Opinion: The AFL has a problem with women
The AFL’s stunning silence over sexual assault allegations made against its players is a sign of regressive policies, poor leadership and a lack of respect for women, Jess Halloran writes — and it must change.
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The AFL has a problem with women.
Such a statement will be rejected by those who put club or code loyalty first, but actions — or lack thereof — define who we are.
The executive ranks of the AFL have been silent when it comes to sexual assault allegations against AFL footballers.
The word is Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey, who’s been charged with sexual assault, could be back playing as soon as next Monday. In the eight weeks since he was charged, what has AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said about it? Nothing.
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But this comes as no surprise. For many years, the AFL has shown poor leadership and action in this space. There’s nothing progressive about its stand on De Goey, and if anything, it seems regressive in an age when other sporting codes are doing more.
As the NRL ploughs on with its “no-fault stand-down” policy, helping shift a culture in the community, showing respect to police charges, showing respect to the alleged victim, the AFL’s continued silence on this issue, and its insistence in allowing De Goey to play on despite a serious allegation of violence against a woman, is disturbing.
Under their current “respect and responsibility’’ code the AFL could stand down any player on a serious criminal charge, but it hasn’t, and as the weeks tick by it seems like it won’t.
What the inaction around De Goey tells you, is exactly where this AFL administration stands on issues when it comes to violence against women.
And all the while issues around the mistreatment of women aren’t going away.
Just over the weekend, a serious allegation emerged against Swans footballer Elijah Taylor. The AFL integrity unit is investigating the allegation made by Taylor’s ex-girlfriend. No charges have been laid.
In an interview in The Age last month Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins — a former Carlton board member — said she was “not comfortable” with sportspeople playing while charged with serious criminal offences.
Jenkins, who chaired an expert committee which consulted on the 16-page “respect and responsibility’’ document in 2017, also said she believed governing bodies addressing overarching reasons for gender inequality and abuse was more urgent than implementing NRL-style “no-fault stand-down” policies.
“I do think that the more important work that I want sporting codes to do is about what they’re doing to promote gender equality and what sort of systems they have in place to prevent and better respond to this,” Jenkins said in the interview.
Promoting gender equality is great, but the rock-solid action in standing down a man from footy in light of criminal charges, is a far, far more powerful stand than waiting for quotas to improve and systems to change.
Jenkins reportedly said the NRL’s no-fault stand-down policy was “unusual” in the context of Australian sport, but it made sense given the NRL context of a series of serious instances of violence and alleged violence against women.
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But the AFL’s record shows this is not limited to the NRL. Domestic violence is far too common in all corners of society. It kills one woman a week in this country.
The Herald Sun last year had to shut down comments on AFLW stories because of the pathetic trolling. “Some of the comments that our athletes are subjected to are simply too vile to publish,” Lauren Wood, the paper’s AFL and AFLW reporter, said. There was the horrendous online abuse of Carlton star Tayla Harris, which attracted global attention, and resulted in her calling out the vile perpetrators.
The pretty ribbons, “champions of change’’ claims and wordy policies claiming “respect and responsibility” won’t fix the AFL’s problem with women. Solid action now will help.
The code’s respect and responsibility policy is due for an overhaul, it’s begging for some firm boundaries because right now the AFL’s silence is just toxic.
Originally published as Opinion: The AFL has a problem with women