AFLW moving towards being just football, not women’s
AFLW has its detractors, but the signs are there that the game is on the right track to one day being treated as just footy.
FOR Nicole Livingstone, the final destination for women’s AFL is for that word ‘women’s’ to be discarded and to have footy genderless.
The AFL’s head of women’s football wants people to watch their club and not be caught in debate about male game versus the female game.
From another bumper opening weekend last week, a picture emerged that captured that. Young girls cheer wildly as a Geelong player stops during the game’s action, but the background also stood out for Livingstone.
“If you take the time to look at that photo, the little girls are getting so excited … but if you look a row higher, there’s a dad in there and his face is absolutely lit up with pride and joy,” she said.
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“Whether it’s pride and joy of his club guernsey running around with female players or whether it’s seeing the impact that it has on young girls, that for me sums it up.”
The season openers last Saturday were both decided by one point and people were there to see it. Nearly 20,000 were at GMHBA Stadium for Geelong against Collingwood and 375,000 people tuned in on Channel 7. When Adelaide took on Western Bulldogs next, 256,000 were watching.
It was evidence AFLW is doing something right.
“I think AFLW is on a journey and I don’t think it is at its final destination,” Livingstone said.
“An opening weekend in season three like we’ve had gives us confidence that we’re on the right path.
“For me the final destination when it comes to football is that yes we have female players and we have male players but when we watch footy, we’re seeing footy. And we’re seeing athletes and we’re seeing players.”
Livingstone is not interested in trying to convince the naysayers to get on board with AFLW but is instead after the fathers, mothers, their daughters, even their sons. Anyone who could influence a young girl to pick up a Sherrin.
That thinking is behind the GenW campaign, which features people from all levels of football with a particular focus on grassroots where AFLW has had a huge impact, most noticeably in non-traditional states like NSW/ACT where club participation is up more than 40 per cent.
“With those girls and women going to footy clubs, it’s not just females who are getting involved but it’s males who are getting involved,” Livingstone said.
“That is GenW; it represented everybody that loves footy and everybody that loves women’s footy. That’s male, female, young old or anything in between.”
GWS Giants v North Melbourne Kangaroos
Friday, February 8
Drummoyne Oval
Gates open 6.10pm, First bounce 7.15pm
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