Why legendary Hockeyroos coach Ric Charlesworth is calling out the Matildas’ gender pay claim
Legendary Hockeyroos coach Ric Charlesworth says the Matildas equal pay deal is behind the times and more should be done to fund and promote Australia’s Olympic athletes.
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Ric Charlesworth – the mastermind behind Australia’s greatest women’s team – has called out the “phony” revolution of a Matildas equal pay move that is 30 years behind hockey.
Moreover, Charlesworth is frustrated by second-rate players in some women’s sport being feted with money and media coverage when elite Olympic athletes are largely ignored.
Football Federation Australia has painted a deal to split revenue between its flagship female side the Matildas and Socceroos as groundbreaking.
“The Matildas are going to get paid the same as the men. We have been doing that in our sport for 30 or 40 years and it’s as though we have discovered something. I find it extraordinary,” said Australian Sports Hall of Famer and dual Hockeyroos Olympic gold winning coach Charlesworth.
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“We have had real equality for a long time.”
Charlesworth noted three-time Olympic hockey champion the Hockeyroos were routinely paid more than men between 1988 and 2000 when ranked higher than male counterparts the Kookaburras.
The Hockeyroos benefited from a landmark funding arrangement befitting the status of a team that dominated world hockey and became embedded in Australian sports folklore powered by greats including Rechelle Hawkes and Alyson Annan. Hawkes was the first Australian woman after Dawn Fraser to win gold medals at three Olympics in Seoul 1988, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.
“There are sports that have been doing this for 30 years. When I was with the Hockeyroos the women got paid higher than the men because they were ranked higher,” said Charlesworth, who authored a series of sports leadership books including World’s Best.
“The funding available was on the basis of performance.
“The women have had bigger sponsorship (Telstra) than the men before.
“Everybody is making a big deal of it and we look at it with bemusement. There’s lots of hype.”
The Kookaburras have outperformed the Hockeyroos since 2000 but Hockey Australia then introduced an athletes agreement where funding is equalised between the teams.
Naming rights sponsors Fortescue Metals and Ausdrill fund the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos equally. Both teams compete for approximate Pro League title cash.
Cricket icon Ellyse Perry commands $1m annually and Australian women’s contracted teammates $200,000 but only play against a handful of Commonwealth nations.
Charlesworth feels for champion athletes in Olympic sports who might receive a day of recognition for a lifetime body of work and sacrifice taking on the world.
“It’s like if someone wins a world athletics title or next year at the Olympics they get a splash for one day but it is pretty hard to get any traction. It is very frustrating for the minor sports,” Charlesworth told The Advertiser.
“You can’t be an Olympic champion in a sport with any depth if you have been playing for a year or two. It takes decades.”
The AFL, players’ union and AFL women have this month finalised a collective bargaining agreement where negotiations over conditions proved contentious. AFLW’s exposure outweighs the ability of participants.
“It seems obscene. The players in AFLW are quite average and are on the front page of the paper the whole time. We have to be world champions to get there,” said Charlesworth.
“It is absolutely wrong but it is media and market power that does that. It doesn’t actually relate to the quality of the athletes.”
The South Australian government recently allocated $275,000 to the Adelaide Crows AFLW side despite the club’s financial might and AFL’s status as the nation’s richest code. Hockey SA has to make do with $90,000 in funding for 7000 players, half of which are female.
“AFL women’s football will eventually be good and why wouldn’t it with the coverage and that’s OK but not every girl wants to get beaten up,” he said.
The prevalence of knee injuries – particularly women’s AFL where players are 9.2 times more likely to sustain serious knee injuries than men – should be cause for concern insists Charlesworth.
“Athletes get more injuries if under prepared,” he said.
Originally published as Why legendary Hockeyroos coach Ric Charlesworth is calling out the Matildas’ gender pay claim