The Australian Football League (AFL) has launched a new ad campaign to celebrate the historic first season of its women’s competition.

Transforming the iconic 90s AFL anthem, I’d like to see that, the ad features a string of powerful Aussie female figures, including SBS news anchor Lee Lin Chin, Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman, Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne, burns survivor Turia Pitt, and young surf sensation Sabre Norris, and Collingwood forward Moana hope (pictured above).

The commercial is almost identical to an ad created for the AFL in 1994 by Campaign Palace, led by executive creative director Warren Brown, and retains the original track Unbelievable by EMF.

The AFL brought together a number of leading Aussie female creatives to create the campaign, including female economy consultant Bec Brideson (creative lead), ad guru Jane Caro (writer) and freelancer Tisha Lazaro (art director).

The AFL’s marketing and brand strategy lead, Jemma Wong, along with innovation lead Kylie Robertson, also helped out on the campaign, while documentary filmmaker Celeste Geer directed the commercial.

Wong said the campaign reinforces the AFL’s desire to harness the historic moment of its inaugural women’s competition with strong female voices that appealed to a broader audience.

“Our strategy was to lead with content first. We had ambitions to create something that was bold, empowering and inclusive, that would encourage our footy fans to see the game through a different lens as well as rally a generation of young girls,” she said.

“It was equally important to create a campaign that was part of our DNA, and drew on the history and legacy of the game. We’re thrilled to have the support of the people who feature in the ad, the creative leads Bec Brideson, Jane Caro and Tisha Lazaro, as well as the endorsement from the original creative Warren Brown.”