Right: women players now now have ''a league of their own''. Will the youngest aspirants play in a senior team accepted by all as a vital part of the game of Australian Rules?.
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Arguments suggesting the new AFL women's competition is an advance for women's sport
1. The new AFL women's competition gives women access to one of Australia's most high-profile and lucrative sporting codes
Women's sporting competitions have long had difficulty attracting the publicity, sponsorship and fan base that are typically enjoyed by high profile male sports.
The expansion of the AFL competition to include women gives women players access to the media coverage and related opportunities normally only available to men.
In an opinion piece published in The Sydney Morning Herald on June 15, 2016, Samantha Lane explained what taking their place within as popular a sporting code as the AFL might mean for women players.
Lane stated, 'Overnight, your local girl Auskicker has won the opportunity to become a 200-game AFL legend.
She now stands to be applauded - and awarded - for her feats on field in a way that men around Australia have for decades.
She now stands to earn a living from pursuing sport as a full-time career.'
Lane explained further, 'Women, from 2017, will be crowned AFL Brownlow medallists, or a more appropriately named equivalent prize for being their competition's best player.
Women will be named in AFL All-Australian teams. They will be AFL club captains. Their kicks, marks and handballs will be broadcast on television and on radio. They will win sponsorships. In elite sporting surrounds they will be professionally coached and groomed.'
Commenting on what has now been made available to women AFL players, Melbourne captain Daisy Pearce has stated, 'It's the biggest code and the biggest sporting body in the country and certainly here it's a big part of the culture of Melbourne and to now have the opportunity to play this sport means a lot to girls.'
The lucrative potential for players and clubs is obvious from the extent of sponsor interest.
On September 1, 2016, Harris Scarfe unveiled a partnership with the Adelaide Crows women's team, the first sports partnership in the company's 167-year history. Meanwhile, Sydney Airport and financial services provider FlexiGroup have signed on with the Greater Western Sydney women's team, while Harvey Norman will be the Giants' partner sponsor.
Such sponsorship announcements have been seen as marking a shift after many years of crowd funding campaigns from women's AFL clubs to simply get on the team bus and play. The exposure made possible by joining the national AFL competition will offer a wide range of opportunities to the women players and the clubs for which they play.
2. The new women's competition will supply women and girls with positive role models
It has been argued that without a prominent women's AFL competition, women and girls are being denied an opportunity to see female players showcase the skills men display and so are not being given the role models that would encourage they to aspire to perform similarly.
When the eight clubs to field teams in the initial competition were announced on June 15, 2016, the AFL Commission Chairman, Mike Fitzpatrick, stated, 'Today we are joined by some of the best players our game has to offer, women who are already becoming household names, role models and heroes for the next generation of players.
The establishment of a national women's league will provide a platform to inspire young girls to reach for the stars...'
Similarly, Western Bulldogs club president Peter Gordon has stated, 'This is an important equity issue in terms of players and women being able to play, but it's also important that young girls growing up in the game get to see role models.'
Prior to the establishment of the new women's league, women interested in AFL have had limited role models.
Sports journalist, Angela Pippos, has stated, 'When I was growing up, I was the ringleader of kick-to-kick in my street. I could recite the A-Z of the South Australian National Football League backwards. But all my football role models were men. Men who played for Norwood.
The thought of an elite women's competition was something that never entered my head - not even fleetingly. Playing competitive Australian Rules football was never an option for me.'
Pippos believes that the new women's AFL competition will address this deficiency. 'Now, girls have a pathway and strong, visible role models to guide and inspire them every step of the way.
They will see elite women footballers on television, hear them on radio, read their stories and perhaps even collect their faces on footy swap cards.
They will see them get drafted, debut, kick their first AFL goal, take mark of the year, win the competition's best and fairest, run out on grand final day and hold the premiership cup aloft.'
Some of the women selected to play in the new competition have already noted that it will give them an opportunity to act as role models for girls interested in the game. Melbourne captain, Daisy Pearce, has stated, 'It's great to have the opportunity to play an elite sport out on an elite arena in a professional environment. But more so, to look around today and see those little girls who will grow up knowing that's something they can achieve is amazing,'
3. As the women's competition grows more women will participate as coaches and administrators
Those who support the new women's AFL competition argue that it is only a matter of time before women will feature more prominently as coaches and administrators within the competition.
In June, 2016, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, stated in relation to the new competition, 'It will provide opportunities for talented girls, but more than that: for coaches, for administrators, for everyone who wants to pursue their love of this game - men or women.
But certainly there will be a lot more opportunities for women than they've had in the past.'
Melbourne chief executive, Peter Jackson, has similarly stated, 'We needed more women in our game at all levels... We need them in our clubs, we need them in our footy departments...'
The AFL is making a deliberate effort to appoint as many women coaches and administrators as possible in the new women's competition. It has been claimed that the current relative lack of women in these positions is a consequence of inexperience and that over time women's participation as coaches and administrators will grow.
Collingwood's inaugural coach of the women's team, Wayne Siekman, has stated, 'People keep asking why there aren't more females coaching teams next year, but right at the moment there's a lack of quality female coaches out there.' Siekman and others have indicated that steps are being taken to address this problem.
Referring to the women coaches with whom he works, Siekmen has stated, 'We want to help upskill them as quickly as we can so that in four or five years' time, most of the coaches at women's level are females.
I can see that happening and if we could get there as quickly as that it would be great for the game.'
Collingwood's operations manager, Meg Hutchins, has stated, 'We want to help develop them [women coaches] and help them reach their potential, and the biggest feather in the cap would be if they were to go on and become head coaches in the women's competition in the future...
The best coaches out there at the moment are all males, other than Michelle Cowan and Peta Searle, and we want to try and change that by creating this pathway program.'
The AFL's Respect and Responsibility Program states, 'It is difficult to ensure that an environment of equality is generated where women are not appropriately represented at all levels of club administration, or are portrayed as sex objects or otherwise marginalised, rather than being recognised for their skills and contributions. Football clubs are an important part of Australian society and thus need to be safe, supportive and an inclusive environment for women.' This statement of principle refers to all AFL competitions, including, but not restricted to, the new women's competition, and is expected to result in growing numbers of women assuming roles as coaches and administrators in the new AFL women's competition and in the men's competition.
4. The women's game will achieve a more prominent position over time
Supporters of the way in which the new women's AFL competition is being established argue that critics need to recognise the fledgling state of the current competition and that it will consolidate over time. As Amanda Shalala noted in an opinion piece published by the ABC's current affairs program, The Drum, on August 19, 2015, 'The AFL will...have to compete with well established women's competitions in football, netball, cricket and basketball, amongst others, so patience is key.
It will take time to rival the established codes, to attract top talent and to build an outstanding product.'
Supporters of the current arrangements for the inaugural competition point out that the number of clubs fielding teams will grow, the remuneration offered the women players will increase and the scheduling of the games will be altered with the games being played during the traditional football session and so able to take greater advantage of the conventional fan base.
As the new competition develops the League intends that the season will be extended and that the women players will be paid more, with the ultimate intention of them being able to be fully professional in the way the men are.
The AFL development manager, Simon Lethlean, has stated that he hopes that stars such as Melbourne captain Daisy Pearce will be fulltime within four years. Lethlean observed, 'I don't think we can say in two-four years' time that it will be fully-professional for women, but we'd certainly love it to be.
Make it sustainable, make it long-term and be here in 100 years with 18 teams and broadcast and sponsorship support.'
The AFL's chief executive officer, Gillon McLachlan, has made a similar point, stating, 'We're on a journey. It's not the same as the men straight off. We are starting by turning amateur women into professional women.
But I tell you what we are going to be a long way down the path to being very much like the men in five years' time.'
The AFL intends that over time the women's competition will field the same number of teams as the men's, each probably affiliated with one of the existing clubs. The fact that there are initially only eight women's teams in the competition has been explained as a resources and a readiness issue.
The Geelong Cats, North Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda and the West Coast Eagles also applied to have a women's team in the 2017 and were unsuccessful. However, each of these five clubs has been granted a provisional licence, and will be provided with an outline of how the AFL will work closely with them to develop their talent base and ensure they are part of an expanded competition as soon as possible. It is anticipated that some will join the competition as early as 2018.
Specific information is to be provided to each club on how they can develop partnerships with state-league clubs, contribute to the talent pathway by supporting Youth Girls Academies, and enhance their capacity to support a women's team.
It has also been suggested that over time the scheduling of the women's games is likely to change. Once all clubs have an associated women's team it will be possible to use the women's games as curtain raisers to the men's matches. As Amanda Shalala has noted, this would have the additional benefit of allowing 'a cost effective approach for broadcasters, who can take advantage of their existing setup for the proceeding AFL match.' It will also ensure that women's games draw the largest crowds possible with the associated benefits that come from attracting sponsorship.
5. Players, spectators and sponsors are already embracing the women's competition
Supporters of the new women's AFL competition note that even before it has officially begun the participation rates among women players and the strength of audience support for exhibition matches indicate that the women's league will be a success.
The growth of player participation in women's football has been recent and dramatic. Sally Thompson, writing for Sportette on September 5, 2016, outlined the growth in participation in the women's game. Thompson has stated, 'Women played a handful of games between World War 1 and the 1970s, mostly as fundraisers or social attractions, it was not until the formation of the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) in 1981 that an organised league existed for women, albeit for just 4 teams. In 2005, the VWFL celebrated its 25th birthday with 26 teams and just shy of a thousand players. In 2010 the AFL announced a review into the women's game with the intention of developing women's participation to a national level, and in 2015 the AFL recorded over 284,000 women playing the game. In just 10 years women's football has gone from an obscure minority to making up a quarter of all registered players.'
There are also indications of a high level of interest in the women's game from spectators. On Saturday, September 3, 2016, the exhibition match between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs attracted a peak television audience of 1.05 million viewers. Melbourne viewers averaged 387,000, comfortably ahead of the next best Saturday game of the season, which was St Kilda and Geelong's clash which averaged 347,000 Melbourne viewers.
Women players are already being presented as having a powerful capacity to attract support from fans. Their diverse backgrounds and fresh images are seen as a strong drawcard, attracting additional supporters to the AFL.
Graham Burgen, the head coach of the Victorian Women's Football League, predicts that the women's game and those who play it will be a great success with fans. Burgen has stated, 'I've been out to hundreds of games all across Victoria and interstate, and the skills of the game are first class. Once they get to play on a bigger stage and are exposed to a larger audience, the public is going to love it - and the women who play it.'
Women's teams and individual women players are also attracting the interest of large commercial sponsors.
The Western Bulldogs chief executive officer, David Stevenson, who was formerly a US-based vice-president of sales for Nike, has indicated that the interest in the women's team his club will field is coming from 'large multinational companies'.
The AFL's chief executive officer, Gillon McLachlan, has stated, 'I think...people are going to surprised about how many companies [are interested] who ordinarily wouldn't want to be involved with our game, or who haven't been historically.
But because they support gender equality, and because they support women's sport and women's participation, they're going to become involved.'