With no Essendon team in the comp, do you have any interest in the competition at all?
Would you follow it more if there were an Essendon team, and do you hope we will eventually field one?
Personally I find it hard to care at all, and not because of the standard, which I am sure will be excellent, but because there is no chance in hell I’ll be barracking for anyone other than the mighty red and black.
You?
Nope not interested even if we had our own team. Don’t get me wrong and shoot me down, im no mysoginist I love and respect women and believe they belong in high places like men, but all I see is the AFL trying to keep media space active.
Gillian is a farcking joke and hypocrite. He handled the Dustin Martin chop sticks issue well. He’s also handled the drugs agenda well, the AFL is a laughing stock on that front.
Anything the AFL does to promote women or anti drugs is to self serve their alleged socially responsible over inflated egos. They have no right to become socially responsible they should concentrate on making the game better. Eliminate the number of 1 X 1 plays and get more contested footy into the game instead of promoting their self serving ego maniacal hypocritical agendas.
There … rant over.
The AFL raising awareness of cultural issues and celebrating contributions of members of society has no negative impact on the game. It doesn’t restrict their ability to adjust rules and try and improve the standard of the game on the field. You think they launch a Women’s comp and that somehow stops league HQ thinking about the AFL?
Self serving or not, they are one of the more prominent forms of family entertainment in this country. They have a duty to be socially responsible.
You don’t think it’s their place? Fine. But if you alienate everyone except white males from the game, watch the standard of football drop and the “family” atmosphere disappear - with less support from grass roots and less diversity of players participating. Not to mention less revenue from the gate and TV.
Yeah, if it was all at the standard of the exhibition games, I’d watch, I enjoyed seeing the girls smashing in. And whilst I’ll probably check it out to start with for interests sake, I dare say it won’t reach that level for 4 or 5 years.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained though, it might still be entertaining enough.
I am trying to be interested but honestly I don’t really follow much women’s sport. Not sure why perhaps it is because it is not the very best because the men’s teams are better. Netball does hold some interest for me but not sure when I watched close to a full game. I do have a family friend who was drafted to the Giants so I will keep an interest in her and how she is going, but until Essendon have a side then probably not.
I probably have slightly more interest in the WNBL than the NBL because the Tigers are no longer but I guess until the Opals beat the Boomers it probably won’t be too high. I take the point that the Opals are usually higher ranked than the Boomers in their respective comps but head to head it would not even be close.
I feel similar about the Paralympics I have an interest but I have hardly watched any of it despite having a paraplegic brother who has competed in marathons internationally and as I have travelled to a marathon with Kurt Fearnley. I check to see how he goes but that is about it. And yes Kurt’s marathon time would whip any able bodied athlete’s time, ever.
I am trying to be interested but honestly I don't really follow much women's sport. Not sure why perhaps it is because it is not the very best because the men's teams are better. Netball does hold some interest for me but not sure when I watched close to a full game. I do have a family friend who was drafted to the Giants so I will keep an interest in her and how she is going, but until Essendon have a side then probably not.
I probably have slightly more interest in the WNBL than the NBL because the Tigers are no longer but I guess until the Opals beat the Boomers it probably won’t be too high. I take the point that the Opals are usually higher ranked than the Boomers in their respective comps but head to head it would not even be close.
I feel similar about the Paralympics I have an interest but I have hardly watched any of it despite having a paraplegic brother who has competed in marathons internationally and as I have travelled to a marathon with Kurt Fearnley. I check to see how he goes but that is about it. And yes Kurt’s marathon time would whip any able bodied athlete’s time, ever.
I don’t know why, maybe it is just me?.
I’d suggest your thoughts are echoed by the overwhelming majority of sports watchers
edit
actually, I’ll go beyond suggesting
Spectator numbers, TV $$$, TV ratings, athlete wages, sponsorship $$$, news coverage all comprehensively support that your views are echoed by the overwhelming majority of sports watchers
Mentioned by Xavier Campbell at the AGM on a couple of occasions last night that an Essendon Women’s team is definitely in the future plans of the Club
Yeah I’ll watch. Largely because it will be before the main season. Will get more into it if/when there’s an Essendon team.
Far be it from me to tell anyone how to watch sport, but straight up comparing women’s [whatever] to men’s [whatever] is always going to end in disappointment for punters. If you’re to get any enjoyment out of them it needs to be viewed as a completely separate sport. For example, watching the W-League, there’s very few women who can hoik it 60 metres, so moving the ball becomes far more about mad tekkas and precision passing than the A-League which is 80% chaos ball. Both very different styles of play, both quite enjoyable. Another example, tennis. Women’s relies on outplaying your opponent with a wide variety of shots, while the men’s is more about hitting the fk out of it and making shots that are difficult/impossible to return.
I can see AFLW being focused on clusters of 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 contests around the ground so it will look very different from AFL. It will result in lower scores, but be far more physical and free-flowing.
Have a family friend and a mate’s mrs who were both drafted so interested to see them both play (unfortunately 1 for farkcarlton and 1 for the filth)
Hoping its a success and will become much more interested when we field a team
Par for course at the lower level
I’ve mentioned it earlier but the defensive structures will progress a lot faster than the skills/offence will
I expect a lot of Roos era Sydney, Lyon era Saints/Freo low scoring encounters
As the father of a six year-old daughter who recently declared she wants to play hockey for Australia at the Olympics, I'm all in favour of pathways being opened for women to achieve in high-level sport. If it gets kids active in sport it's a good thing, if it promotes football as a sport it's a good thing, if it gives women access to elite sport/training facilities it's a good thing. Australia has a rising problem with obesity, so who can complain about more sporting opportunities for both males and females? Hopefully Essendon will be able to enter a team in the league in the near future so we can provide an option for fans who can't bring themselves to offer support to those other rancid excuses for football clubs. The club will regret it if they miss the wagon on this one. I don't think this is about being seen to be doing the right thing or making a token effort to be inclusive. It is the right thing and it does provide inclusiveness to everyone.
The Big Bash showed that it’s possible to start up a new league that comes from an existing sport and get massive popularity, the AFLW can do this too. My whole family is going to a couple of WBBL games as they are played during the day which means my young kids aren’t up late and I want to show my daughter that girls can reach elite levels in sport, it’s up to her if she wants to put in the effort to get there. Perfect opportunity. If you don’t think women can play high standard cricket, then you haven’t seen players like Meg Lanning and Elise Perry.
Also, my wife just got elected to the Women of the MCC comittee that supports programs for girls and women in sport, they help fund girls on scholarship programs to go to talent camps for cricket, etc, as well as providing funding and equipment for girls sport in other countries.
So, yeah, I’m in favour of it and hope like hell it succeeds.
Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry are superb cricketers.
I’ll be an interested onlooker of AFLW, until Essendon gets a team, then I’ll be a regular supporter.