The decision not to host the women’s AFL grand final at the Gabba is a shameful way to end what has been a spectacularly successful inaugural season.
The story goes something like this: international superstar Adele plays live at the Gabba on 4 and 5 March. It is round five in the AFLW, and the Brisbane Lions sit atop the ladder, after a nailbiting victory against the highly-fancied Crows. They are the only undefeated team in the league, and in the box seat to host the grand final (a right afforded to the team that finishes atop the ladder at season’s end). Gabba curator Kevin Mitchell then makes the decision to lay new turf designed for the men’s Ashes Test to be played a staggering nine months later in November. His decision virtually ends any hope the Brisbane women have of playing the final at their spiritual home.
Why?
Some, like Lions champion Jonathan Brown, have argued that this is typical of a state in which footballers are “second-rate citizens”:
The AFL are second-rate citizens in Brisbane, especially when it comes to the Gabba … It’s all about the cricket. Fair dinkum, for the government heavyweights not to be able to step in in this situation ... It’s an absolute disgrace.
Former coach and football legend Leigh Matthews agreed, taking to Twitter to point out the hypocrisy of Etihad Stadium being ready for football one week after the Melbourne Adele concert, while the Gabba is unavailable after three weeks.
But as much as these two men may have a point, they are mistaken to not treat this as a gendered issue. While Gillon McLachlan bravely fronted cameras to express his “anger” over the AFLW grand final decision, for example, he quickly added that he “had received assurances the ground would be ready for the [men’s] Lions-Bombers match” in round two. In other words, the AFLW grand final may be sacrificed, but the round two men’s game will not be shifted under any circumstances. Lions CEO Greg Swann made this unmistakably clear, saying that “all hell would break loose” if the round two game was shifted, and that the Lions’ relationship with Stadiums Queensland “would never recover if the round two clash with Essendon at the Gabba does not go ahead”.
Clearly, this insult to AFLW is recoverable. In this regard the AFL is exploiting the goodwill of AFLW players and staff. Adelaide coach Bec Goddard, for example, was quoted as saying that “quite seriously, you could play us on the nature strip out on Punt Road and we’d be OK with it ... That’s how excited we are to be part of something so professional”.
I can understand Goddard’s sentiment; after years of being at the bottom of the sporting hierarchy, the AFLW has heralded a new dawn previously unimaginable to women in sport. But the decision stinks of the same old logic of all men’s sport before women’s. To move the game to Metricon Stadium – less than an hour’s drive from the Gabba – seems a fair enough compromise under the circumstances. The game is now, however, a mere “curtain raiser” to the men’s “Q-clash”. What an affront for the premier event on the AFLW calendar.
I have no doubt that these AFLW players will rise to the occasion and produce their best football regardless. After all, it is what they’ve done their whole lives. When they’re not working full-time, looking after kids, being shifted to inferior grounds to make way for men’s sport (of any kind, any grade) – it is what they do best. They are mature, professional athletes in every sense of the word – except for remuneration and prioritisation.
Ironically, it was Cricket Australia (CA) that this week made the most headway in gender and pay equity. Top female cricketers are due for an average 125% pay rise thanks to a landmark deal which sees them included in a memorandum of understanding between CA and the Australian Cricketer’s Association for the first time. This was announced in the face of an increasing drop off in junior cricket numbers – many young girls being lost to footy. In this turf war, at least, women may finally have come out winners.
