A 14-year-old girl who challenged her local football league last week for the right to continue playing Australian Rules, will spend most of Sunday's game on the bench nursing a strained knee.

Gembrook-Cockatoo under-14s defender Evelyn Rannstrom missed the first nine games of the season in the Dandenong Ranges Junior Football League (DRJFL) while the legal battle raged for her right to play with the boys.

She has to play the remaining six games to qualify for a place in the finals team.

An injunction granted by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal allowed Evelyn - described during the hearing as the linchpin of the backline - to rejoin the team.

But her father Matt Rannstrom said Sunday his daughter suffered a new injury at training and will spend most of Sunday's game on the bench.

"If she had been allowed to play from the start of the season she'd be more match-fit and this injury wouldn't have happened," Mr Rannstrom said.

"But she's a farm girl and has had more serious stuff than this happen to her.

"She's had a broken nose, broken ribs, dislocated her fingers getting off a horse - this is nothing for her."

The injunction granted by Judge Marilyn Harbison ordered the DRJFL and the AFL not to prevent Evelyn from playing in the under-14 competition for the rest of the season or until a further hearing.

The judge acknowledged the AFL's gender policy preventing 14-year-old girls playing with boys.

But she pointed out the league's own rules allow for exemptions for players to play in a lower age group, and the AFL had a case to answer if they misused their power to exclude Evelyn because she was a female.

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