The Sydney Swans are the latest club to opt out of bidding for a team in the inaugural year of the new national women's competition.
They join Victorian clubs Essendon and Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and the Gold Coast Suns in bypassing at least the first year of the new competition in 2017.
Sydney chief executive Andrew Ireland said the club wanted to defer their application for a licence until they are in a position to deliver a program to an elite standard.
"We have thoroughly investigated all avenues to establish a women's team by 2017 and our view has always been if we were going to do this, we were going to do it well," Ireland said.
"We wanted to be able to give female footballers the opportunity to become part of the fabric of our football club; to enable them to train and grow in an elite environment with the same level of support afforded to our men's team. To establish a team with anything less than that was never an option."
