‘Ugly truths’: Why Marlee Silva is tackling rugby league and family violence

Wide World of Sports reporter Marlee Silva, who joined Nine* in 2023 when the network vowed to broadcast every NRLW game, feels she is “working in rugby league on television at the best time in history”.

It’s a statement that may seem at odds with recent headlines, such as anti-family violence organisation White Ribbon Australia ending its partnership with the NRL following the league’s invitation to Donald Trump and UFC boss Dana White to its Las Vegas games.

Wide World of Sports reporter Marlee Silva has made a documentary about how rugby league can be a “mirror to some ugly truths about Australia”.

“I have a podcast [Marlee and Me], where I sit down with young men who want to talk about their family and their culture, and all the influential women in their lives,” says Silva, a Gamilaroi/Dunghutti woman, and the daughter of legendary Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs player Rod “Rocket” Silva.

“There’s been this beautiful cultural shift that allows [players] to express attitudes that are not that old-school, ultra-masculine, anti-feminist way that sometimes people outside the sport associate with rugby league. This bunch of men, who are really supportive of the women’s game, are not afraid to be vulnerable and have different opinions, which is really positive for the future of the game.”

Silva’s debut documentary feature, Skin in the Game, explores how her beloved sport, which has been a source of “positive stories of mob, celebrated at the top level”, is also a “mirror to some ugly truths about Australia” and can drive a change in attitudes towards women during an epidemic of gendered violence.

Marlee Silva with her mum Deb and dad Rod “Rocket” Silva, who she interviews in the documentary.

Silva meets with players, coaches, and, after some pestering, Peter V’landys, chair of the Australian Rugby League Commission, whom she holds to account over the gender pay gap for players, and gender quotas on club boards. Shadowing Brisbane Broncos player Lavinia Gould on the pre-dawn forklift shift Gould works to make ends meet, Silva highlights pay disparity. A family violence survivor is interviewed anonymously.

“I’m not saying the sport is a perpetrator of [family violence],” says Silva. “But it has been associated with this issue and has an opportunity to become a leader in addressing it. My greatest belief is that we do see ourselves as a sporting nation. I believe in [sport] as a vehicle to create positive change.”

She cites the swift backlash to sexist comments about the Matildas made by Triple M broadcaster Marty Sheargold earlier this month.

“My generation and the next have grown up watching the Matildas, or watching the emergence of NRLW and AFLW on television,” she says. “All these female athletes who have been spotlighted because of their immense talent and been given the same airtime as their male counterparts, has raised a generation who will not stand for such repugnant comments as what Marty Sheargold made on air.”

There is a moment in the film when she is with her father that reduces Silva to tears. A trailblazer for Aboriginal players, Rod Silva was not always supportive of the women’s game, and wasn’t initially happy about his daughter’s career on the sidelines.

“Maybe it’s me just spiting him that I’ve ended up in this role!” she says, laughing. “Dad is the perfect case study. I’ve come across a lot of former players his age who are huge fans of the women’s game now, and that’s because it’s way more visible.”

Standing with him outside his Mt Druitt childhood home reinforced the role of rugby league in his journey.

“It was really affecting, thinking about my dad as a little boy who just wanted to survive and wanted a better life for his mum,” she says. “I kept seeing him as a little boy in that house being scared or hungry, or not being able to sleep at night. And I’m so proud of what he represents and all the sacrifices that he’s made for me to have the life that I’ve had. And that’s what I hope to do justice to, in telling this story.”

Skin in the Game premieres at 8.30pm on Sunday, at 8.30pm, on NITV and SBS.

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