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An AFL statement released on Tuesday regarding the decision not to allow Hannah Mouncey to nominate for the 2017 AFLW draft comprises fifteen paragraphs and more than 400 words, and manages to do so despite never giving a clear cut reason as to why Mouncey has been excluded from the competition.
However, what has been reported by a number of outlets, including the AFL website itself, is that there were concerns Mouncey would have an “unreasonable physical advantage” over other AFLW players.
If this were true it could be considered to be a fair reason to prevent Mouncey from competing in the AFLW. But the explanation does not stand up to scrutiny.
The current policy in the AFL’s women’s competition in Canberra for transgender athletes is for them to meet the same standard as is required by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
That policy requires transgender female athletes to be below a certain threshold for testosterone, a requirement which, having already undergone hormone replacement therapy for a significant amount of time, Mouncey comfortably satisfies.
Hormone replacement therapy blocks testosterone and boosts estrogen, leading to rapid and significant decreases in both muscle mass and bone density, removing any persistent advantage a male-born athlete might have over a female-born one.
A 2016 review of the scientific literature concerning transgender athletes says in its conclusion that there has been “no direct or consistent research suggesting transgender female individuals (or male individuals) have an athletic advantage at any stage of their transition.”
Without the potential of testosterone to provide athletic benefits, most arguments are instead centred around the fact that transgender women, having been born male, may gain an advantage from physiological differences between the two sexes.
On average men are taller and bigger than women, but this does not mean that there is no such thing as big, tall women or, for that matter, small, slight men.
The 190cm, 100kg Mouncey is only 1cm taller than the GWS Giants’ Erin McKinnon (189cm), and weighs only 5kg more than the Adelaide Crows’ Sarah Perkins (95kg). It would be a significant stretching of the truth to frame this as a David and Goliath battle.
She would only have a physical advantage over her opponents in the same way that Aaron Sandilands or Mason Cox (both 211cm) have a physical advantage over Caleb Daniel (168cm). If that is not ‘unreasonable’ enough to be a problem in the AFL then it should not be so in the AFLW.
Furthermore, if Mounsey’s potential advantage over her competitors is considered unreasonable, then it is incongruous for the AFL to approve her to continue playing in the Canberra competition. The potential advantage at a less elite level of the game would be even greater and therefore more problematic than it would be in the AFLW.
And yet, the AFL is happy for this to be the case.
Instead, it seems the AFL believes Mouncey should be able to play in a lower-level competition and holds no quarrel with her meeting the standards to compete at the Olympics, but believes that a more restrictive standard should exist in a competition that finds itself between the two in terms of the eliteness of the competition.
The AFL statement does say that the “specific nature” of the AFLW competition was a factor in the decision, and there has been the suggestion by some that the potential for an exceptional individual to disrupt what is still a new and only semi-professional competition could be behind the decision to exclude Mouncey.
However, if this is the case then surely the AFL would have stepped in at the Adelaide Crows’ decision to sign professional basketballer Erin Phillips, who was so dominant in the 2017 season as to take out the best and fairest, AFLPA women’s MVP, Adelaide Crows’ AFLW best and fairest, and best on ground in the grand final.
Even Mouncey’s coach in the AFL Canberra competition has said that Mouncey has potential but didn’t tear the game apart. Her exact words: “she’s not Daisy Pearce by any stretch of the imagination.”
Instead, I suspect the real reason that the AFL has decided not to allow Mouncey to play in the AFLW is a cowardly one: to avoid the media scrutiny and controversy that would certainly follow. It’s a missed opportunity to be a leader in encouraging social change, rather than a follower.
The AFL often prides itself on promoting equality and inclusion as an organisation, but at times like this, it feels as if the commitment made to those ideals is only held to when it is easy and popular to do so – a matter of optics and branding, rather than a genuine dedication to the principles espoused.