Welcome to The Roar’s women’s sport weekly wrap – a space where I’ll introduce you to personalities in women’s sport and share some of the biggest talking points from the past week.
As a rugby league fan, Queensland dominance is something that I have (unfortunately) become accustomed to. This year saw the Maroons defeat the Blues in Game II to secure their 10th Origin series win in the past 11 years. This is something I am often reminded about by my friends north of the border.
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While that record is impressive, it’s nothing when you compare it to the record of the NSW Breakers, who on the weekend defeated the Queensland Fire to claim their 18th Women’s National Cricket League final. This is quite incredible considering the title has been contested 21 times and the Breakers have featured in every single one of those finals.
If you need more than the win on the weekend to rub in the faces of your friends from Queensland, remind them that the Fire have only been in four WNCL finals, and each time the Fire have been defeated by NSW.
This win bodes well for the two NSW teams – the Sydney Thunder and the Sydney Sixers – in the upcoming season of the WBBL, which kicks off this weekend at North Sydney Oval. If you have time, come and watch, because it really is going to be a carnival of cricket.
Saturday begins at 10am with the Hobart Hurricanes taking on the Perth Scorchers, followed by the Adelaide Strikers taking on the Melbourne Renegades. Saturday evening sees reigning champions Sydney Thunder in action against the Melbourne Stars.
On Sunday, again starting at 10am, the Melbourne Renegades will play the Adelaide Strikers, the Perth Scorchers will play the Hobart Hurricanes and the Sydney Sixers will take on the Brisbane Heat to finish the weekend.
And don’t forget, if you can’t get to North Sydney Oval, all of the games will be streamed on Facebook and by Cricket Australia. That’s 59 games in 50 days. Bring it on.
Passionate. Determined. Boss. Thanks Susan Alberti
This week Susan Alberti announced that she would be stepping down from her role as vice-president of the Western Bulldogs Football Club.
After a year which saw the Bulldogs win their first premiership since 1954 and the announcement of the women’s inaugural competition, Susan is certainly leaving the Western Bulldogs and women’s AFL in a very positive place after serving her fourth term in office, which is the maximum allowed at the club.
There are some things you may not know about Susan Alberti. She is a woman who has supported the Bulldogs for 60 years, and during this time she has also been a fierce and passionate advocate for women’s football.
Susan has also devoted plenty of time to philanthropy – particularly in the medical research space – and has been a finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards in 1997 and 2007, received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1997 and was awarded an Office of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2007.
This is a woman who has helped to change the AFL landscape in this country, and I have no doubt she will continue to be involved after she retires. Her retirement came with this statement: “I want to see a women’s team at every club. Playing football is not a privilege, it’s a right.”
I can only hope that we see leaders with the same courage, tenacity and commitment involved in all sports so that sport is something accessible to both men and women from the grassroots to professional leagues.
Juggling two sports at once
It’s no secret that when it comes to female athletes they are often very good at juggling their sporting commitments with other things like studying, families or jobs.
What is becoming increasingly common, however, are players juggling more than one sport. The most famous example is Ellyse Perry, who has represented Australia in both cricket and football at the highest level, but there are countless other examples.
Dual representation is an issue which has come to a head in the lead-up to the WBBL and the inaugural women’s AFL competition, with four women contracted to play in both competitions.
Emma Kearney, who will play for the Melbourne Stars in the WBBL and the Western Bulldogs in the AFL Women’s competition, has criticised Cricket Australia for asking her to sign a form which would make cricket her priority over AFL.
Despite the two competitions not formally overlapping, women playing both will have AFL training commitments during the WBBL tournament, and WBBL teams could be forced to compromise and share their athletes during the season.
This all comes back to the issue of pay and the reality that for most women in Australia playing sport professionally is not a financially viable option. Until it is an option, sports will need to understand that their athletes will be looking externally for other sources to supplement their income.
Around the grounds
To finish off this week there were a couple of things that happened across a variety of sports that I wanted to mention.
Firstly, the Perth Lynx have successfully secured a live broadcast deal with Channel Seven for two of their upcoming WNBL games in their home state of Western Australia. This is a big deal in a league that has been progressing in the 2016–17 season without a major sponsor or broadcast deal. This announcement came after Perth’s 80-73 win on the weekend against defending champions Townsville Fire.
In other news I had no idea that Australia was so competitive in bowls. The Australian women’s fours defeated England at the Bowls World Championships in Christchurch, securing a gold medal. This is not the only medal up for grabs by Australian women – on Sunday defending Australian champion Karen Murphy will be up against Lesley Doig from Scotland for gold in the women’s single crown.
I did save the best until last, though. This week Matildas goalkeeper Lydia Williams was recognised as the Professional Footballers Australia’s player of the year. This is the second time that Lydia has won this award – she first received it back in 2012.
This award comes off the back off a fantastic year for Lydia, who has played for Canberra United, for NWSL franchise Houston Dash and for the Matildas.
So whether it’s basketball, cricket, football or bowls, there’s plenty of women’s sport to keep you entertained in the lead up to Christmas, so get involved – and see you at North Sydney oval on the weekend!
Charlie Cameron should take plenty away from kicking five goals in an obliteration of Richmond against the Hawks.
Sydney veteran Luke Parker has copped a massive six-week suspension from the VFL Tribunal, for his bump which left Frankston player Josh Smith with…
Despite beating the highly fancied GWS Giants, Cornes couldn't bring himself to shower any praise on the coach, Luke Beveridge.
Poor Luke had best get used to this!
Apart from one five-goal game, GWS forward Toby Greene has only kicked six goals from the other eight games. He's traditionally had success against the Western Bulldogs.
Bayley Fritsch should become an even more important player from a structural perspective, given key forward Jacob van Rooyen will be unavailable due to concussion.
