TELL US: What would you do to keep growing women's sport?

Of course athletes are paid for the amount of effort they put in. If you train and play sport full time you need a wage that reflects a full time job. Otherwise these athletes actually couldn't train and play sport full time.

Sportspeople aren’t paid for effort put in. Male or female sport being an irrelevant factor in that equation. Do low profile Olympic. Sportspeople get paid per effort Unit. No. It’s money generated.

Tend to agree with what you've outlined. The revenue generation is an interesting though. While at the moment the AFLW doesn't generate the same sort of crowds, and in fact allows free entry to games, it creating pathways for woman to have a sporting career in AFL. The revenue generation may not be able to measured directly on its own and used for a genuine comparison. As a result this is strengthening and growing the overall supporter base that is benefitting the AFL as a whole. More going to mens games, more woman watching the sport on tv, more merchandise sales, more girls choosing AFL over other sports.

I'm talking about the junior club comps - all on Sundays here in NSW. And space in the Sydney regions for AFL clubs is a massive issue with the number of teams across all age groups growing. As you've pointed out with water, this is often an issue with rugby and the "spear tackle" when grounds become hard and dry due to water restrictions in the past. Ortho surgeons have commented on the subject and type of terrible injuries that they see. Too much rain in Sydney has meant oval closures and cancelled matches, or a 40km schlepp to the nearest available ground. Over zealous groundsmen and councils hold the clubs responsible for any damage from stud boots if there's been rain, and the fines are massive. So a few things to get sorted in cities where there is a lot of pressure on a few venues.

The juniors can play on Saturday morning, with the seniors on Saturday afternoon. There's plenty of time for the women and old men to play on Sundays. The problem isn't with being able to fit everyone in; it's usually with recalcitrant councils. The girls don't need a full sized ground anyway; they could play on soccer grounds as well.

You'd be surprised to know that I've played footy in NSW. I'm not removed from it at all.

You're far removed from NSW footy pies. You've already said you don't like female footy but you seem very keen for no else to like it, including the females.

Interesting you mention water - through my work I see a lot of public infrastructure issues and spending, and water costs are one of the biggest problems facing sporting clubs, in Brisbane and surrounds at least. Plenty of sporting clubs are effectively trading insolvent with their water bills - they have no hope of catching them up long term, and the can just keeps kicked down the road. I've seen plenty of league clubs up here for example spending $30,000/quarter on water, an amount they are just incapable of paying with their existing fee structure and ingoings/outgoings. It's a problem that both local & state governments are going to have to work on solving at some point by either pledging more funds, shaking down participants for more, discounted water rates, or reviewing nature of council & state leases, because something will give sooner or later, I can assure you of that.

Where I am in Melbourne there's plenty of footy on Saturdays (the VAFA and a lot of senior comps) and on the Sundays are the juniors and overage (of which I've been part for most the last decade) and generally the womens. For many clubs there is no wiggle room. Yes - there will still be some under utilised venues on a case by case basis and it's up to councils to work with clubs to maximise access to all venues. More and more clubs now have girls and womens sides that didn't 5 years ago - there's been a massive impact in the last couple of years and the girls are building their own history and traditions - it's great to see. It IS a great game to play. One thing for sure - the next dry late summer/autumn and we'll see the DeSal plant running overtime to keep up with the grounds maintenance watering demands.

Penster's not necessarily out of touch if the info he's giving is right, albeit in NSW. You're right, though: footy is a very Saturday dominated sport here in SA as well. One thing I will say, though, is that if facilities are an issue, they should strike deals with schools or universities to use ovals. I know my uni owns several ovals around Adelaide, and there's plenty of schools with large ovals that are free (usually on Sundays!).

Nope, you're out of touch there Penster. In the heartland states footy is always played on Saturdays. There's plenty of footy grounds that are empty on Sundays. Plus, teams play home and away - they're away every second week, so half the footy grounds are empty every week. NSW footy is that far removed from the real stuff that it's almost incomparable. The novelty is for the girls - don't try to misinterpret my words to launch an insult.

with you on all of this Rick In my view it's very important sport always strives to maximise participation where possible - excluding half the population from playing at the elite level for their gender over the sake of a few lousy bucks would be a terrible move. It's why the AFL has done so well in setting up this competition for the women and not balking at paying the bills for it. AFL makes shedloads of cash, absolute shedloads and if nothing else funding a women's comp is necessary insurance to ward off attacks against the left flank that the sport is out of touch or doesn't reflect society's views. The knuckle draggers will always be out there but they're not the sort of fans AFL should be worried about losing through boycotts or declining participation, and indeed they won't. Broadly speaking I think the best way to keep growing women's sport is to just keep putting it out each year, strive for stability and consistency in the competition. Carve out a niche season in Australia's sporting calendar and build towards a feeling of permanence, inevitability each year and routine. The hardest part is going to be resisting the urge to tinker with it too much over the next ten years.

School sport is played Saturdays, club footy is played Sundays in our comp - the biggest in NSW. And no, there are not "plenty of facilities", not even close, the last thing we want to do is turn players - boys or girls - away, we're looking at using the interior area of horse racing tracks for fields. BTW, girls are not novelties. An offensive comment.

Once the novelty drops off participation rates will drop off significantly. There's plenty of facilities; footy is played on Saturdays, the girls can play on Sundays.

Facilities is the big challenge facing the burgeoning participation rates in womens AFL at junior club level. As the article states, it's a fast growing sport, the population in general is increasing and open space is at a premium close to cities with pressure to develop land that would ordinarily be used for recreation and sport. There is no shortage of skills, enthusiasm, ambition, administrators, umpires & coaches. And the naysayers can go to hell, they're on the wrong side of history as usual!

I agree that local governments need to provide ovals.

More focus on the W league , currently has the most elite female athletes competing from all over the world . Also The Matilda’s are on the brink of Olympic gold or winning a World Cup .

Tennis and horse riding are fine. But men and women in the same game in a body contact sport is an unacceptable risk profile.

It's worth noting that professional sport for males in this country is only about 4 decades old, before that blokes played for the shear love of it. Through the AFLW, cricket etc females have have got a glimpse of something to aim for and marvel at. I've got no problem with female elite sport being subsidised. It strengthens interest in the game no matter who is playing it.

I'll be brutally honest: I care little for elite women's sport. Most around the world (if honest enough) would say the same thing. The level of interest in this article reinforces such a notion too. Why? Because all elite sport is nothing more than entertainment, with a majority preferring to watch the absolute best should there be a choice. Women will never compete equally with men in 99 percent of sports — it's that simple. The real question you should be asking is: should we enforce a socialist policy on all elite sports in the same manner we do in society as a whole? Are we all equal and if so, to what extent should elite sportswomen be subsidised by the men? AFLW is a classic example of a top-tier women's competition being heavily subsidised by the men. It's currently not a self-sustainable model (and that's not to say it can't be in the future) and will never generate the level of revenue the men's competition does. Therefore, do we accept the men will always be paid higher in this particular sport, or do we apply a socialist policy by subsidising the women at the expense (financially) of the men? The sport which probably does it best at the elite level is tennis. However, I have no doubt if the women were separated from the men in grand slam events, the crowds and interest in the women's game would probably drop. It also must be noted the men's game already heavily subsidises the women substantially when you take content into account i.e. best of 3 vs 5 sets. Saying that I believe grand slam events are better overall because of the integration of both men and women. As such, this potentially is one solution to growing other elite women's competitions. Personally, I would apply a socialist policy — to some extent — if we truly believe society should be equitable, despite elite sport being extremely capitalist in nature.