AFLW season two is just around the corner, with one of the highlights of the fixture list – Carlton v Collingwood at Ikon Park – to kick things off on Friday 2 February. In its inaugural season the match attracted a national viewing audience of over 1m, and by now most know the story of Gillon McLachlan apologising to the thousands of fans locked out of a ground filled to capacity.
Yet, the match will be shown live on Channel Seven only to Melbourne and Adelaide viewers, while those in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth will have to access the game on the network’s subsidiary channel, 7Mate. The rest of the country, will need to subscribe to Foxtel to see it. This confusing trend continues in rounds one and two, with only select games, including the grand final rematch between Adelaide and Brisbane available on Channel Seven (but only to Melbourne and Adelaide viewers, despite the match featuring Brisbane). Likewise, the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle game will be shown on Seven, but to Perth viewers only.
From round three, only two more games for the entire season feature on Seven’s main channel – and those only to Adelaide, and then Adelaide and Melbourne viewers respectively. Both games feature the GWS Giants. Where games are shown on 7Mate, they are often only available to viewers in relevant states, if they are lucky.
The decision to overlook the matches for the main channel reeks of an incapacity or unwillingness to understand the zeitgeist. It is the equivalent of the AFL originally scheduling the inaugural match of season one at Olympic Park (capacity 5,000) when approximately 30,000 descended on Ikon Park – only this time all the evidence of its marketability is there.
AFLW was an enormous success in its first iteration, and by all accounts the players have returned hungrier and fitter then ever. Despite still being vastly underpaid, the players have been able to dedicate more time and energy to AFL football than ever before, and the standard will only increase as a result. We know that on the back of season one, women’s teams across the country increased by a massive 76% nationally. And beyond AFL, women’s sport is booming like never before. This is the easiest sell the market has ever had, and yet, women are being dudded once more.
One need only look beyond the coverage to see further missed opportunities for AFLW season two. The much-hyped Fremantle v Collingwood match, scheduled to take place at Perth’s new stadium, is on track to break the record for attendance of women’s AFL, thanks to its 60,000 capacity. The stadium owners, however, insisted that the game be ticketed, whereas other AFLW games are free, presumably because the AFL is trying to drum up interest, and assumes this can only be achieved if there is no entry fee. The compromise was to organise a nominal fee so that patrons are now being charged $2 for entry. $2? The question has been raised elsewhere: is this the value of women’s sport? Given it’s the only game in the season which costs for entry, it appears the stadium is valued higher.
There is no guarantee that this money will go back into women’s football, either. According to Fremantle’s website, the proceeds will go entirely to charity (the Starlight Children’s foundation and the Fremantle Dockers foundation). The latter is the club’s “community engagement and social inclusion” platform, but its website does not mention women’s sport specifically. In other words, there is no promise that the small proceeds raised will be directed back to the game.
Again, this is a failure to understand the context of AFLW, and the level of passionate investment in it. In 2018, as in 2017, AFLW club ambassador memberships cost several hundred dollars. Those invested in women’s sport are more than happy to pay, even if there is no necessary material benefit in doing so – normally memberships cover match fees, but matches are free, so the cost is in effect a donation. Those who do pay up do so in the hope that money will go back into growing the game and supporting women who have persisted in pursuing the game they love despite the absence of fair remuneration (and often, despite the fact it costs: not just financially, but also in terms of the demands it places on the jobs and families they juggle with it).
But as with any matter of social justice, it should not be incumbent on individuals to try to rectify the problem from their own hip pockets. Systemic change is the only way to compensate for persisting inequity. Setting the example by costing matches at what they are worth and giving them the limelight they deserve is just one way for corporations like the AFL and Seven to show they understand what women are worth, and what they deserve.
Women’s football, like women’s sport, is on an upward trajectory, but when out-of-touch decisions like these are made, they hamper its inevitable progress. The previous record for attendance to an AFL women’s match was 41,000 in 1929. 1929. It has taken us that long to have a national league in a stadium big enough to break that record, but it is still not given the platform it deserves, nor do we charge accordingly for it. These decisions are being made against the grain of the groundswell of those who recognise that women’s sport has waited long enough.
