Collingwood and Carlton, as a fixture for the first women's game for AFL premiership points, seemed as appropriate a combination as toast and tea.

Relocating the game from Collingwood's modern multimillion-dollar base to Carlton's old Royal Parade home, where paint flakes from worn grandstands, only seemed to steep the imminent historic event in more history.

The truth, however, is that rivalries and traditions long established in the AFL and erstwhile Victorian Football League mean next to nothing this Friday night.

AFLW, that's AFL Women's for anyone who has been under a rock, is a whole new ball game. Right down to the customised Sherrin – smaller than those used in elite men's AFL – that will be kicked, marked and handballed by 44 female pioneers in an unprecedented contest that will commence, untraditionally, with an umpire throwing a footy skyward rather than a bounce into the turf.

Among the best current female players of Australian rules footy, Katie Brennan and Daisy Pearce, now Western Bulldogs and Melbourne captains respectively, know the nuances and history of the game better than most.

Both admitted in the countdown to the AFLW premiere that a Carlton-Collingwood billing hasn't exactly filled them with romance.

"I don't think any rivalries really exist for us at this stage," Brennan said.

"Even though there will be a little bit between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs who pioneered through the women's AFL exhibition games, the teams are now completely different."

Pearce concurred.

"The two [Carlton, Collingwood women's] teams haven't played yet," she said.

"I think the rivalries will be formed as the season plays out. And they might not even form necessarily. It just depends on how games are played out. You can't force these things."

Collingwood women's team captain Steph Chiocci is one of a handful of players taking to field on Friday with lived Blues-Magpies rivalry in her veins. But influenced by a passionate Carlton-following father she grew up a diehard fan of the navy Blue.

In guard of honour formation for his daughter and her black and white-clad teammates, Rob Chiocci will stand proudly on Princes Park before the new league opener. But AFLW has forced a diametric split of his footy allegiances.

"We've converted Dad to Collingwood women's team, but at the moment that's all he's progressed to," AFL captain Chiocci said in the countdown.

"He has bought himself a Collingwood polo and mum's bought herself a t-shirt. I'm very much aware of the rivalry but now I have to look at it through another lens I suppose."

The selected teams for the first game of the new AFLW season.

A lifelong Collingwood fan now living childhood dreams as a bona fide Magpies player at age 35, Meg Hutchins' AFL supporter heart will be ecstatically aligned with her AFLW reality.

Collingwood's Penny Cula-Reid and Carlton's Bianca Jakobsson, Katie Loynes and Kate Shierlaw are others, while Lauren Brazzale and Madeline Keryk are in the same boat as Chiocci as former fans of the club they oppose in AFLW clash one.

"My late grandfather was Collingwood and at Christmas time he used to say only Collingwood supporters can sit at the dinner table. But my grandmother is a one-eyed Blues fan!" Hutchins recalled this week.

The AFL, in awarding eight of its established men's clubs licences to field women's teams in 2017, has also given girls and women licence to win true legend status in the Australia's richest and most dominant sports code. AFL legend status is won, with rare exception, through on-field exploits seen at the highest level.

Women may have assembled to play Australian rules for more than 100 years, but until now their competitions have been under-funded, under-supported and largely overlooked. It goes a long way to explaining why there are just two female members of the AFL's venerated life membership club and that both Sam Mostyn and the late Jill Lindsay were recognised for administration.

Since becoming AFL CEO almost three years ago, Gillon McLachlan's understanding of how profound this move to genuinely support female footballers is has clearly deepened.

For so long the AFL mouthed good intentions on a topic that was simply not prioritised. Crudely, it was not seen as a business winner then. Now it is being realised as a business goldmine. Recently retired AFL Commissioner Mostyn, the league's tireless female football development manager Jan Cooper, and McLachlan have been key in driving the change.

An AFL who's-who juggled coffee in #aflwomens branded takeaway cups, frozen yoghurt and bottled kale juice as McLachlan officially launched AFLW in a chic North Melbourne warehouse this week.

McLachlan playfully referred to the setting as "hipster-ville" but had a serious message too.

"This group of women players will create their own game," he said.

"It will be football as we've always known it ... but it will also be very different."

After committing upwards of $10 million to establish and develop AFLW, the AFL chief was inviting women to stand up and own it. He should have no fears; they are ready and willing.

HISTORY MAKING

First games for VFL premiership points (played by men): Four games at same time, 8/5/1897, Geelong v Essendon, South Melbourne v Melbourne, Collingwood v St Kilda and Fitzroy v Carlton.

First recorded Collingwood-Carlton match: Round 7, 1897, Collingwood 6.5 (41) d Carlton 5.5 (35), 22/06/1897, Princes Park

Carlton Football Club: established in 1864, 153 years old, 154th season in 2017.

Collingwood Football Club: celebrating 125th year in 2017 after establishment in 1892.

First recorded Australian rules footy game played by women: Records on the early history of women's football is very difficult to find. Games were played in Western Australia in 1918 but details are scarce.

Records of previous women's games between Collingwood and Carlton sides: AFL has no official records but doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

First AFL Women's league match for premiership points: Carlton v Collingwood, Princes Park, Friday February 3, 2017.