Fearless Conversations: Racism and equality in sport are hot topics

From racism in sport, including the recent Taylor Walker slur, to the question of how to boost women’s sport – our panel of experts leaves no topic unturned in our Fearless Conversations this week.

The Taylor Walker racism storm could be the “line in the sand’’ moment that helps stamp out racial vilification, leading South Australian sports figures say.

As the former Crows captain, pictured, fronted the media for the first time on Thursday after racially vilifying North Adelaide’s Robbie Young in a SANFL match on July 17, Netball SA chief executive Bronwyn Klei said the fact the “narrative’’ had changed from protecting the perpetrator to the person reporting the incident was a major step forward in fighting racism.

“I think it was a bit of a line in the sand moment, a different moment,’’ she said.

“What was different about it was instead of moving to protect the football star, the football icon, there was a movement to protect the person who reported the incident (a Crows SANFL trainer).

“I think it’s incumbent on us to make sure that people know it is not acceptable to say (bad) things and that we empower each other to find a way to call it out when you see it, knowing sports will act on those incidents.’’

Adelaide Crows forward Taylor Walker speaks to the media about his racist slur on August 26. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Port Adelaide Football Club chief executive Matthew Richardson said the Walker incident served as a “stark reminder we can all be better’’.

“Three things stood out to me about it,’’ he said during the first of Flinders University’s Fearless Conversation series – a 13-week campaign in partnership with The Advertiser.

“One was that it was a stark reminder we can all be better; two was if there is anything good that comes from it, it’s that it drives the conversation, whether it’s at home with our kids and families or in the workplace; and three, there are still too many ‘buts’ and there just can’t be in this space.’’

Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority chief executive Andrew Daniels joined Ms Klei in praising the Crows official who called out Walker’s racist slur, said to Adelaide teammate Matt Crouch but heard by the trainer.

And he called on spectators at Adelaide Oval to be brave enough to report any crowd incidents to authorities so appropriate action could be taken to stamp racism out of the game.

“I was very pleased to see the number of people who came out in support of the Crows official who reported the incident,’’ Mr Daniels said.

“We push very, very hard at the Adelaide Oval to be a fully inclusive stadium and 99.99 per cent of people do the right thing.

“But we also rely on the crowd to self-report. We have security, ushers and CCTV but there’s nothing like people who are in among the crowd being able to text confidentially to us … so that we can respond”.

Our panellists (from left): Adelaide Oval CEO Andrew Daniels, Advertiser journalist and host Andrew Capel, Netball SA CEO Bronwyn Klei, Flinders University senior lecturer in sport, health and physical activity Dr Sam Elliott, and Port Adelaide Football Club boss Matthew Richardson. Picture: Emma Brasier

TV coverage key to boosting women’s sport

-Liz Walsh

Women’s sport needs to keep fighting for a bigger share of media exposure if it is to attract more girls to aim for the top level, South Australian elite netballers say.

Adelaide Thunderbirds captain Hannah Petty and defender Matilda Garrett say young girls need to be able to turn on their televisions and see female athletes from all different codes competing.

They say the greater exposure would be an important way to increase participation in sport of young girls.

Petty said that during the 2021 Super Netball season, two games were televised each round, with the other two games available to watch through a downloaded app.

“We’d love for all the games to be televised,” she said.

Petty said girls being able to see a pathway into elite sport was the key to developing women’s sport.

“Young girls can continue to watch and see a pathway, that they can get to that top level,” she said.

“Without the exposure they are left wondering ‘What if?’. They don’t know the pathway.

“It’s great to watch women being successful in sport, but then also inspiring the next generation.”

Thunderbirds Hannah Petty and Matilda Garrett with Netball SA CEO Bronwyn Klei. Picture: Mark Brake

Garrett agreed with Petty that “girls couldn’t be what they couldn’t see”.

“I think being able to see there’s a pathway, young girls are able to see that you can make a career out of being a female professional athlete,” she said.

How to develop women’s sport was a key topic among panellists at Fearless Conversations on Wednesday.

Flinders University senior lecturer in sport, health and physical activity Sam Elliott said while the recent Olympic gold rush – spearheaded by Australia’s female swimmers – would inspire young girls into sport, unless their first experiences were good they would not continue to participate.

“The evidence shows that narratives of the progress (of women’s sport) are actually juxtaposed against the realities of community-level sport,” he said.

Mr Elliott said there remained limited access to quality coaching, changerooms, resources and education for girls when they were starting in junior levels.

He said it was vital that grassroots sport gave girls a good first initiation into sport, which would then encourage further growth.

Adelaide Oval chief executive Andrew Daniels said the AFLW grand final held at the venue in 2019 – attended by more than 53,000 fans – proved there was demand for and interest in women’s sport.

But Netball SA chief executive Bronwyn Klei said while footy had been hailed as a contributor to the growth of women’s sport, credit needed to be given to sports including basketball, hockey and soccer, which had been giving opportunities to female athletes for generations. “I’d like to see women’s sport credited with the efforts it’s already put in and reap the rewards of many years of hard work from many sports,” she said.

Port Adelaide chief executive Matthew Richardson said time and effort also needed to be invested in getting more women involved in sport at the non-playing level too.

He said with the Power being granted a licence to join the AFLW from the 2023 season, the club would be looking to appoint a woman to the key role of head of AFLW, as well as women in coaching roles.