AFLW fans slam Steve Price while others back the columnist

There has been a nation wide outpour of criticism and praise for Steve Price, following the columnist’s controversial AFLW opinion article published on Friday last week.

There has been a nationwide outpour of criticism and praise for Steve Price as well as intense public discourse surrounding the AFLW, following the columnist’s controversial opinion article on women’s footy published last week.

On Monday night Price appeared on The Projectas a panellist alongside Peter Helliar, Carrie Bickmore and Waleed Aly to discuss his scathing article, with the nature of the conversation quickly turning frosty.

AFLW fans have since taken aim at the radio presenter on social media, particularly following The Project segment, while other Australians have backed his piece and the reasoning behind it.

In the article, Price was critical of the low-scoring nature of the contests, something that social media users highlighted in comments in Price’s defence.

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The Project host said "women's sport is fantastic, but AFLW isn't." Thoughts? #fyp#aflw#sport

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In his column, the broadcaster wrote: “Last weekend – in week five of the nine-round AFLW – one team managed a solitary point for the whole game,” which women’s footy fans were quick to rebut.

“Look at the men’s when they started, there were games that were like soccer, nill all and even grand finals were won one point to zero, not much different,” a TikTok user said in support of Hellier, while also pointing out the AFLW was only in it’s 7th season of competition.

“AFLW is in its infancy, the skills and techniques will only get better,” agreed another, while many condemned the funding behind the low-scoring teams, saying games were “boring” and “frustrating to watch”.

“Thing is, he’s not wrong, like it or not. You can’t score a single point, as a team, after a full game of football and call yourself elite,” one user said.

There has been nation wide praise and criticism for The Project’s Steve Price after his scathing AFLW column published on Friday last week. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“They need to get rid of the AFLW but they won’t, too much money has been spent to keep it up and running,” said another.

A number of social media users also questioned whether the decision to rush to expand the AFLW competition to include 18 teams in 2022 was made prematurely, in light of Price’s comments.

“They expanded too quickly,” said one commenter.

“It wouldn’t be as bad if they had 8 solid teams with an even spread of talent.

“Still a few years away for being good to watch but it has to start somewhere.”

Social media users have criticised the AFL’s decision to expand the AFLW competition, with the standard of the team performance not meeting expectations. Picture: Russell Freeman/AFL Photos via Getty Images

On Monday night’s The Project episode, Price stood by his decision to produce the piece, saying the article was simply his own opinion, which he said was the beauty of sport and others said he “nailed it”.

“Steve Price writing what a lot of people think,” “he isn’t wrong” and “absolutely spot on, would rather watch flies crawl up the wall,” said social media users.

“Steve Price’s whole career is built on having controversial opinions. That’s why he’s paid a lot of money to write opinion pieces,” pointed out one TikToker.

Parents of female football players praised Hellier for standing up to Price in the segment.

“This was the best to watch, as a mother of a daughter thank you for speaking up and not backing down Pete,” mother Bell Mea said.