The rise of women’s sport is an Australian success story
Rapid growth in the popularity and professionalism of women’s sport means we’re seeing a showcase of brilliant athleticism and skills.
It was an extraordinary moment in another extraordinary chapter for Australian women in sport. Netballer Donnell Wallam’s heart-stopping, matchwinning goal on debut against England came after a $15m sponsorship with Hancock Prospecting was sensationally torn up when the Diamonds’ playing group opposed it.
It was October, and Netball Australia had been plunged into ‘sportswashing’ chaos after the Diamonds supported Wallam – their only Indigenous teammate – who had taken exception to wearing the Hancock Prospecting logo on her netball dress because of company founder Lang Hancock’s historical comments about Aboriginal people.
Hancock Prospecting said that they didn’t like the “virtue signalling” of athletes and tore up the contract. Wallam then withdrew her objection and more arguing ensued. Then, after one of the most trying periods of her life, Hallam produced the incredible goal in the dying moments of the England match; within a week, Visit Victoria stepped in as replacement sponsor.
Diamonds captain Liz Watson said recently the team galvanised in the crisis. “I think it’s the group that got us through,” she said.
It was a year when Australian women’s national teams like the Diamonds, who won Commonwealth Games gold, and the Australian cricket team, who won the Ashes, continued to excel on the world stage. It was also packed with stunning individual performances; rising stars, uplifting comebacks, dreamy debuts and heart-wrenching exits.
Much adored tennis champion Ash Barty shockingly retired at age 25. After fulfilling her dream of an Australian Open title, adding to her Wimbledon and French Open grand slam victories, Barty decided to exit her way.
“There’s no right way, there’s no wrong way, it’s just my way,” a tearful Barty told her friend, former tennis player Casey Dellacqua, in an online interview. “And this is perfect for me, to share it with you, to talk to you about it, with my team, my loved ones, that I’ll be retiring from tennis.
“It’s the first time I’ve actually said it out loud, and yeah, it’s hard to say. But I’m so happy, and I’m so ready, and I just know at the moment in my heart, for me as a person, this is right.”
As Barty said goodbye, Lauren Jackson, an icon of Australian basketball, said hello – again. The Australian sporting hero made an incredible return to the court at age 41.
Jackson, a four-time Olympic medallist and three-time WNBA most valued player, was left almost speechless when Opals coach Sandy Brondello broke the news of her selection for the World Cup squad, after nine years away from international hoops. She went on to star for the Opals and helped them to a bronze medal at the World Cup here in Australia.
“This journey has been the most humbling and most incredible 10 months of my life,” Jackson said at the conclusion of the World Cup campaign. “It’s given me an opportunity to play the sport I love in front of Australians again. To say goodbye this way, I couldn’t have imagined it.”
In one of the most incredible sporting moments ever – Stephanie Gilmore became the most dominant surfer in the history of women in the sport, winning her eighth world title. She surpassed fellow Australian icon Layne Beachley.
Across all sports, dreams came true and hopes were realised. Australia retained the Women’s Ashes, with batter Beth Mooney showing extraordinary resilience to play through the series with a broken jaw; Emma McKeon continued her pool domination at the Commonwealth Games, winning medals in all of her eight events, for six gold, a silver and a bronze; and wheelchair racer Madison de Rozario backed up her Olympic success in Tokyo with two more golds at the Commonwealth Games and was named athlete of the year at Australia’s Women in Sport awards.
She trumped Barty, Olympic gold medallists Jess Fox and McKeon, Matildas captainSam Kerrand CrossFit star Tia-Clair Toomey for the title.
In an interview with Para Sport last year de Rozario – who was four when she contracted transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder that inflamed her spinal cord and left her paralysed from the waist down – spoke about how sport transformed her life.
“It’s not just accomplishments, not just achievements or world titles or anything like that, but who it allowed me to become,” she said. “The biggest impact that sport can have on and for people with disabilities is learning to reclaim and to own your physical self.”
It was a historic year for the AFLW: it became a full competition, pay cheques were bumped up, and the game became steadily more popular.
Melbourne’s superstar captain Daisy Pearce also reached a personal milestone, shedding tears as she helped her team to a premiership victory while her three-year old twins watched on, then thanked them for how they had unknowingly helped her. “I just thanked them for their sacrifice in letting mum go to training and go after what I’ve wanted and what makes me happy. Similar words to Benny, (her husband) for all of his support.”
Pearce’s story is significant, not just for her incredible athletic achievements, but also because of her appointment to coach with the Geelong men’s team as, part of the AFL’s Women’s Coach Acceleration Program, launched late in 2021 as part of the league’s commitment to create coaching pathways for women.
It was a coup for Pearce to be allocated to last year’s premiers, an opportunity for when she retires from Melbourne, although there is no set date on that yet.
There were more inroads made into the men’s game when Jennifer Watt was announced as chief executive of North Melbourne Football club, only the second time a woman has received such an appointment (the first was Tracey Gaudry, who had a short-lived stint as Hawthorn’s CEO).
AFLW general manager Nicole Livingstone says the women’s game only continues to grow stronger. “In only six short years, our AFLW competition has grown from a 28-match, eight-team league to the recently completed 99-game season and, for the first time ever, all 18 clubs represented,” Livingstone said. “We have achieved enormous success so quickly.
“Everyone — the clubs, players, officials, umpires, the trailblazers who forged a path —everyone should be proud of the decisions made and the work taken to get here. We are seeing the best footy played and more people engaged in our competition than ever before.”
In the National Rugby League the women’s competition is not yet at full strength – it will add four more teams for a total of 10 this year – but it certainly has one of the biggest talents in Australian sport in Emma Tonegato.
Tonegato, an Olympic gold medallist in rugby sevens, helped the Jillaroos to a World Cup title as an 18-year-old in 2013 and again this year. She is a cross-code superstar, who starred in Australia’s run to the first Olympic Rugby Sevens gold medal at Rio 2016, becoming a two-time Olympian in Tokyo .
Last year Tonegato dominated for her rugby league club St George Illawarra and for Australia, along with fellow Dally M medallist Millie Boyle and Jessica Sergis, Kezie Apps, Sammy Bremner. These rising stars have people talking up the quality of the competition.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo spoke enthusiastically about the women’s game’s achievements, saying last year had produced the most competitive season ever, with an average margin of just over 11 points per match and 44 per cent of matches with a margin less than six points.
“The 2022 season had the highest ever amount of tries, line-breaks, shifts, decoys and offloads per game,” Abdo said. “Ball in play was at 58 per cent, which translates into an open and entertaining spectacle. The quality of football was consistently of a very high standard.”
He said the first ever stand-alone grand final for the 2021 premiership (with almost 8000 fans in Queensland for an all-NSW decider) was followed by the 2022 grand final with a live crowd of 42,921 fans at Accor Stadium.
“Our ratings and attendance for Origin were also pleasing with a record crowd of 11,321 and more than half a million tuning in,” Abdo said.
“In 2023 we look forward to four new teams, which creates another 96 elite level playing opportunities, an expanded NRLW, State of Origin series and internationals. A significantly higher salary cap, player benefits and representative payments.”
The NRL is also investing heavily at the grassroots level.
“Growth is not only happening at the elite level,” Abdo said. “The commission is focused on investing in female participation and pathway programs. Female participation is up to 40,000 nationally and the Queensland and NSW state competitions continue to grow, developing talent and pathways for players, coaches, referees and administrators.”
This year we’ll see the expansion of the NRLW, and the AFLW will go for its second full season, but the eyes of the world will be on the women’s World Cup soccer, to be held in Australia for the first time, but including venues in New Zealand. It will be a game-changing moment for women’s sport in this country.
Keep on eye on Matildas young gun Mary Fowler, who debuted for the team at age 15, a brilliant young talent expected to take the field alongside superstar Matildas captain and superstar Sam Kerr.
Football Federation of Australia chief executive James Johnson says following on from the Socceroos’ success in making the final round of 16 at the men’s World Cup last year: “We have entered a golden era for Australian football and 2023 is set to be the biggest year yet.
“Since Australia was awarded co-hosting rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 with New Zealand, we have seen unprecedented commercial and public support for the Matildas and the women’s game with blue-chip partners coming on board, and over 109,000 fans attending Matildas home matches in 2022.
“The FIFA Women’s World Cup is the biggest stand-alone women’s sporting event in the world, and it will be the biggest sporting event Australia will have hosted since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
“It will be truly transformational for Australian women’s football, and football in general.”