As the end of the decade approaches, social media is being flooded with messages about how much has been achieved over the last ten years.
When it comes to sport, the most monumental change in the Australian sporting landscape has been the revolution that has been women’s sport.
If I reflect on my own journey over the last ten years, in 2010 I had very little visibility of women’s sport. I knew about women who competed in individual sports like tennis, swimming and athletics and my hero was Susie O’Neill, but apart from the Olympic Games every four years, I couldn’t see women playing team sports.
When it came to the team sports I loved the most like rugby league and cricket, I had no idea that women could actually play these sports at an elite level or that the Southern Stars (as they were then known) or the Australian Jillaroos existed.
I wasn’t the only one.
Kezie Apps only became aware of the Jillaroos one night when she was watching the Simpsons. There was a pause for advertisements and there was a preview of the upcoming news program which featured a snippet of footage about the Jillaroos winning the Rugby League World Cup in 2013.
Alyssa Healy was the same and grew up playing cricket with very little awareness that she could once wear the green and gold for her country.
This has all changed now.
In the last five years we have seen the addition of the NRLW, AFLW, Super W and WBBL to accompany existing women’s competitions like the WNBL and the W-League.
When the Australian women’s cricket team, the Matildas and the Australian Jillaroos represent our country it is now expected that these games are televised and available for people to watch over live stream.
Ellyse Perry, Sam Kerr, Ruan Sims, Tayla Harris and Grace Hamilton are household names, and at the end of sporting matches we see young men and young women hanging over the fence waiting for heroes that ten years ago were completely invisible.
There have also been some absolutely spectacular moments. Personally, mine have included Ellyse Perry making 213 not out in the day/night women’s Test match at North Sydney Oval in the 2017 Ashes series, the inaugural women’s State of Origin in 2018 at North Sydney Oval and flooding the field after the game with thousands of people to spend time with the players, Stephanie Gilmore equalling Layne Beachley’s record of seven World Surf League titles and that photo of Tayla Harris that sparked a whole new conversation around equality and the role of women in sport.
(Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Media)
The sporting landscape has changed in front of our eyes. Not only is it more gender diverse, but we have seen the increased focus on our Paralympic athletes and names like Kurt Fearnley, Dylan Alcott, Madison de Rozario, Ellie Cole and Lauren Parker are also now very familiar.
There have also been huge strides in relation to pay. We saw the NSW Breakers become he first every professional Australian domestic women’s sporting team.
In the last cricket Memorandum of Understanding, women were included for the first time so now all Australian players receive the same base pay rate regardless of gender. The payments for the elite women increased from $7.5 million over the previous five-year period to $55 million for the agreement that is in place until 2023.
The Matildas have followed suit with a new arrangement seeing their minimum wages set at $40,000 and going up to $83,000 for top-tier players, in line with what the Socceroos players will receive.
(Image: Supplied, Nike)
While pay is still a critical area and while some other sports are not as well progressed, the progress is tremendous when you consider that a decade ago, many women were having to pay to play to represent their countries.
So much has been achieved this decade, but I am confident that the revolution will continue into the next decade and even further strides will be made.
In ten years, many of our women’s competitions will be well established and attitudes that previously existed about women not playing sport will hopefully have disappeared, given that our next generation will grow up with it being the norm.
The quality of sport will continue to improve as more young women have an unbroken pathway from age four all the way to elite level. The talent pool will also be bigger given the explosion in female participation numbers that we have seen over the last decade.
It continues to amaze and inspire me when I consider what we have been able to achieve together in the last five years. I look forward to the next decade and seeing sport continue to be a leader when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
Our sports are richer and more enjoyable when everyone is included and this decade seems to be the one when our major sports finally begun to understand that.
R Gee
Roar Rookie
There definitely has been a revolution. I haven’t researched it in any concerted manner but sometimes find myself thinking about what drove it. Women have played sport, all sorts of sport for as long as I have known. They’ve also been athletic, talented and ambitious. Yet somehow we find ourselves at a time when substantial enough confluence of things, i.e. governing bodies, clubs, broadcasters, media, supporters, will, intent, patience, appetite, money etc. has come together to enable (or at least allow) women to be much more visible in sports that haven’t been traditionally considered to be women’s sports. [Tangent: For this reason I consider the headline to sit somewhere between unfortunate and disappointing. But then the perspective and tone of the article is quite different, so all good on balance. I think it’s a good article.] They do however have to endure having the unnecessary qualifier ‘W’ attached to their competition name. But that’s a personal bugbear. My gut feel is that the weight of factors contributing to greater exposure is different for each sport and even perhaps in localised areas. It seems that generally the key players in organisations (inc. governing, media etc.) are willing to learn how to do it better from each other. Which can only benefit them all.
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
Not only that Mary some of those girls that we can readily name are now, like their male counterparts becoming part of the media commentary teams on their sports. Some like the blokes are average but I can tell you this much some are far better at the job than their male counterparts give me Jim Maxwell & Alison Mitchell calling the cricket any day of the week and Alison is certainly underutilised by channel 7. Sure at my age I have been around the block a few times but funnily enough 3 of my sporting heroes are female, Heather McKay, Dawn Fraser & Yvonne Goolagong.
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
Unfortunately I can’t even blame spell check.
Spanner
Roar Rookie
Haha - I dont believe dear old "Satin" would be too pleased with this reference.
shifty
Roar Rookie
I LOVE THIS COMMENT.
shifty
Roar Rookie
It's just personal opinion.
shifty
Roar Rookie
Where will women's sport be in 10yrs? Probably still being subsidised by mens sport.
shifty
Roar Rookie
Equality of pay but not equality of work is the catch cry for womens tennis.
shifty
Roar Rookie
Totally agree with you, I was a huge fan of lingerie football but sadly it's no more ☹️
shifty
Roar Rookie
Much like soccer has only 2 skills, kicking and faking injury or rugby has only 2 skills, throwing and sniffing your mates bum in the scrum.
shifty
Roar Rookie
I'm waiting with bated breath for Netball Australia to announce the national men's Netball competition.
Seymorebutts
Guest
Thats only because we have a salary cap.. there's no question the top players would be getting several million a year without it. The AFL is the 4th best attended football league in the world... Iook it up on wikipedia, its only the premier league, US gridiron and one other that bring more people. Surprised me too if Im honest. Teams like Collingwood and West Coast have close to 90,000 members now, theres no League or Union team in the world that comes even close to that. The big Melbourne teams pull 80,000 people a week, the Perth teams are pulling 55,000 and its about 45, 000 for the Adelaide teams. NRL teams are lucky to get 20,000 to a game. I saw a couple of Broncos games in Brisbane and apart from marquee games it was barely 10,000 , and thats the number one sport in a one team town, and that was 1988 when everyone and his dog was crazy about the Boncos. If you dropped the pretend expansion teams the AFL figures would even be better.
Gyfox
Roar Rookie
Not forcing a point of view - just wanting equal space to the other football codes.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I am happy with what I've said. If you don't like it report me. My statement, at 5:21, was directed for Mary. Feel free to interfere.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I know nothing about handbags ma’am. Now I’m condescending. ROTFLMAO
mushi
Roar Guru
As I said the "thrust of the article ". Quoting a small part over and over again just belies your incapacity for intelligent discussion.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
"Yep sadly it relies on the intelligence of the audience, which Mary over estimated. Problem is spoon feeding everyone with a detailed explanation of every clause turns hemmingway into cat sat on the mat."
mushi
Roar Guru
Genuine... Like a $2 channel hand bag
mushi
Roar Guru
From a guy who ran "That’s the trouble with implications. They’re only implied." The hypocrisy drops off you like treacle. To run that line after you were clearly condescending just shows you were weighed, measured and found wanting
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Well l don't know her. ---- I have coached a number of boy's and girl's teams over the years. Especially at schools. When a kid was exceptionally good l'd pull that kid aside, with the parent's, and say with the right support and training the following. "Who knows where you can go but with diligent application the sky's the limit......maybe even state and national representation." ---- Anyone as good as Alyssa would've stood out. Don't you think? I just can't see how no-one would've said something somewhere. It totally baffles me if that weren't the case. Maybe I'm going to have to be baffled. ----- I am genuine in my post and not doing this to $h!+stir