Trent Cotchin’s wife Brooke had every right to defend her husband

FOOTBALL is still stuck in the 1980s. That was starkly evident this week when the industry rose to decry Brooke Cotchin’s support for husband Trent.

2015 Brownlow medal. Trent Cotchin and wife Brooke . Pic: Michael Klein.

FOOTBALL is still stuck in the 1980s.

That was starkly evident this week when the industry rose to decry Brooke Cotchin’s support for husband Trent.

The code about to bring in professional women’s football next year wants AFL partners to be subservient, silent supporters and little more.

We might give them permission to be tarted up for a WAGs photo shoot or at the Brownlow Medal count, but only on our terms.

Heaven forbid a strong and successful woman who has watched her husband, the Richmond skipper, be vilified online for months, even years, should defend him.

Brooke Cotchin didn’t leap to her husband’s defence on Instagram the moment public perception turned against him.

She waited three years, through another summer of criticism then a first month of football where the better he played, the stronger the condemnation.

Then she wrote a reasoned defence of her husband.

The response reinforced that we still live with a football code where the fierce, defiant man is seen as a commanding leader and a woman with the same qualities is painted — as Tania Hird has been — as a shrew.

Trent Cotchin’s wife Brooke has every right to defend her man. Picture: Michael Klein

If the proud male partner of one of our female footballers fought back at online abuse of her next year, no one would ask him to be muzzled.

If cricketing star Mitchell Starc called out the online critics who bait his Southern Stars wicketkeeper wife Alyssa Healy, we would marvel at his chivalry.

Yet Brooke Cotchin is condemned as a distraction who might fuel some match-day teasing of her husband.

It was disappointing that the strongest female voice in football was so dismissive of Brooke Cotchin’s comments.

Footy Classified’s Caroline Wilson has faced blowback for decades for voicing her strong views on contentious topics.

Yet, rather than applaud a woman who demanded to be heard, she was dismayed.

“I know everyone who read that story went, ‘Ooh’ and I did too,” Wilson said.

“You just went, ‘Trent, this is going to be tough. There is going to be more pressure on you now’.

“I can see what every man thinks. I heard it in the coffee shop this morning.”

If Wilson cared what the blokes in the coffee shop thought, she would never have got anywhere.

Look at your Facebook or Twitter posts of the past 24 hours: you post about your morning coffee, the train that arrived four minutes late, your Fitbit step count.

Yet a wife who is mad as hell and not going to take it any more can’t use the same facility to pour out her heart?

We have come a long way, but not far enough to put aside our chauvinism when we are confronted with an opinion just the tiniest bit challenging.

Originally published as Trent Cotchin’s wife Brooke had every right to defend her husband