AFLW- Round 1 Carlton V Collingwod-Match thread.

[Navy Maven]

One small note of sobriety in the frenzy of feel-good responses over this competition:

I bet all those women who’ve been playing elite sport for years are REALLY chuffed at the saturation media coverage the AFL womens comp is getting !!!!! 
Thinking the likes of womens:  Soccer, Basketball, Cricket, Hockey etc etc.  How long will it be before any talented sports-women is moving from other less funded & media hyped sports to play AFL instead….

Typical AFL, trying to kill off any competing sports while trying to look like they are doing a wonderful thing for women.

To be honest, I think any female sportsperson would be stoked that a women's sport is gaining this amount of hype and support. We've long been overlooked in Australia, so any sort of positivity is a great start.

What it will do however is encourage these women to put more pressure on their sporting bodies to better publicise their sports.

I'm the President of a women's softball association and know first hand what a struggle it's been to attract and retain junior participants. The AFL and to a lesser extent the FFA have done an incredible job at marketing their sports to young female athletes. AFL in particular has exploded and is the fastest growing sport for women in the country. That's been building though for the best part of a decade, the AFLW is only the icing on the cake. I've seen my sport fall by the wayside because the people in charge have been too focused on their elite pathways and not invested enough in grass roots, and I daresay that other sports are suffering similarly.

I take my hat off to the AFL though, they had a grand plan, stuck to it and are reaping the rewards.