Jessica Halloran: Women in League round gets real but NRL needs to do more
THIS weekend’s Harvey Norman Women In League round is worth celebrating but, while times have changed, there is still a long, long way to go writes JESSICA HALLORAN.
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- Women in League is a chance to celebrate where the players are now
- Kasey Badger and Belinda Sleeman blocked by boys club
ST GEORGE Illawarra’s Kezie Apps drove nearly 12 hours every weekend for four years, just to play footy.
NSW captain Maddie Studdon left her job on the docks because she wanted to play State of Origin.
Jillaroos sold their cars just so they could head overseas on rugby league tours.
Women — who will represent your Dragons, Roosters, Broncos and Warriors — have made sacrifice upon sacrifice for the love of the game.
Now they get their chance.
That the inaugural NRL women’s competition is just about to begin, that the TV audience hit one million viewers on a winter’s Friday night to watch the women play State of Origin, that female footballers appeared on the cover of Big League magazine this week for the first time in 99 years, is heartening.
It makes this weekend’s Harvey Norman Women In League round is worth celebrating.
It contrasts to the first Women In League lunch this columnist turned up to nearly decade ago. Back then whenever the “NRL” and “woman” were mentioned in the same breath in the media it usually had to do with sexual assault allegations.
It was a time when women’s roles were usually confined to the canteen, jumper washing or WAG-ing. Not that those roles should not be celebrated but, gallingly, female footballers were barely acknowledged.
Six years ago, women played interstate matches in front of 20 people on a rough Queensland footy ground. They got changed in their cars and wore men’s jerseys.
“It makes me really grateful for what we have now and what the NRL have done,” Origin and Dragons star Sammy Bremner said.
Times have changed but there is still a long, long way to go.
Especially off the field, when it comes to violence against women.
That Matthew Lodge, a man with history of violence against three women and a child, one of six domestic violence offenders in the NRL, plays in a round of footy in celebrating women is simply wrong.
The fact that men who beat up women are tolerated in the NRL, are in turn allowed to be role models to our kids by playing the game, is offensive and sickening.
But the NRL now has a chance with the new women’s competition to improve on their rival sporting codes’ treatment of female athletes and coaches.
The AFL has been accused of being disrespectful after announcing they are considering shortening the AFLW season. Adelaide premiership-winning coach Bec Goddard — the only AFLW female coach — sensationally quit earlier this year.
After the NRLW’s initial four-week competition next month the governing body has the chance to do better than other codes. From paying footballers a fair wage to giving their second season a longer hitout.
They can already do better when it comes to developing stronger pathways to the top of the game for female coaches and retaining them.
It’s shameful that Burleigh Bears women’s coach Tahnee Norris, who wants to coach in the NRL, hasn’t even been considered for this year’s NRLW comp. There is just one female coach in the NRLW: Louisa Avaliki.
When this columnist contacted Norris about it she was reluctant to comment on the lack of female coaches but did say: “I think someone has to take a giant leap out of all those NRL coaches and put someone on. It’s obviously building trust and being around the men’s program to start with.”
The NRL is yet to have a woman debut as a female referee — despite Belinda Sleeman and Kasey Badger more than patiently waiting in the wings.
Apps, a NSW Origin and Dragons player, says it’s time for administrators to back women in.
“It’s just about giving people that opportunity to show what we can do,” Apps said. “We are in the changing era.”
Growing up in Bega, Apps was the only girl on the boys’ team and she often topped the tackle count. She was the highest tryscorer.
“My dad baited me with money, he gave me $2 for every try,” Apps laughed.
She was often best on ground. Her rugby league life was dreamy until she turned 12. Then she was she couldn’t play anymore. Why? Because she was a girl.
“I used to joke around and say I wish I was a boy to play footy, and now I don’t have to joke,” Apps said.
“It was a dream but I never thought it was going to possible. Now it is.”
Last week The Daily Telegraph photographer Phil Hillyard captured Apps and her great mate Bremner in their new Dragons jerseys.
When it appeared in the paper, my four-year-old son, excitedly pointed out something he’d never seen before; “Look, girl Dragons! Look!”
This columnist recounted the moment to Bremner.
“It’s exciting because when your son is older, it will be normal for him to think that women play rugby league,” she said.
And that’s exactly what it’s all about.
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