The Roar
The Roar

AFL
Advertisement

The elite-to-participation ratio in women’s sport is low. Is it sustainable?

Roar Rookie
19th December, 2016
Advertisement
Daisy Pearce (left) and Katie Brennan (right) are two of the women's AFL competition's most high-profile recruits. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Roar Rookie
19th December, 2016
39
1278 Reads

Throughout the year, the triumph of women’s sport has been unmistakeable.

The Matildas (football) and Pearls (rugby sevens) have been the most dominant Australian teams, the ANZ Netball Championship delivered the most exciting grand final of 2016 (two periods of extra time) and our women won five out of Australia’s eight gold medals at the Rio Olympics.

» Women’s AFL league on The Roar
» All the teams and squad lists for the women’s AFL
» Complete 2017 women’s AFL fixtures

And all this follows the momentum created by Michelle Payne’s break-out victory in the 2015 Melbourne Cup.

These on-field successes have been matched by increasing recognition off the field. Earlier this month, on the opening weekend of WBBL02, the Channel Ten coverage reached a peak audience of 637,000 people. While in late October, the Fast Five International Netball tournament had a whopping 1.4 million strong audience.

While TV ratings are only one barometer for a community’s interest, the simple fact is that Australians love watching women’s sport. They probably always have – it’s only now that they are starting to get the opportunity.

The prominence of women’s sport is set to continue in the New Year with free-to-air television deals bringing women’s AFL and netball to our screens. These new and revitalised competitions are increasingly commercialised and now have the backing of some of Australia’s largest, and formerly male-only, sporting clubs.

However, as a keen observer of sport, I’m concerned about the pace of growth in women’s sport. Can it be sustained into the future?

Advertisement

At its most basic, sport is an avenue of recreation that millions of Australians enjoy. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, published in January this year, reveals that over 11.1 million Australians had participated in some form of sport or physical exercise in the preceding 12 months.

What were the other 13 million Australians doing? The most common activities were walking for exercise and going to the gym.

In total there were more females than males participating in physical exercise. However, these numbers dramatically reverse when analysing participation rates in competitive sport.

And herein lies the problem, but also a solution.

Historically, women’s sport has not had the elite sport recognition. Young girls have not had the opportunity to be inspired by female champions. And while the social dynamics of sport participation is complex, this lack of role modelling has clearly played a part in lower participation numbers in competitive sport.

Women’s AFL provides a great example. Until now, a casual observer would have thought that AFL was solely a male sport. But these perceptions are being changed. Over recent years the women’s all-star game has been telecast on free-to-air television with outstanding success.

However, the change is new and has not had the opportunity to translate into increased participation at the grassroots levels. The ABS survey estimated that only 12,700 women played AFL in 2013-14. That rounds neatly to 0.00 per cent of all women participating in physical exercise and sport.

Advertisement

Next year, the new women’s AFL competition will begin with eight teams, each with approximately 25 contracted players. That’s 200 semi-professional women’s AFL players across the country. This represents an elite-to-participation ratio of 1:50, that is one in every 50 women playing AFL will be on a semi-professional contract.

Women's AFL football game

To put these figures in context, there are approximately 206,000 males who play AFL across the country. Of these, about 540 are contracted to male AFL clubs (and many more in state competitions). This translates to an elite-to-participation ratio of one professional player for every 400 men playing the game.

These numbers raise questions about the sustainability of the grassroots base supporting women’s AFL. Can a national league be sustained with such a small base level of participation? And while the men’s AFL league has over 150 years of development, the women’s game is only in its infancy.

Don’t hear me wrong – I’m all for women’s sport at an elite level – I’ll be watching the women’s AFL competition next year. And I’m sure that a televised national competition will encourage greater participation numbers with young girls. But one has to question whether the low-level of grassroots participation can sustain an enduring professional league?

In contrast, netball has the grassroots player base and the widespread support. The ABS survey reported that over 387,000 Australian women played netball in 2013-14. The new national competition featuring eight teams with ten contracted players means there will be 80 professional women’s netball players across the country. That’s an elite-to-participation ratio of one professional player for every 5000 female participants.

This presents a genuine opportunity for expansion.

Advertisement

Netball could be rightfully called Australia’s national sport, and yet it has one of the lowest opportunities to play professionally. While the expansion to eight national teams is a start, there appears to be so much potential for further growth.

Why not have an 18-team national competition and empower large regional centres like Newcastle, the Gold Coast and Townsville, just like in the football codes?

Into the future, I’m confident that historians will look back at 2016 as a defining year in women’s sport, an awakening to its untapped potential. The decisions we make over the coming years will be crucial to its ongoing success. Elite sport and grassroots participation are intrinsically linked; it would be wrong to pursue one without the other.

close