Why is AFL taking so long to make a decision on transgender footballer Hannah Mouncey’s AFLW hopes?

HANNAH Mouncey doesn’t want to be a trailblazer or a pioneer, she just wants to play football. But the transgender player’s hopes of an AFLW berth are still in limbo. JON RALPH ON WHY

Will Hannah Mouncey get her AFLW chance? Picture: Kym Smith

HANNAH Mouncey doesn’t want to be a trailblazer or a pioneer, she just wants to play football.

Right now the transgender player from Canberra league’s Ainslie footy club is waiting for an 11th hour confirmation from the AFL just a day before the AFLW draft.

Yep, that’s right, just 24 hours before the draft she has no idea if she is allowed to be drafted for the second season of the women’s competition.

Say what you want about Mouncey — and the pathetic keyboard cowards have done that — but she shouldn’t still be waiting.

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Will Hannah Mouncey get her AFLW chance? Picture: Kym Smith

It is shoddy treatment by an AFL headquarters that preaches inclusiveness — and gives her no recourse for appeal if the finding goes against her.

The AFL summoned her to a meeting last Wednesday, having told her the Friday after the AFL Grand Final they wanted to review her eligibility.

Why did it take so long, given the Herald Sun had reported on June 23 this year back she was pushing for an AFLW berth?

Melbourne had contacted the AFLW to check on her availability when she trialled with them back then, with the Dees and 27-year-old Mouncey believing she was cleared to play.

Why wouldn’t she, when she clears stringent IOC regulations regarding her testosterone levels?

One issue might be she is 190cm and 100kg, a strong-bodied and powerful ruckman who admits she is slow and struggles to carry her weight around.

At the moment I am not in a position to make any comment surrounding my availability for the draft and will not be doing any interviews or making comment on the situation. Anyone with other requests can contact vivid sports management

— Hannah Mouncey 🤾‍♀️ (@hannahmouncey1) October 15, 2017

But if the Canberra league had no safety concerns at her size and bulk why would the AFL, a league which should be harder and faster and tougher?

She ticks the IOC’s boxes that require athletes to be under the testosterone threshold — 10 nanomoles/litre.

In fact her latest reading after transitioning in November 2015 was 0.5 nanomoles/litre — so her reading could be nearly 20 times higher and she could still be under the limit.

She doesn’t need to have had gender reassignment surgery, just has to have the appropriate levels of testosterone.

Levels which both she and Shepparton transgender footballer Emily Rowe say strip them of anywhere near the strength or power they felt as men.

The IOC guidelines are recommendations rather than concrete guidelines, which means bodies like the AFL can make their own hard and fast rules.

But as high-profile transgender sportsperson Cate McGregor said yesterday, it is hard to see how the AFL can’t approve her.

“There are some serious legal issues in terms of saying no, they’d have to say she’s not eligible for ability because in terms of saying she actually can’t play they’d run into discrimination laws,” she said.

Why hasn’t the AFL’s panel of legal and medical experts sat earlier than the week before the draft?

Mouncey was once a member of Australia’s men’s handball team. Picture: Ray Strange

There has been talk of an injunction to the AFLW draft if she is knocked back, but that seems unlikely at this late stage.

There is no doubt the timing of the AFL’s ruling robs her of the chance to appeal or put in further submissions if she doesn’t pass their range of tests.

Mouncey has gone through enough given she has had the bravery to endure all these challenges without having the stress of wondering a day out if she can even nominate for the AFLW season.

If she does play for a Victorian team — and AFLW sources believe she would be picked up — there would be strong reactions and plenty of discussions about transgender politics.

But as Rowe said when she told her story, imagine the good it would do for the transgender kids out there who still don’t know where they belong in society.

The same ones which a recent Trans Pathway survey found suffered mental health issues to such an extent 48 per cent had attempted suicide at one point.

Then AFL-footy boss Simon Lethlean said on June 23 the AFL was “keen to be as inclusive as we can be” about transgender athletes.

“We welcome it happening,” he told the Herald Sun.

That Rowe is still waiting — and has no idea what else she can prove — 16 weeks later seems cruel and unfair.