Australian Women's Ice Hockey League
Current season, competition or edition: 2016–17 AWIHL season
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| Sport | Ice hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Inaugural season | 2007 |
| No. of teams | 4 |
| Country | Australia |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Sydney Sirens |
| Most titles | Melbourne Ice |
| Official website | AWIHL.com.au |
The Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL) is an amateur women's ice hockey league in Australia. This league represents the highest level national competition for women's hockey and is currently represented in four states: South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The current champions are the Melbourne Ice
In 2005, the probability of establishing a national women's ice hockey league was discussed by the National Women's Council. Due to large costs to players to participate in such a league, an alternative proposal for a much shorter Showcase Series was passed around for consideration to begin in the 2006 season. The Series would see four teams competing in mini-tournaments during February to June. Each round robin style tournament would occur over a weekend and throughout the Showcase Series period between February to June, each team would travel twice and host the tournament once. The first Showcase series was planned in February 2006 for Newcastle, New South Wales. The second series would be in March 2006 in Bendigo, Victoria, the third would occur in April 2006 in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. In May, the series would be held in Adelaide, South Australia and in June the fifth series would take place in Brisbane, Queensland. At this time, a full season would follow in November 2006 and stretch over into summer 2007.
The first Showcase Series proved to be successful where, in each min-series, 3 teams would play each other twice in a round robin style tournament. Five clubs ended up being involved in the Showcase Series which consisted of 5 mini-tournaments held on a weekend each month in a different city. The Showcase Series returned for a second season in October 2006, and ran until February 2007. A national women's league did not start in November 2006, as previously hoped. In this second season 4 mini-series were held, one weekend mini tournament was played each month between only 4 teams representing Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Brisbane, Queensland, Adelaide, South Australia and Sydney, New South Wales. The purpose of the Showcase Series continued to be as a precursor to a national women's league that was being actively planned.
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