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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tricky
Guest
Really?! Anon these women know the dangers of the game and accept the dangers, are you going to suggest the same for rugby? Or even motocross? Let's look at netball and the amount of ankle and knee problems they face during and after career, like in their 30's knees and ankles are toast! That should not deny them the right to decide whether or not to take on the dangers In fact with no disrespect to you I'm sure those girls and women who wish to play contact sport including Aussie rules would find your comments unwittingly chauvinistic!
anon
Guest
Should we really encouraging girls to play a contact sport like AFL given the high chance of sustaining a head injury at some point and the general wear and tear on their bodies playing a contact sport with tackling. Is it worth arthritic knees in your 60's? Especially given people born today will likely live to 90 or 100, work into their 80's and will need to maintain their mobility throughout their working life. Shouldn't we be promoting walking, swimming instead? Even netball must be far better for the long term health of their bodies. This isn't about getting women into sport so they can improve themselves. This is just about having professional women's football leagues in order to have more content to sell to media companies.
Penster
Guest
Your comments are 100% on the money Slane including the first post up there. It's a rapidly growing sport, so stats will be out of date quickly. There was a well publicised case some years back that insurance wouldn't cover girls once they hit 12 or thereabouts, effectively killing off club footy for girls. That's changed and so has the landscape. My girls have taken up AFL as a sport - it's no longer a dead end sport for them that has to be abandoned at high school. The club we play at has exceeded expectations and in the space of a couple of years, went from testing the waters of female footy, to having several teams per age group. Some incredible players amongst them too, who would have been lost to other sports if the opportunity wasn't there. The support and enthusiasm from senior female players has been fantastic too. The AFL has gone hard on this because it's going to be viable and if women comprise 50% of the population, it's a no brainer.
Bill
Guest
Would be surprised to find women's golf gets much of an audience...
Cat
Roar Guru
They need to be the best female players, but not need to be equal to the men. In time the women's game will evolve to be played slightly differently to suit their particular talents and body shapes. Men's tennis is dominate by the power serves whereas the womans is more about the volley. Men's golf is full of big hitters and courses being lengthened for them. Women's golf is more a finesse game.
Bill
Guest
I agree wth this and it's concerning. I keep trying to watch the w bash buts it's not a great standard. I don't watch club cricket for the sa,e reason. Love the firebirds and diamonds on tv though. So suspect you need to be the best of the best to make it as a pro sports league...
TWLS
Guest
The Swans declined to tender citing we have no extra facilities available to cater for them, which means they will not have a team until -Who knows when . Read on. However the Giants stepped up and will have Womens AFL and Netball teams, along with Collingwood. The comp starts with 8 teams in 2017 and the AFL said so far will add 2 teams every 2 years until 2021. Numbers wise - 18 teams x 30 player squads = 540 players of reasonable standard. We are not there yet so the graduated progression. One point non Aussie Rules fans miss is Auskick for 5-12 boys and girls, which started in 1990 and saw hundreds of young girls move to other sports because nothing after 12 years old. That will not happen now. 2016 AFL official participation incl Auskick 380,000. 2015 " 301,000
I hate pies
Guest
Well that thread didn't turn out at all how I thought it might.
clipper
Guest
Think that has more to do with her being involved in one of these new age evangelical Pentecostal churches where she is a minister. The only tennis player to have won multiple grand slams in Singles, Mixed and Doubles. Can't see that record being broken.
AJ Mithen
Expert
good point Slane!
TomC
Roar Guru
I think being a clod lost out in that case. She is unashamedly homophobic. You can be a sporting hero and a bit of a wally. But you can laud their achievements and still reject their ideas.
TomC
Roar Guru
I'd have thought the relevance was obvious. How else does one judge the significance of stadiums? Anyway, they have all kinds of events at those two stadiums. Not just tennis. Of course, the larger one tends to have the more high profile events, and RLA hosts the major Australian Open events, including every singles quarter final and beyond. They're not the same. As a way of assessing the relative profiles of Laver and Court, it's not a strong example for you.
Macca
Guest
PaulD - I saw an for "first contact" a month or so ago where Tom Ballard was laying blame at the feet of rich, privileged white men seemingly unaware that despite him being gay he is in fact a rich, privileged white man.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Only time I've heard Margaret Court's name mentioned in recent years is when she's been crucified in the liberal media for bagging out gays Unfortunately being a woman loses to being gay in the game of minority grievance poker
Macca
Guest
At a guess I would suggest TomC is saying it is a bit like the old XXXX ad where they "over did it with the sherry"
I hate pies
Guest
How is that relevant?
TomC
Roar Guru
Margaret Court Arena is about half the size of Rod Laver Arena.
Declan McAllister
Guest
I wish their was a women's team in the Sydney Swans?
I hate pies
Guest
I don't know about that. Both Margaret Court and Rod Laver have courts named after them, and we only hear about both of them when the Australian Open is on. I'd say they're pretty even. We've been bombarded with promotion of women's sports in the last few months, so they haven't had a recognition problem recently (even though they're not actually playing at an elite level in the WBBL or the AFLW), and you agree that elite women have been celebrated in the past. The comparison of the elite player ratio in sports that are newly professionalised for women is irrelevant because, like I pointed out above, they aren't playing at an elite level. If they want to become elite they're going to have to get more women playing and lift the standards and expectations.
Simon Massey
Roar Rookie
G'day I hate pies, I agree that female athletes have been celebrated over time – I still remember the Olympic torch coming into the stadium in 2000 and being carried by some of Australia’s all-time great female athletes. However, I believe that inequality in recognition has existed across time. Margaret Court has twice the Grand Slam record of Rod Laver, but I would suggest that Laver has the stronger profile. And the article only uses Women’s AFL as an example, the changes in women’s sport are widespread – expansion of national netball competition, introduction of WBBL, changes to W-league, etc. SM