It's time women were embraced in the AFL

Fitzpatrick along with other AFL Commission Members Sam Moyston and Linda Dessau (coincidentally - they're women - not Fitzpatrick though!) - were in attendance at the Grand Final of the Womens division of this years AFL International Cup. In 2011 the Irish defeated Canada in the first appearance of the ladies at the AFL IC (during the 4th running of the 3 yrly tournament). What perhaps surprised the AFL in 2011 was that the 'token' Australian rep side (an indigenous/multicultural side) got smashed by everyone. In 2011 we had Ireland, Canada, USA, PNG and the Aust IMC side. This time around, the Tongans and Fijians managed to pull together sides to compete in the womens. PNG didn't make it. NZ were discussed for a while but didn't. However - to show the dedication that is out there - both the Canadians and USA were not only attending - but, each had a 'B' team who were travelling with the 'A' team simply with plans to play local opposition. As it turned out - both 'B' teams also competed. And there are members across the board who have taken the chance to move to Australia (whether for 6 months, a year, or permanently - in no small part so they could play footy). The Canadian 'A' team captain a good example. There are some very, very handy players running around and those making the 'world team' have well and truly earned their place. Fitzpatrick thankfully at seasons end referred both to the IC and womens footy in praticular as being great events and deserving of support. However - as great as all this is - I do still suspect there are many in footy circles who move down this path with a level of wariness. Reason being - that for the last 100 years or so - in country towns the footy club and netball club have existed side by side. Today many local clubs are known as 'FNC', ('FootballNetballClub'). I do believe that pressure on the traditional male sports by soccer - which has been more a 'co-ed' sport from the outset - and soccer is able to boast high participation numbers and access govt grants the other codes struggled to match based in no small part on the female participation. So - for the AFL - yes, encourage the girls to play footy, create pathways and the like but what of the previously symbiotic relationship of footy and netball? #Mister Football Luke Matias who plays with Caulfield Grammarians (B and C grade over the years) rates some of the competition particularly highly. You shouldn't try a straight comparison - you need to be a little more lateral. The Fijians for example who weren't top 3 - have an athleticisim and flare but also a hardness that many a C/B grade VAFA team would struggle to compete with. A number of the PNG lads have played some very handy footy through 2nd/3rd tier comps such as NEAFL,AFLQ and the VFL - players such as Peter Meli, David Labi, Gideon Simon, Amua Pirika, John James, Don Barry, Brendon Beno and Emmaus Wartovo in particular have all played good quality footy and would more than handle themselves at most standards. The key thing is that even the sides rounding out the top 6 or top 8 will tend to have some really, really good talent but tend to drop off in the depth. The quickest fall away is skills under pressure and when fatigued, decision making under same, and lack of experience on full size ovals. A lot of the overseas guys still play most their regular footy in 9s or 12s. Make no mistake though - the World Team and even a 2nd XVIII would be very, very handy sides given a bit of time to gel together too.

Tegan, next time you are in Vietnam come and have a kick with the Vietnam Swans! We are a fully inclusive club with a girls team that plays Gaelic/mixed modified Aussie Rules, a female on our executive and probably the only team in Asia to encourage partners and families to come on club tours. It is the future of footy, some of us men have just embraced it a bit earlier than others. www.vietnamswans.com

Wilson is a poor journalist that starts rumours to bring down anyone she don't like. She speaks nothing but garbage. Let her go and write soccer articles and see if you guys like her then,only then will you realise she is a goose.

Completely agree. She's gutsy and it's just not Monday if she hasn't called for someone's resignation.

Perhaps. For someone who likes to dish it out, Fuss doesn't know how to cop it. It usually takes one negative comment about soccer before he resorts to calling Aussie rules eggballers, aerial ping pong and any other puerile thought he can pull out of his little narrow mind. I guess that comes with having a serious superiority complex. I'm tempted to say that his comments are borderline troll behaviour.

I'm sure Fussy will have you believe this type of behavior - whilst unacceptable to most - shows football fans are far more passionate about their game than AFL fans. Well...it will be something along those lines anyway if he responds. He tends to be put back in his little box quite easily though, so I don't expect he will be back for at least 24 hours. I could be wrong though :) The bait has been laid..........

People like him will be back unfortunately, can't help himself, bit like a bad penny.

I'm a bit surprised that he's shown his face here at all, as I believe it was him who was deservedly shot down in flames, as mentioned in Olivia's comment. Oh, t'was a sight to behold.

I pose the obvious question - Soccer Football has a National Senior Womens League which has been running for a few years but according to you that is fine. Actually Soccer Football did us a favour because the Woman (Jan Cooper) here in Perth who is driving this new league continually refers to to that league as a yard stick. If they can do it so can we is the attitude.

micka, The future ranks for Womens footy are primarily coming from girls Auskick which is expanding quite well now with dedicated girls Auskick centres. But it takes time -About 10 years to get a junior (Girl or Boy) through all the levels until they enter seniors. This is all very basic AFL structure stuff which AFL supporters should know.

Agreed, Caroline Wilson would know as much, if not more, than any footy commentator going round. However I do get sick of the constant calling for heads to roll. Regardless of the issue or severity.

You really want to do this? Ok. After 100+ years of competition, soccer cannot have matches without segregating opposing fans nor can they turn up without setting off flares. Why are you even here? Go back to the soccer pages where you can stroke your own ego by bullying opposing comments on soccer with your typical style of attacking the commentator rather than intelligently logically addressing the comment.

Truth be told I don't know that many female AR fans who are particularly interested in actually playing. I would imagine any women who would like to play footy are more than able to. There are a number of ammo leagues for women around melbourne.

Fusball claimed some time ago he would never post on the AFL boards, yet day after day he is here with his continuous bile.

"So, according to you, Buckley is responsible for all the positive outcomes we are currently seeing. But, Gallop is responsible for all the alleged negative outcomes. The fact that football haters – like yourself – are on football discussion boards every day is, in itself, a massive victory for David Gallop & the FFA. SMELL THE FEAR!" Are they not your words Fuss on the football forum? Interesting indeed that you do exactly the same thing on this forum. Perhaps you should heed ones own advice perhaps?

@johno I want the best people are picked for the job. Not token representatives to fill a gender quota. The best people to discuss the Men's World Cup are players who've "been there done that". So, I suggest you tune into the Women's World Cup in 2015 & check out the special analysts in the commentary box & the studio analysts discussing pre-match, HT & post-match. After 100+ years of competition, AFL cannot even organise a national women's competition.

I love Caro. She's one of the few journo's not afraid to kick up a stink when something is off in the boys club that is the AFL administration and AFL footy club administration. I always read her articles, even though it seems to some she is simply grinding an axe, but as it turns out she's hit the mark more often than not. Good on her. If people hate her then she must be doing something right!

After reading Tegan's article and then your comment I find it remarkable how you've misunderstood the points she was trying to make. Recently while watching the soccer world cup (I love a good world cup ... rugby league excepted) I reflected on the fact that there were no female commentators. No female pundits sitting with Ned Zelic, Craig Foster, Spider Zelko Kalic and the boys. Admittedly SBS do have Lucy Zelic on its A-League team, but the AFL tried out Kelli Underwood a few years back. She's still calling the game on the radio. Tegan was talking about the disregard given to women about their input into the football conversation. They don't have a voice, or when they do its usually dismissed with "good on yer luv, now go back to watching the soapies". If you think about the TV shows that talk football ad infinitum there are only 4 females who regularly get a guernsey - Caro, Sam Lane, plus Leila and Shelly from Marngrook. Both Leila and Shelly got a bit more time on the panel this year which was good to see. The point is - why aren't there more? Crowd numbers include an equal portion of female supporters. Surely they have something to say about the game, and I'm sure it is more interesting than half of what the blokes have to say (Dermie, Matthew Campbell, Tony Shaw, Ricciouto etc etc)

disagree - I love her

Who doesn't love a good conversation and discussion about footy? I don't care who it's with. Gender should never determine who is involved in football - wouldn't be great to see female club bosses eventually. Well done to St Kilda for employing a full-time female assistant coach. And then there is the most obvious point, where would the game be with out the involvement of women period - starting with mum's.