Alberti has grand vision for AFL Women's

AFL Women's pioneer Susan Alberti has a grand vision for the groundbreaking new competition that was officially launched on Wednesday.

The much-anticipated eight-team league will get underway on Friday night when Collingwood take on Carlton and will run for eight weeks.

Alberti, a long-time Western Bulldogs board member and advocate for the women's game, can see a time when all 18 AFL teams are involved in a longer season.

But she has backed the AFL Commission's conservative approach to the inaugural women's season.

"We've got to start somewhere," Alberti said.

"The women have got to show that they're good at what they do, make it attractive, and it will eventually grow.

"We can't do it all at once, it's got to be in stages, and we've got to get it right.

"We've got this opportunity, from the ground up, to get it right."

Wednesday's season launch was the realisation of a long-held dream for Alberti, who was made to give up playing football at 15.

The former Bulldogs' vice-president joked the formation of the new league was almost, but not quite, as thrilling as the Dogs' drought-breaking AFL premiership last season.

Alberti, who has been part of an AFL advisory board on the new league, believes there will be expansion in future if the foundation is laid correctly.

"I think there will be more teams, I know they're all wanting to be part of it," she said.

"Being on the advisory board you get a fair bit of information and you can see that the other teams really do want to be a part of it.

"But some of them aren't ready yet ... they're more at grassroots (level) than some of the clubs that are already there.

"We've got to get it right too. If we don't get it right we'll have teams smashing one another. We want to have an attractive brand of football - that's what it's all about."

Alberti was named the AFL Women's premiership cup ambassador for the 2017 season.