AFLW Rd 1: Carlton vs Collingwood at Ikon Park

[mateinone]

I don't have daughters, but I can understand why some people are so frustrated with the way women in sport are perceived.

I think they deserve every bit of attention they get without the need to judge them relative to men. I do not see them as halftime entertainment or a curtain raiser there just to fill in the blanks. I'm sure you don't mean to infer that they are just a sideshow.

I see the elite in the girls, even if it is a different kind of elite to the men!

The problem LP is that most people only have X percent of their time to dedicate to their watching of sports. You get the odd person who watches everything they can, but for most people that isn't a reality.
It is why you wont' find many people who watch the AFL, SANFL, VFL, WAFL  etc. It isn't about being a sideshow, but it can be about competing with the quality of the sport. If the best players in the VFL all started playing in another competition it is quite conceivable that people will switch leagues to watch the best players. Not all, but a percentage will for sure, because for a lot of people it is about the quality of the skills on display. The same happens in soccer, with people watching a club like PSG this year, that previously would have paid them little or zero attention. They keep their team they support, but find themselves tuning into the top teams as well.

With me at the moment, I watch the EPL & AFL, I have an interest in the tennis slams, an interest of course in Olympics, a little in the cricket and now with Ben Simmons I am following the NBA more than I have since the 90s. I also have an interest in the men's & women's soccer, but I admit that if the Australian Men were stronger I would pay less attention to the Matildas and openly state that I know far more Australian Men soccer players than I do women of any nationality.

You are right, women do deserve to be more than a sideshow, but with many sports competing for corporate and public dollars, the spectacle must entertaining in it's own right, not 'just as a women's sport'. For some AFLW is absolutely doing that already & there is a serious chance that more people will watch an AFLW game than any other non-olympic event in women's sports history this year... which is amazing!!! But the level of football does need to get much better, the women need to develop much higher skills and athleticism. It matters not to me that most are not full time professionals, because that is the same for most Olympians who need primary jobs.

To me (in the limited amount I have seen) the ball moves slowly there just isn't the intensity & the sport is not any more exciting than watching a local game between 2 teams I don't know. I also don't get the way that commentators tip toe around the issue of players being not fit enough and overweight. If it was male players in any sport they would call it out and surely that should be the case as well, because the fitter the players the more successful the clubs, the better the spectacle etc.. To make this game successful, I think most of the women have a fair way to go with their fitness. Hopefully the chances will be visible every year, I think they will be.

It is of course possible that women will get to an elite level, but I think it is ignorant to the reality if anyone believes that AFLW skills/fitness are not a LONG way from being where it will be in 5 or so years. In 5 years I am hoping the players and public can come back, watch footage of these games and say, yes they were pioneers, but the level of the game was average. That would then mean that women have taken a huge leap.

Whilst it might not be useful to compare the game to the men's game, there is something to be said to comparing women at the top level of other sports and where they might sit in comparison to the men.

Below are some of how I would compare the top females and where they might sit if playing in men's leagues.

I think the Matildas would beat a lot of male league sides at maybe 2 levels below the A-League, perhaps 3?
The top women tennis players could likely beat players outside perhaps the top 600-700 players in the world
I would think the Australian Women's Basketball team could also be competitive in metropolitan division 1 leagues.
The current level of women's football I don't think would get anywhere near a division 2 league team or any top 6-8 team in a Victorian country league. I think in all honestly they would struggle to finish outside the bottom 4 in most Under 18 competitions.

Now I raise this comparison, because I do believe that it shows that if the women can train to an elite level they should be able to get to the stage where perhaps they could challenge at those levels, their fitness alone would be enough to ensure that they could run a lot of those teams off their feet, as well as their better coaching levels etc. In 5 years, perhaps 10, then women might achieve that level of maturity. If they do.. the spectacle will be much better, the movement of the ball will be much quicker and then I believe they will have a sport quite capable of standing on it's own 2 feet.

Anyway, as I have said... I think that the sport will take off, I think it is great that this could create more pathways for more women to become full time professional athletes, but it is important to make sure they are being assessed correctly, especially internally, because if the sport stays at the level it currently is... I think it might struggle to sustain a full paying public's interest.