Steve Price: New Demons boss Kate Roffey should focus on winning games not gender ‘wars’

New Demons boss Kate Roffey should be more concerned with winning games than campaigning on sex equality issues.

People using the word warto describe a national discussion around gender issues should stop.

It’s not a ‘war’. To call the gender debate ‘a war’ inflates greatly what should be a politely argued discussion on gender issues that we can all involve ourselves in.

War is what Australia and the United States have been involved in for two decades in Afghanistan, ending this week with troops out by September.

The real-life consequence of a war are the members of the 41 Australian troops who died in that conflict with all their names read out by an emotional Prime Minister Morrison at a media conference in Perth this week.

Referring to the gender debate as a war ignores the sacrifice and bravery of every Australian who has fought for his or her country in every war.

Referring to the gender issue as a war simply puts off so many people — older men in particular — from engaging in a debate that’s so important to so many.

As a father of daughters in their early 20s of course I want them to be treated equally in any job, but the gender warriors who seem extremely vocal at the moment think any man over some arbitrary age is the enemy, especially white guys. We are not.

Gender is blamed for a lot of things it has nothing to do with, and the gender issue gets inserted into areas of Australian life where it needn’t be.

Take the Melbourne Demons AFL club, which this week announced businesswoman Kate Roffey would become the third female President of an AFL club.

New Demons president Kate Roffey has said she will push for gender equality. Picture: Nathan Dyer

She follows the super successful Peggy O’Neal at Richmond — the AFL’s first female president — and Kylie Watson-Wheeler at the Bulldogs.

I wish Ms Roffey all the best and certainly on the field her club has had a super start and looks to be finally realising its potential.

Roffey’s appointment is a matter for the Melbourne board and comes after long serving president Glenn Bartlett surprisingly stepped down from the role last weekend saying he was “cooked”.

It was what Kate Roffey said on ABC radio after her appointment that surprised me.

She said advancing the role of women in football and wider society was as important to her as was success on and off the field for Melbourne.

Then this from Melbourne’s new president: “I am a huge advocate not just for gender equality issues but all equity issues and inclusion of all people. I said to Gillon McLachlan that I will be using this platform to promote those equity issues every single chance I get because it is so important to do more. We have got to be better.”

She went on: “It is as much about being a female president as it is being president of the mighty Melbourne Dees”.

Roffey thinks her sex is the big issue, ahead of on-field success and off-field stability

It seems Kate Roffey is much keener on what’s going to be possible on her soapbox than what’s happening in her coach Simon Goodwin’s coaching box.

Melbourne supporters who have been closely following the politics of their board shouldn’t be surprised. Until February this year Glenn Bartlett was the Melbourne chairman not their president.

He sent an update to members over summer and according to Fox Footy had a rethink about the label chairman after several female members felt uncomfortable with the term chairman.

No wonder he said he was “cooked” and quit if that’s what members considered was the Melbourne Football Club’s biggest issue.

And let’s hope Kate Roffey has changed her views on what her favourite events in Melbourne are. When she was asked about this in her role as a Melbourne Major Events board member back in 2015, she nominated the Avalon Air Show and performances by Opera Australia.

Given Melbourne finished 15th that year and only won seven games I guess watching jet flyovers and La Traviata would have been much more fun.

New Demons boss Kate Roffey loves opera and the Avalon Airshow. Picture: Supplied

Roffey is far from alone in elevating gender “wars” to warlike status.

This week alone we had former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate blame gender for her Cartier watch sacking.

Appearing before Senate Estimates and then selectively choosing an all female roster of interviewers to tell her story to, she claimed if she had been Chris Holgate, she would have been treated differently.

I doubt that.

Then we had the ABC trying to frame our Governor General and ADF chiefs as somehow perving at twerking dancer next to naval ship HMAS Supply, when they weren’t even there.

If the warriors on gender insist on calling it a war maybe it’s time some of us started fighting back.

The 101 Doll Squadron dance troupe that performed as part of the HMAS Supply launch and filmed by the ABC. Picture: ABC

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Originally published as Steve Price: New Demons boss Kate Roffey should focus on winning games not gender ‘wars’