoria to be broadcast back-to-back on the same day, with additional commentators\u00a0Federica Frew<\/strong>,\u00a0Cecilia McIntosh<\/strong>,\u00a0Darren Parkin<\/strong>,\u00a0Tara Murray<\/strong>,\u00a0Damian Watson<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Dan Lonergan<\/strong>\u00a0coming on board.<\/p>\n

A third broadcast kit was purchased and sent north, with a new WARF Radio Queensland crew established consisting of\u00a0Chris Yeend<\/strong>,\u00a0Daniel Viles,<\/strong>\u00a0Ashleigh Williamson<\/strong>,\u00a0Jess Malouf<\/strong>,\u00a0Rebecca Randazzo<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Hannah Davies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Word of WARF Radio\u2019s efforts to expand reached South Australia, and a fourth crew was created featuring esteemed broadcasters\u00a0Phil\u00a0Herden<\/strong>,\u00a0John Nankivell<\/strong>,\u00a0Chris Kendall<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Phil Aspinall<\/strong>, along with\u00a0Patrick Goldsmith<\/strong>\u00a0and three-time SANFLW Premiership coach,\u00a0Krissie Steen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the end, our goal to broadcast ten games was blown out of the water, and a total of 41 AFLW matches were broadcast by our team on volunteers in 2023 \u2013 more than double of any other AFLW broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 2024 season proved to be a tough challenge for the volunteers of WARF Radio with the introduction of the compressed fixture \u2013 11 rounds of football in just 10 weeks. Despite having to balance work, life, mid-week and weekend games, the team went to another level broadcasting 55 of a possible 99 Home and Away matches. This again was the most of any AFLW broadcaster. The season also saw the introduction of former AFLW footballer\u00a0Sarah Perkins<\/strong>, as well as former AFL (Men\u2019s) footballer\u00a0Tyson Lane<\/strong>. Others to join the commentary team included QAFLW coach\u00a0Ross Clayfield<\/strong>, South Australian broadcaster\u00a0Tom Eglinton<\/strong>\u00a0and up-and-coming Tasmanian caller\u00a0Beau Downham<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Just a few months earlier, WARF Radio\u2019s founder Peter Holden was invited to commentate the inaugural\u00a0AFL Transatlantic Cup<\/em>\u00a0in Toronto, Canada, featuring the national women\u2019s (and men\u2019s) teams from the USA, Great Britain, France, Colombia, Ireland and the host nation. It was the international Australian rules event in seven years, with Ireland victorious over the USA in the Women\u2019s Grand Final, after extra time!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A goal for the 2025 AFLW season was to increase the number of women doing play-by-play commentary.\u00a0Hannah Kuhar<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Edon Abbot<\/strong>\u00a0joined the team, and along with the returning\u00a0Tara Murray<\/strong>, and\u00a0Ashleigh Williamson<\/strong>\u00a0stepping up from her previous special comments role, WARF Radio had four women on-air during the season doing play-by-play, more than any other broadcaster.<\/p>\n

Other commentators to make their debut this season were\u00a0Ashley Manicaros<\/strong>,\u00a0Paddy Grindlay<\/strong>,\u00a0Ally Kirkwood<\/strong>,\u00a0Jessica Bates<\/strong>,\u00a0Rebecca Northcott<\/strong>,\u00a0Austen Krueger<\/strong>,\u00a0Chris Kerry<\/strong>\u00a0and former AFLW footballers\u00a0Maddie Boyd<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Katelyn Rosenzweig<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In total, 60 regular season matches were broadcast, around four times the amount of any other AFLW broadcaster.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The TL;DR Version Established in 2014, Women\u2019s Australian Rules Football Radio (WARF Radio) is a broadcaster of women\u2019s Australian rules football matches at state, national and international matches, having broadcast live almost 500 matches as of late 2025. The Detailed History The initial idea of WARF Radio began back in ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7227,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-no-sidebar.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7167","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7167"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7191,"href":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7167\/revisions\/7191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warfradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}