Ins and outs for this weekend's AFL Women's matches.

A club push for AFLW lists to expand – one side has proposed jumping from 27 to 40 – comes with the current cap proving problematic just two weeks into season one.

To set the scene, it's 3.16am on Sunday, I've got my foot in a bucket of ice at the kitchen table and after trying all my tricks for trying to get to sleep (eat, meditate, stretch, read book, repeat) I've decided to put the post-match buzz to good use and get some words down. These night games are a killer! 

Early on Tuesday, Melbourne women's team captain Daisy Pearce posted a message on Twitter. Shortly after, the number of Mithen's follower's began to tick upwards. It was a timely example of the power of social media, the Demons star congratulating  Mithen's Rising Star nomination.

Cricket's Big Bash League flogs them. In the A-League, they prove to be among the highlights of each season. And they were once a mainstay of the National Basketball League in Melbourne.

World silver medallist Kim Mickle's AFL dream was satisfied when she ran out for Fremantle at the weekend. But the dream has come at a cost with two sports now counting the cost of injury.  

Luckless Fremantle player Kim Mickle will miss the rest of the AFL Women's season after scans confirmed she ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament during her Dockers debut.

Melbourne's women's team has suffered a double blow with Meg Downie and Stephanie De Bortoli both ruled out for the rest of the season.

Brisbane Lions key position player Tayla Harris and Melbourne midfielder Lily Mithen are the round two nominations for the AFL Women's Rising Star award.

Collingwood's Sophie Casey can accept a two-match ban for a high hit that sent Melbourne's Meg Downie to hospital, while Carlton star Brianna Davey is free to face Adelaide in Sunday's top of the ladder clash.

Melbourne's Meg Downie has been released from hospital without any serious damage after being knocked out in a clash with Collingwood's Sophie Casey Casey at Ikon Park on Saturday night.

Brisbane remain unbeaten in the AFLW after resisting a late Fremantle surge to take a 13-point win at Fremantle Oval.

They might be unbeaten after two rounds and playing at a club starved of success over the past two decades, but Carlton's women aren't feeling any extra pressure because of their hot start to the season, says star defender Brianna Davey.

The Dockers host the Lions to close out round two of the AFLW season.

On her first visit to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1887, Margaret Preston's attention was captured not by the artwork but the stools used by students copying the paintings on display. 

Ultimate frisbee champion Cat Phillips proved the value of AFLW teams casting their recruiting nets wide, when she booted two impressive goals to help Melbourne to their first win of the season.

Carlton charged home, kicking five of the last six goals of the game to beat Greater Western Sydney and continue their winning start to the AFLW season.

Meeting as on-field rivals on Saturday night, the AFL's first openly gay player partners say they have never experienced discrimination on field.

Adelaide's ball movement was too quick and effective for the Bulldogs and the Crows were more accurate.

Jessica Bibby is eminently qualified to talk sporting meccas.

• Live

It's the start of the second round of the new AFL Women's competition. The Western Bulldogs host the Adelaide Crows.

• EXCLUSIVE

Partners in life, rivals in AFL football, Penny Cula-Reid and Mia-Rae Clifford are the first elite league player couple to tell the world they are gay. Though still unable to marry legally in Australia, the 29 and 30-year-old pair is engaged and wear diamond rings to show it. But on Saturday night, in a match for premiership points between Collingwood and Melbourne football clubs, there will be no love lost.

One day while Sally Phillips was still at primary school, her male classmates knocked on her parents' door to ask if she could play in their footy team. Phillips is the daughter of former Richmond champ Neville Crowe, and admits: "I'll be really honest: I loved playing footy as a kid."

Sam Mostyn believes the women's competition is vital to securing football's long-term future.

Karen Hardy might be 50 and not even like Australian Football, but like a lot of women around the country she wishes she could be a part of something great.

The quiet resignation of Daisy Pearce from Melbourne's welfare team came as the top footballer felt at risk of being "footied out" when she knew her unique position should have been inspiring her more than ever.

High-flying Rio Olympian will debut on the half-back flank, as teams announce ins and outs for round two.

All the ins and outs for round two of the AFLW.

Collingwood are backing marquee star Moana Hope to bounce back after a quiet start to the AFL Women's competition.