Hiding Women's Football (Redux)
Greg Werner
In a year when we, "football", celebrate 100 years since the beginnings of the women's game in Australia, a wholly manufactured game, AFLW, has pushed football into the shadows with the media refusing to recognise the legitimacy of our game.
Stories in today's papers focus on AFLW and ignore the W-League. This is the front page on the ABC site, while other stories focus on AFLW players whinging about their right to be referred to as elite athletes over and above the professions that earn them the bulk of their living.
Meanwhile the W-League match from yesterday can be found somewhere in the score centre. The big story here being the continued return of Michelle Heyman who bagged another brace in the Canberra win over Western Sydney.
The media bias against football has been going on for over a century while the fawning over AFLW began on day one all of 5 years ago.
If you want to talk about equity and balance in news reporting this is probably a good place to start. The might and muscle of the AFL rules in this country to the detriment of all other legitimate international sports, its not just football who suffers.
The AFLW was concocted not out of a need for it from the natural growth of the sport from the grassroots up, but from a need to fill the AFL void between the coverage of their draft and the men's pre-season, it is an irrelevance to most in any other time. The players are complaining about their media coverage, let them run alongside the AFL as the W-League does beside the A-League and see how they cope.
To put this into some greater perspective, I am a lover of all sports and have followed AFL footy, the Swans & Hawks specifically for over 50 years, but football is my love & I am committed to it all all levels at which it is played.
If you're up for an argument, lets see what you've got.
Stories in today's papers focus on AFLW and ignore the W-League. This is the front page on the ABC site, while other stories focus on AFLW players whinging about their right to be referred to as elite athletes over and above the professions that earn them the bulk of their living.
Meanwhile the W-League match from yesterday can be found somewhere in the score centre. The big story here being the continued return of Michelle Heyman who bagged another brace in the Canberra win over Western Sydney.
The media bias against football has been going on for over a century while the fawning over AFLW began on day one all of 5 years ago.
If you want to talk about equity and balance in news reporting this is probably a good place to start. The might and muscle of the AFL rules in this country to the detriment of all other legitimate international sports, its not just football who suffers.
The AFLW was concocted not out of a need for it from the natural growth of the sport from the grassroots up, but from a need to fill the AFL void between the coverage of their draft and the men's pre-season, it is an irrelevance to most in any other time. The players are complaining about their media coverage, let them run alongside the AFL as the W-League does beside the A-League and see how they cope.
To put this into some greater perspective, I am a lover of all sports and have followed AFL footy, the Swans & Hawks specifically for over 50 years, but football is my love & I am committed to it all all levels at which it is played.
If you're up for an argument, lets see what you've got.
I agree completely with this. The unprecedented walk up coverage this league got. And the impression the media gave that the AFL may as well have pioneered women's football here (instead of being dragged kicking and screaming to the women's game).
ReplyDeleteOne side note: has any analysis been done on how this will impact netball participation? There are so many clubs that are "FNC's". My hunch is that participant numbers will be down as a result of, essentially, a branding exercise. We will wait to see.
The AFL won't even acknowledge the roots of AFLW. Women's Australian Rules Football has been played in suburban competitions for many years. The AFL imply that they invented the game, overnight, five years ago. It is a masterclass in deceitful marketing- players who have played half a dozen games are billed as "superstars" etc
ReplyDeleteAgreed Anon. A former Matilda was instrumental in setting up the game in Sydney. I have no issue with the game, it is just the overarching marketing of a level of the game that has been far from organic. I was created in a marketing lab and was reliant on grabbing elite athletes, not footballers, from wherever they could find them just to fill a hole in their media calendar.
ReplyDelete