The AFL Is Remembering Women Exist And Is Doing Something Great About It
“I am super excited to see more and more women getting involved in the game – and not just as spectators” – Writes Marie Kelly
“FINALLY, A WOMAN!” – legit what I yelled as I scrolled down my facebook feed when I discovered that the AFL Footy Show will be replacing Garry Lyon with former Channel Seven newsreader Rebecca Maddern.
Welcome @RebeccaMaddern9 to the #9AFLFootyShow! pic.twitter.com/T8padgWvlp
— The AFL Footy Show (@AFLFootyShow) March 29, 2016
Some media outlets have already played up their surprise to this ‘shock’ news, for example, The Advertiser‘s headline that seems to forget that plenty of women love and work in Footy media. What about Caroline Wilson? I could’ve sworn she was a woman last I checked. Let’s not forget Julia Gillard is a mad Bulldogs supporter. Um, shocking how? Because a woman likes footy?
Not only in the past twenty four hours has a female host been added to the Footy Show, but AFL team Carlton has recruited a new female mascot called Navy Nina, who’ll be making her debut this Sunday.
At the same game, Carlton are also going to include reporter Emily Angwin to co-host the on ground pregame broadcast.
Hello equality! Nice to see you there!
Something pretty great is happening in AFL at the moment.
Since Waleed Aly made a speech at a CEO conference almost a year ago about cultural diversity in the game, clubs all around have been pushing to make sure that people from all walks of life get involved in our nations national sport. At the moment, the focus is on women.
The Footy Show’s Sam Newman, usually recognised for his delicateness when his ego is threatened by the female population, was actually very supportive of his new cohost joining the panel.
“The critics say our show is blokey and male-oriented (so) we think this is a very good opportunity to diversify and spread our wings… We thought ‘we have to be careful this doesn’t look like tokenism’ but when the right person came available, it was unanimously agreed that this would be a great thing to do.”
Congratulations on finally acting mature, Newman. But it’s not just within the AFL’s media that the shift is changing. It’s amongst the CEOs of teams too. Carlton’s Steven Trigg was quoted saying:
“What we want is for women to be able to see something of themselves in what Carlton is doing and be able to relate to it.”
The AFL’s general manager of commercial operations, Darren Birch, echoed Trigg’s sentiments, and so do the statistics, with the number of female players in the game rising from 136,000 in 2012 to almost 319,000 last year.
“There’ll be a generational shift in this, we know that if you play the game you’re seven times more likely to go to a game or become a member. This is why women’s football is going to be so important in our growth of the game.”
One significant change that will also advance gender equality in the game is the implementation of the AFL Women’s competition in 2017. After the overwhelming success of the AFL Women’s matches in past years between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, female legends including Daisy Pearce and Tayla Harris will now be able to star in a new, top-tier competition which will see eight AFL-aligned clubs form the new women’s national competition. YASSSSS!
Daisy Pearce – Source: AFL.com.au
As a young female that has been watching and loving the game since I was at least 6 months old, I am super excited to see more and more women getting involved in the game – and not just as spectators. The addition of Rebecca Maddern to the Footy Show means I might actually watch more of it this year.
Unfortunately, the public has continued to ruin my faith in the AFL community, with many female (ladies, please!) and male spectators claiming that Maddern will “know nothing about the game” or “ruin the show” or “now the show is definitely dead”.
Hell! Even the Advertiser claimed “the male banter on the Footy Show is dead”. Unfortunately, Navy Nina has also received some negative feedback, some on her name, which was crowd chosen, but also because she is a woman.
Atrocious.
However, Birch and the AFL are determined to make sure that there is a push for equal representation in the game, for spectators, fans and players alike. They’re even pushing for female membership to rise to 50% which isn’t too far off for some clubs:
“ … I think every club has become aware of the fact they need greater diversity, whether it being people working for the clubs or as their supporter base or as their membership base. One of the things I’ve seen shift is the way the clubs are marketing to their supporters. It’s not all about the fanatic, face painted images, that doesn’t represent everybody who supports a football club… I think clubs are becoming more sophisticated in that way.”
Currently,
Female member share at leading AFL clubs in 2015
Meanwhile, ladies, let’s have a little party. The boys are letting us in to “their” club and game with welcoming arms. The game is changing for the better. I can’t wait for our female players to have their games aired on primetime television.
