On Saturday night, thousands of footy fans will fill the stands at Geelong for the opening game of the 2019 AFLW season. It’ll be a first. The first AFLW game at the Cattery but also Geelong’s first AFLW game.
The last two seasons provided plenty of firsts and this season, with the addition of North Melbourne alongside Geelong, looks set to continue the theme. In a developing competition like the AFLW, this is not unexpected. Still, the sheen never quite wears off. With every first, we’re reminded of how far women’s footy has come. But we’re also reminded of how far it’s got to go.
They say the second album is the hardest and if the second season of the AFLW was anything to go by there is plenty of truth to that.
From a lacklustre marketing strategy that left many shaking their heads to infamous memos, lighting problems and a suspension that revealed the gross inequality of the tribunal system, 2018 was a challenging year for the burgeoning competition. Things would only get more challenging, when the end of the season saw the league’s only female coaches walk away after career development opportunities failed to materialise or were never offered.
The departure of Bec Goddard, who led the Adelaide Crows to the inaugural premiership, and Fremantle’s Michelle Cowan was a blow that had many fans and commentators alike, rightfully, questioning the AFL’s ability to steer a competition whose influence and value extends far beyond the boundary.
Looking ahead to the 2019 season, more challenges await. The growing pains of expansion, the introduction of conferences and rule changes along with the pressure to continue the upward trend of player development will produce plenty of headaches at head office, in the coaches box and in the grandstand.
But it’s not all challenges and obstacles. In two short seasons, the AFLW has fostered a devoted and passionate fan base (30% of the AFLW audience is new to football). It has provided an opportunity for hundreds of women to play the game they love on a national stage. And the ripple effect is significant and being felt at community clubs across the country as little girls (and old ones, too!) pick up a Sherrin and say, I want to do that.
In her 1991 book, Half the Race, Marion K Stell wrote:
For two centuries, Australian women have struggled against forthright opposition to their participation in sport. They have been trivialised, banned, excluded, ignored, oppressed, degraded, unsung, discouraged – yet still they have played on.
In the nearly 30 years since Stell wrote those words, much has changed in the Australian sporting landscape.
Last September, a T20 International match between Australia and New Zealand drew an overall audience of 2.905 million, a record for women’s cricket.
This past weekend, the WBBL grand final in Sydney was sold out with fans lining the fences to catch a glimpse of their heroines. Last August, the grand final of Suncorp Super Netball, the premier netball competition in the country, drew a TV audience of 1 million.
In 2018, the NRLW was launched and looks likely to expand in 2020 with clubs clamouring for a licence. The 2018-19 season marked the first time in its decade-plus history that all W-League games were broadcast or streamed.
And with the Matildas heading to a World Cup this year, the profile of women’s football is on the rise. The likes of Sam Kerr, Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry are now household names. It’s among this exciting, developing and ever evolving landscape that the AFLW sits.
For those of us already on board, the growth of women’s sport while exciting and rewarding remains a case of one step forward and two steps back. For every history making first, for every sold-out ground and record TV rating, there is ugly criticism steeped in sexism, confusing decisions from administrators and the ever-present problem of the semi-professional status of many women’s sports hampering their development. One step forward, two steps back.
Fans, players, coaches and administrators of the AFLW are familiar with this dance. It’s one we’ve been forced to participate in over the last two seasons. And while there are undoubtedly more challenges ahead, it’s worth taking a moment on the eve of the third season to appreciate how far we have come.
From state leagues fought for and built by women like Gemma Griffiths and Yvette Andrews, Joanne Huggins and Gina Dutschke to a national competition where footballers like Erin Phillips, Sabrina Frederick Traub, Daisy Pearce and Darcy Vescio are household names with games broadcast into living rooms across the country.
We may continue to dance the one step, two step. There will be growing pains and more hurdles and snags. But, the AFLW has carved a space for itself in the Australian sporting landscape. Trivialised, ignored, discouraged and degraded. Unfortunately, and far too often, yes. But they’ve played on. Long may they do so.
