The curious case of Casey McElroy: Should women aspire to play sport in men’s teams?

The SANFL has banned Casey McElroy for six games from playing with her women’s team because she played one game with a men’s reserves side. What does the future hold?

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THIS week, South Australians have been intrigued by the story of Casey McElroy, the female footballer from the state’s southeast who recently pulled on her footy boots and played for the Padthaway Lions men’s reserves side.

She wasn’t allowed to: According to the Australian Football match policy, females are not permitted to play in a mixed gender team after the age of 14.

Casey has admitted she knew she was breaking the rules, but she did it anyway.

The club has been fined $2000 by the local league for playing an unregistered player ($1000 of which was suspended), but now the SANFL has hit her with a whopping six-week ban from playing for her women’s team next season.

Does the punishment fit the crime? The SANFL has banned Casey McElroy, 27, for six games from playing with her women’s team because she played one game with a men’s reserves side. She’s pictured with her dad Bradley, 52, and grandfather Jeffrey, 81. Picture: TAIT SCHMAAL

That ban will see her miss 75 per cent of games in the Limestone Coast Women’s Football League’s eight-week season.

If that same ban was translated to a male player, a six-week penalty would be the equivalent of 33 per cent of a season.

Or, if a male player was to be banned for 75 per cent of a season (which in the Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara Football League has 18 minor rounds) their penalty would be 13.5 games.

I doubt that an unregistered male player would be banned for 75 per cent of a season.

It seems to me that Casey’s punishment doesn’t fit the crime and it’s obvious that with this severe penalty, the SANFL is sending a very loud message: Don’t anyone do it again.

But wrapped up in all of this is a bigger issue. Should women aspire to play in men’s teams?

My answer is a simple “No”.

I am constantly frustrated by this kind of philosophical question because at its root is the idea that women are only “good enough” once they can play alongside men.

Take this year’s AFLW best and fairest winner, Erin Phillips, as an example. People often comment: “She’s so good, she could get a game in the men’s team”.

Australian cricketer Alyssa Healy gets the same treatment: “She’s so good, she could get a game in the men’s team”.

Both Phillips and Healy are extraordinary athletes. Full stop. It doesn’t matter how they’d go with the boys.

Australian cricketer Alyssa Healy. Picture: Jan Kruger-IDI/IDI/Getty Images

Female athletes — professional or not — should not feel the need to fight for the right to play in men’s teams and nor should sportswomen be compared to their male counterparts.

Here’s a simple example why: On September 25, 2000, at the Sydney Olympics, Australian runner Cathy Freeman won gold in the 400m.

It was a seminal moment for our country; we celebrated that victory as one and continue to view it as one of the best moments in Australian sport.

Freeman won that gold medal in a time of 49.11 seconds. If she’d been racing against men, her time wouldn’t have made it past the heats. But in no way does that diminish what Freeman achieved, nor her place in this country’s folklore, because it just doesn’t matter.

Cathy Freeman after winning gold in the 400m final at the Sydney Olympics on September 25, 2000.

Aussie Rules is a sport with a flourishing women’s competition that is pushing the boundaries and inspiring future generations.

I don’t doubt that for Casey, playing in the Padthaway Lions jumper (a guernsey worn by her father and grandfather) was a significant moment for her personally.

I just hope that the conversation now doesn’t become about whether women should be able to play in men’s teams, because that would do little for female footballers and could even derail all the good that the women’s competition has brought to our sporting communities.