Welcome to The Roar’s first women’s sport weekly wrap – a space where we’ll introduce you to personalities in women’s sport and share some of the biggest talking points from the past week.
I thought 2015 was a big year in women’s sport. And it was. But then 2016 came along and changed everything.
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Off the back of the success of the Women’s Big Bash, gold medals in Rio for the Aussie Pearls and Chloe Esposito, the announcement of the launch of an AFL Women’s competition, and a new broadcast deal which will see more eyes than ever watching Australia’s domestic netball competition, 2016 has been a watershed year for so many women in sport.
But our work is not done yet.
I want names like Sharni Layton, Alex Blackwell and Ruan Sims to be household names. I want young women to look ahead and see it as very realistic to want a career in professional sport. What’s positive is that we are closer than ever to being at this point. So let’s continue the conversation.
Meet Tyler Wright
It’s been a big year for Tyler Wright who earlier this month won her maiden world surfing title – the Quicksilver Pro France.
There are ten events on the World Surf League tour this year and Tyler has won four of them, with one left to go.
Not only has this been a breakthrough year for Tyler professionally, but it comes following a difficult 12 months for her personally. Over the past 12 months, Tyler has watched her brother Owen recover from a serious brain injury he sustained while competing (Owen is also a professional surfer) and she also lost her uncle – someone she promised that she would win a world surfing title for. She certainly stayed true to her word.
This week it was announced that Tyler will headline next year’s Australian Open of Surfing at Manly Beach so come February next year Aussies will get the chance to watch Australia’s latest surfing sensation on home turf.
Show me the money!
This week Joel Selwood, captain of the Geelong Cats, has also weighed into the debate surrounding player payment for the new AFL Women’s competition. According to Selwood, the amounts announced are ok because we have to start somewhere.
Under the proposed arrangement, marquee players will be payed $25,000 for the season, while most players will receive $5,000 for an eight week season.
You may have seen members of the public participating in the ‘Boots Off’ campaign. This campaign has been all about drawing attention to the pay the female players will receive and pushing the AFL to increase it.
Even if we ‘have to start somewhere’ (despite an average of 746,000 viewers tuning in to the exhibition match between the Western Bulldogs and the Melbourne Demons and NAB coming on as a sponsor for the League), surely it isn’t too much to ask the AFL to pay for private health insurance for the players.
Watch this space – there is certainly more to come.
WNBL under threat
While there have been major wins this year for sports like AFL, netball and rugby sevens, one sport that continues to lag behind is basketball.
Coach of the Canberra Capitals Paul Goriss has major concerns that the WNBL is in big trouble if arrangements cannot be made to broadcast games on television.
My question is though, prior to ABC funding cuts, the WNBL was something that was televised on the ABC. Despite it being televised, the WNBL failed to capture the attention of the public. What, if anything, would be different with a new broadcast arrangement?
Can the WNBL take some lessons from the success of the WBBL?
For now, fans of the WNBL will need to be content with streaming over YouTube.
Young Matildas squad announced
This week, Gary van Egmond, coach of the Young Matildas, named his 23 player squad for the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship. The competition will be held in Nanjing, China from 2-6 November this year.
There is one very familiar face in the squad, with Ellie Carpenter being named. The 17-year-old was part of the Matildas squad that competed at Rio and has already taken the field for the Matildas five times.
Every member of the squad bar four will also play in the upcoming W-League season.
So keep an eye on these women, they are our Matildas of the future.
What are you doing in February?
Excitement continues to build about the new national netball league starting in February next year. In great news for Sydney fans, the competition will kick off by igniting Sydney’s newest rivalry – that between the GWS Giants team and the NSW Swifts.
So block out your diary for 5pm on February 18 at Sydney Olympic Park – this is one game you won’t want to miss and will see Kim Green and Susan Pettitt up against their former Swifts teammates like Paige Hadley and Maddie Turner.
Wallaroos head home to Australia
Do you know who the Wallaroos are? They are Australia’s women’s rugby team and this week they have been in New Zealand taking on the Black Ferns.
In their first game last Saturday, the Wallaroos fell to a 14th consecutive loss to the Kiwis, 67-3 and on Thursday fell to their 15th by 29-3.
Before being critical of this team however, you need to remember that this is a team in serious need of support. The Wallaroos pay to represent their country and without the support of Josephine Sukkar and Buildcorp, this series in New Zealand could not have possibly happened.
This was the first time that the Wallaroos had played a Test in over two years. How can we encourage women to play sport professionally and expect them to compete on an international level when they are only really given the opportunity to play together in a Test series once every two years?
This is @mary__kaye from @ladieswholeague.
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