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“You’re into AFL? You?” This is the typical surprised reaction I get when I tell people how excited I am about the new season starting this year.
New players, new coaches. I have carefully organised babysitting for months in advance and am literally counting down to that first game tomorrow night.
Yet somehow this seems strange for someone like me to follow sport – that is, female and non-white.
I have played, watched and loved sport for as long as I can remember. I have flown interstate to watch the Blues, stayed up all night to watch Sampras and left a girlfriend’s engagement to watch a World Cup game.
This doesn’t mean that I can’t also be addicted to Sex and the City, drool over Tiffany blue boxes and hasten to see Kate’s baby bump grow.
These two worlds are not mutually exclusive.
Gender equality can be extended beyond the sporting arena not just in equal pay, equal air time and equal sponsorship but also towards the spectators and their equal interest and commitment to the game.
One friend suggested that I was a lesbian because I followed the Southern Stars, while another assumed my interest was in males running around in tight clothing.
Is it really that hard for people to see women passionate and educated about sport? The idea that a game with its multitude of rules and positions is too complex for women, not only belittles the fans but the game as well.
So, if it’s not about being female, that leaves the issue of race.
Given my heritage it was inevitable I would like sport – raised in Australia with British and Indian roots. Resistance was futile.
I grew up with ABC Grandstand on the radio and bookshelves filled with sporting biographies. We even have family photos at the Bradman Oval.
Sport may be a firmly rooted Australian tradition but unfortunately it also mirrors our social issues of race.
For a multicultural country with close to a quarter of us born overseas, this diversity is poorly reflected in both the players and fans, across all fields.
The latest AFL ad campaign might like us to think otherwise, but I know which communities are missing in those stands each week.
I remember growing up in an era of Darrell Hair penalising Muralitharan for his bowling action, and the ensuing racial drama of our cricket team and their sledging.
Fast-forward a decade and I am greeted at the last Boxing Day Test match with the brag ‘Sorry we are winning’, referring to the fact that Australia was doing well.
An assumption that my dark skin automatically means I’m not barracking for Australia.
There are a growing number of females with disposable incomes in those stands around the country, and both society and sporting boards would do well to realise their importance in the future of this country’s sport participation and appreciation.
Sport was once a field reflecting that colonial antagonism of years past but in today’s world it can stand for so much more, and has the capacity to actually bring us all together.
So despite being female and with brown skin, I shall be in those stands cheering on the AFL this year. After all, it is our nation’s game.
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