Garry Lyon: Bombshell AFL umpires report ‘makes you sick’

Garry Lyon says he can’t believe statements from female umpires in an AFL report that has exposed a toxic culture of sexual harassment.

Eleni Glouftsis and Chelsea Roffey are the AFL's highest profile female umpires. Photo: Michael Klein News Corp Australia, Julian Smith AAP and Dylan Burns AFL Photos via Getty.

Footy legend Garry Lyon says the bombshell report into umpire abuse kept silent by the AFL “makes you sick to your stomach”.

The former Demons captain says he can’t believe some of the stories told by female umpires exposed by a report commissioned by the AFL.

The Herald Sun first published the 62-page Girls and women in Australian football umpiring: Understanding registration, participation and retention report that has found women umpires have been subjected to a culture of sexual harassment from grassroots level through to the top elite of the game.

The damning report was completed in August, but has only now been made public.

The AFL has released a statement in response, declaring it will act on the 11 key recommendations presented in the report.

The report reveals the shocking treatment female umpires have faced, including selection exclusion, change rooms discrimination and sexual harassment from spectators, coaches and fellow umpires.

The report — carried out by the University of Sydney — interviewed 27 umpires for their research into female umpire participation — and some of the stories included in the report are truly shocking.

AFL Field Umpire Eleni Glouftsis. Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

One female umpire in the report said: “The worst part is with people who don’t wait for you to leave or sort yourself out [in the changerooms]. Old guys or old umpires just strip and they don’t give a s***”.

Another umpire said she had also endured similar inappropriate behaviour in changerooms.

“We understand that we’re trying to have diversity men and women and everywhere, but at the end of the day people still want their privacy to get changed, it’s pretty ridiculous that you have everyone in the same room, absolutely everyone. Just to strip,” she said.

Another junior level umpire tells the report she was told by an U11s coach: “I don’t want you to umpire, you’re a female, you can’t umpire. I want these boys to be umpired by a proper umpire”.

The most shocking statements from umpires interviewed for the report include:

— One umpire said: “I openly overheard a group of guys talking about my boobs at training one night”.

— Another umpire said: “Someone from the crowd, a supporter yelled out, ‘Why don’t you open your eyes instead of your legs, you stupid s***”.

— Another said: “I used to receive messages of nudes that other umpires would send to me. And umpires during games would inappropriately touch me”.

— Another said: “There was one of the coaches that would always try to talk to me and meet up with me outside of training and stuff and it was clearly really uncomfortable for me”.

The AFL’s highest profile active female umpires, Chelsea Roffey and Eleni Glouftsis were also umpired for the report and have spoken publicly about the discrimination they experienced.

Goal umpire Chelsea Roffey. Pic: Michael Klein.

Glouftsis, the first female field umpire at AFL level, said: “While umpiring juniors through to state league level, I’ve worn uniforms that don’t fit, used change rooms that impose segregation and have had my ability to perform questioned due to my gender by spectators, players, coaches, the media, umpiring peers and umpiring coaches”.

Roffey, the first female to goal umpire an AFL grand final, said: “Looking back, scenarios that related to my gender ranged from those I regarded as innocuous, waved away as signs of ignorance rather than ill-intent, through to those that made my blood boil.

“My response at each stage was carefully considered, a matter of playing the game and choosing battles wisely. This research legitimises and reflects many of the thoughts and emotions I’ve experienced.”

Garry Lyon calls out AFL for unanswered question

Lyon told SEN on Monday, “I can’t believe that” when discussing the acts of harassment involving other umpires.

“It makes you sick to the stomach, when you read what some of these women have had to go through as they pursue their careers in umpiring,” he said.

He also criticised the AFL for appearing to hide the damning report.

“You can’t bury this stuff,” he said.

A boundary umpire throws the ball in. AAP Image/Julian Smith.

“You have to make it public so then you address it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Females make up just 10 per cent of umpires nationally and the AFL wants to increase that participation to 40 per cent in the future.

The shock report also comes at a time when the game is experiencing an umpiring crisis with chief executive Gillon McLachlan saying at the start of the year there was a shortage of 6000 umpires nationally.

Full list of recommendations included in the report

1. Education initiatives to a range of different stakeholders that focus on gender equity and preventing gendered harassment, violence and sexism.

2. Research into the implementation of a centralised procedure (reporting tool) so that umpires can report problematic incidents of discrimination or other cultural forms of exclusion

3. The adoption of inclusive change room policies at State League and Community levels

4. The use of gender-neutral language in all correspondence and coaching, as well as the use of diverse examples of gender and race in coaching imagery and examples.

5. At State League level: Employment of all support staff including physical conditioning with appropriate training/experience with female athletes or mixed gender groups.

6. Investigate the feasibility of a parallel umpiring talent pathway for girls and women across State League & Talent Pathway competitions and the AFLW competition.

7. Investigate the feasibility of a parallel umpiring participation pathway for girls and women across community football.

8. Consistently performing exit interviews and/or anonymous feedback forms with umpires who are discontinuing.

9. Investigation and implementation of active efforts to recruit more female umpiring coaches.

10. Implement a committee as an independent consultancy board to have regular, timely discussions to monitor the progress of these and other umpiring inclusion recommendations.

11. Investment of time and other resources into further research about the social and cultural environments in umpiring and initiatives and strategies to support social cohesion and equity in these environments

AFL’s statement in confirming details of the report

An AFL Sherrin. Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images.

We are committed to ensuring that women and girls of all ages can take part in our game in a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment, and while we have seen a doubling of the number of girls and women playing football since AFLW was introduced, we have not experienced a similar growth in the umpiring ranks. To better understand this trend, we commissioned a report to look at all the elements that lead to girls and women continuing to be under-represented in umpiring at all levels.

As part of that ‘Girls and Women in Australian Football Umpiring study’, current and former umpires were interviewed and provided valuable feedback on all the physical, cultural and environmental barriers that impacted the pathway for girls and women umpiring at community and the elite level. The important findings and recommendations of the report have formed the basis for a number of initiatives that have been included in the ‘Women and Girls Game Development Action Plan’ which is in its final stages of completion.

The initiatives in the plan are designed to increase representation of women and girls in all parts or our game from players to umpires to coaches and administrators and are aimed at ensuring a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for women and girls, including to lift the number of women umpires to 40%.

In order to achieve that growth, we will introduce a number of policy directives including developing and publishing the ‘Community football guiding principles for equity’, which will comprise initiatives such as umpiring appointments, access to multi-gender or shared space facilities, establishing female mentoring programs to accelerate the pathway for women and girls and helping to achieve more gender-balanced leadership in all community football leagues and clubs.

The report has been a valuable resource for our team in prioritising the key initiatives to accelerate the growth in women and girls taking on umpiring roles across the country and ensuring we have a safe and welcoming pathway that allows women and girls to progress from community to AFL and AFLW level.