Women and the AFL: Just the Beginning

By Bonnie Palmer

Through a series of individual profiles this book celebrates women who are connected to the AFL: the women who have mothered champion players; the women who have married them; the women who have sacrificed their own free time, unpaid, to work in clubs at board level, many for more than a decade. The women who paved the way for others in their wake, by being among the first to hold senior positions in the AFL; the women who umpire; who tape and massage; and women like me who are quite simply, fans.

This is not a political or overtly feminist book; rather it’s a collection of diverse and entertaining individual stories, with AFL as the common bond.

The women featured in my book are:

Jill Lindsay AFL Ground Operations Manager for over 40 years until her sad passing in 2011
Kelli UnderwoodThe first female to commentate a full game of AFL on live television
Bree McPheeWife of former Essendon and Fremantle player Adam McPhee
Beverley O’ConnorFormer Melbourne Football Club Vice-President and sports journalist
Chelsea RoffeyThe first female to act as goal umpire at an AFL Grand Final
Samantha LaneFootball journalist and TV personality
Susan AlbertiBoard member and patron of the Western Bulldogs Football Club
Debbie LeeCo-founder of first AFL sanctioned women’s game
Nanette MalthouseWife of former Collingwood and Carlton coach Mick Malthouse
Sharon BoydMother of former Western Bulldogs captain Matthew Boyd
Judith Elliott &Football trainers for over 40 years
Joy Gelly

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bonnie Palmer
• Release date: Jun 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310591242

Bonnie Palmer

I'm a Copywriter by trade working in the digital advertising space in Melbourne, Australia. I was inspired to write this book after waking to yet another salacious newspaper story involving a footballer and a female. I thought to myself, 'Where are all the positive stories about women and football?'. And so I started a journey of interviewing women about their experiences with this much loved Australian sport and loved every minute of it. I hope you do too.

Book preview

WOMEN AND THE AFL – JUST THE BEGINNING

Bonnie Palmer

©2015

During this journey I’ve undertaken researching and talking with just a handful of the many women in football, one sentiment appears to resonate most strongly across the majority of the group. And that is, these women don’t want their gender to be made an issue out of. They don’t want to belong to separate supporter groups, they don’t want to be more celebrated than their male counterparts and they accept but don’t embrace the responsibility of representing some sort of inspirational figure to other women.

Most of all, they don’t really want to talk about what it’s like to be a woman in football. What they would rather do is share their individual stories and professional histories, and let those anecdotes speak for themselves about what it is to be who and where they are. I learnt early on when interviewing for this book that direct questions relating to working in male dominated environments and issues of professional acceptance were likely to be met with guarded, perhaps even rehearsed responses (as many were also keen to point out, these are the types of questions they get asked all the time). And so I changed tack. And I found that when I steered the questions away from focusing on how they interacted with their male colleagues and into more personal territory, and took the pressure off these women to speak on behalf of the entire female population, their fascinating experiences and career challenges unfolded before me in a completely natural and honest way.

Because it’s not an us versus them mentality. It’s very much about everyone working together to support and promote a game that they all truly love. And at the end of the day, gender has nothing to do with it.

So then why did I write a book about women in football? Pretty simple really. After reading yet another story about a footballer’s transgressions involving a female I thought to myself how it was interesting that all we ever seem to hear is negative stories around women and football. As a football follower for most of my life I knew that I had gotten a lot of joy out of the game over the years. That I looked forward to the start of every season, that I loved the crazed, almost feral atmosphere of games and that watching my team’s journey through each season got me through the winter months with more of a spring in my step. And I also knew many women just like me. Then it occurred to me that if I found the negative press frustrating, it must be tenfold for the women actually involved in football. What, I wondered, did they make of the seemingly endless appetite for the salacious and seedy side of women in football? How many women were actually closely involved in football these days? Why did their good news stories get overlooked? And so I decided to find out.

Australian Rules football is a truly unique sport in our country, perhaps even the world, in its ability to draw passionate and committed fans and participants from both genders. And if the last decade is anything to go by, female participation and representation is only going to grow. Figures from AFL.com.au show that 229,000 females hold AFL or individual club memberships. Forty-three per cent of the football television audience are female, as are thirty-five per cent of local club volunteers.

It hasn’t always been an easy relationship, the one that women and football share. It is complex, ignites furious passion and debate and is ever changing, in line with the social and cultural advancements of society at any given time. But if the many firsts for women in football over the past few years are a true indication of what’s to come, an exciting future awaits.

This book is about a handful of these firsts.

There’s Beverley O’Connor, not only the first female director in the history of the Melbourne Football Club (a position she remained in for nine years) but the first female to attain the position of Vice-President of any club in the AFL (2001).

Jill Lindsay, who worked for the AFL for more than forty years until her sad passing in 2011. In 2008, Jill briefly stepped into the role of Football Operations Manager; the first woman in history to do so.

Kelli Underwood, who several years back made headlines after calling one quarter of a match with Rex Hunt at 3AW, created another first in early 2009 by becoming the first woman to commentate a game of AFL on television, calling the Adelaide v Geelong NAB Cup match, alongside commentating great Tim Lane.

And Chelsea Roffey who made her debut as an AFL goal umpire in 2004 and in 2012 became the first woman to officiate at an AFL Grand Final.

What about the partners of footballers and coaches? Women who often sacrifice their own personal ambitions, or at least put them on hold, to support a partner whose first and foremost commitment is to their footy club. Sure, they may enjoy enviable levels of financial security, but it’s often a lonely existence, far removed from the endless glitz and glamour of Brownlow nights and best and fairest awards that we see on television. And the mothers, who drive their young sons to training, wash and mend their uniforms and allow them to leave home at as young as sixteen or seventeen when the opportunity to play AFL arises. And then there are the women who play the game of Australian Rules football. Women who, contrary to popular opinion, don’t want to play against men, rather in a sponsored league with the infrastructure and opportunities of their male counterparts.

This book aims to celebrate all of these women. The women who have mothered our champion AFL players; the women who have married them; the women who have sacrificed their own free time, unpaid, to work in clubs at board level, many for more than a decade. The women who paved the way for so many in their wake, by being among the first to hold senior positions in the Australian Football League; the women who umpire; who tape and massage; and women like you and me, who are quite simply, fans of this treasured national pastime.

As you’ll soon see, there is much to celebrate.

KELLI UNDERWOOD: AFL COMMENTATOR AND REPORTER

Kelli Underwood always loved sport growing up, encouraged at all turns by her sports-mad grandmother who still subscribes to Foxtel only so she’ll never miss an important game or competition. She knows more stats than me so I think that probably sums up where I got the interest, says Underwood with a laugh.

Underwood played competitive basketball at a national level as a junior, gaining valuable insight into the pressure-cooker environment of professional sport. However, once a teenager she realised the prospect of forging a long-term career as a sportswoman was unlikely and so decided to pursue her other great passion—journalism.

During the final year