00:00:05
Speaker 1: Appoche production.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: This is episode six of Raw I'm Sam Lane. If the AFLW butterfly effect were to be summed up in an image a post on Instagram republished in an official afl season review document does it Well? Uploaded by a mother watching a game with her daughters. The snap shows two little heads pointed squarely at a television with the caption first time We're feeling inspired to wat JFL in this house hashtag AFL Women's a redheart emoji punctual it's the virtual reality moment shared. AFL Men's is still the main event by a mile in terms of elite setups and resourcing, not to mention remuneration for those working in it. Trailblazing coach Peter Searle might have been tempted into the AFLW, but remained at Saint Kilda in the Allan Richardson run Men's program in twenty seventeen as a development coach because she covets the very pointy end with her expertise and AFL and VFL responsibilities and job placement. Sarle in twenty eighteen remains peerless. The aflw's birth, however, has given women a momentous status boost across the AFL, from every facet of elite club and football department workings to decision making tables, umpiring and mainstream media. Surely a surge of permanent promotions in male team settings are coming. Addressing barriers to this progress has been one of the great modern challenges for the AFL in football and administration. Often the code has not helped itself despite employing people who wanted to help it. But dissecting those travails is for another place. Eight new teams in a new league created a galaxy of opportunity with ready majorly infrastructure, medical, recruiting, welfare, coaching, and general management jobs to name but a few were grasped with both hands. The infant competition is already rich with examples of women promoted from deputy roles, even if temporarily, to manage tasks assigned to male superiors during AFL men's competition. As the AFLW grows and its players retire, they will become coaches, administrators, commentators, and experts, and so positive change propagates. Some saw this possibility years ago, now widely understood as a means for the code to modernize to the point it can say it's legitimately inclusive. Ham fisted attempts hopefully disappear. The power and beauty of this occurring with the AFLW is that it is largely organic. Moston is humble enough to say that, in a league of men, she was what she calls a quota appointment to the AFL Commission in two thousand and five. One day that will seem unbelievable, but not yet. Peggy O'Neill remains the AFL's only woman president ever and the league's only woman to hold a traditional club CEO post full time. Tracy Goudry was a fraud appointment that lasted five months. Brisbane appointed Brianna Brock a CEO of its women's team. But football would be wrong to think that AFLW remedies everything for the code on the gender equality front. Conscious promotion of women across the AFL in all jobs remains more crucial than ever because of the AFLW. The line if you can't see it, you can't be it is quoted regularly for good reason. It is true a cautionary note. Many men and women in football dedicated their time and minds to the aflw's first season wholeheartedly to help it work the way it did. Many then switched straight into their day jobs without a break as the men's season commenced. Ten months elapsed between the first day of AFLW preseason training in November twenty sixteen and the men's AFL Ground Final on the thirtieth of September twenty seventeen. Some staff at Adelaide Football Club, which won the women's Grand Final and lost the men's, worked all the way through. There is no more compelling argument for more resourcing across the AFL and AFLW. It is essential the AFLW is attracting fresh faces to the code, so best not burn them out when the fire has just been lit. The scope for the AFLW and women's football generally to grow and thrive is limited only by the imagination. It's interesting, then, that after the high benchmark set in debut season, forecasters were quick to temper expectations for year two. The AFL has lent towards conservatism since that high light field Grand Final was played to a crowd dominated by girls and women. Two thousand and eighteen will be about consolidating the strong start the league has set, not bettering records. The most pressing task for the AFL in the aftermath of the afl w's launch is planning expansion, When, who, where and how. The AFL Commission extended its deliberation time before announcing in the two thousand seventeen Men's Grand Final week two additions to the competition. In two thousand nineteen, rather than four, as many hoped and anticipated. North Melbourne and Geelong were the winning candidates. North Melbourne won with a bold pitch that gives Tasmania the closest thing yet to an Appellisle based AFL team. Geelong's case centered on the club's location and its proven eagerness and preparation to be AFL W ready by entering a new team in the remodeled vfl W in twenty seventeen, the West Coast Eagles missed out despite employing Jan Cooper as a close consultant. The Gold Coast Sons, Essendon and Hawthorne were also unsuccessful, but no two clubs were more disappointed to miss out than Richmond and Saint Kilda, with respective club figureheads Peggy O'Neill and Matt Finnis decidedly peeved they wanted in from the beginning, and it convinced their club's credentials a superior to some who won the NOD before them, even in intake one.
00:07:45
Speaker 3: Our club has a strong long term record of supporting women and girls playing football well before AFLW.
00:07:52
Speaker 2: O'Neill says, we were surprised.
00:07:54
Speaker 3: And disappointed that we weren't awarded a license the first time around. We thought our application was compelling. We certainly felt that we were missing out in twenty seventeen, and our supporters felt that too. For business and cultural reasons, we wanted a team, and we think a women's team will make us a better club.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Geelong president and former AFL commissioner Colin Carter attended the first AFLW Awards, even though the Cats won't feel aside in the competition until twenty nineteen. He sent a spirited email to AFL commissioners afterwards.
00:08:30
Speaker 4: I went to the awards because I didn't want people to think we'd spat the dummy because we didn't get a foundation.
00:08:35
Speaker 2: License, he says.
00:08:37
Speaker 4: But I felt quite cheated that night because history was being made and our club was deprived of the opportunity to be part of it. I think it's actually unfair on clubs that want a license but don't have one. I think every year that they're being forced by the AFL to wait. They're being put at a disadvantage that could be permanent.
00:08:56
Speaker 2: The AFL has said it envisages fourteen of the league's eighteen established clubs having AFLW teams in twenty twenty, but there are no guarantees. The Commission has made it clear that the health of the afl W is paramount As it stands. Unsuccessful bidders are forced to wait until two thousand twenty at the earliest to gain admission. With afl W club membership expanding to ten in two thousand and nineteen, then as many as fourteen in two thousand twenty. The brain boggles with flow on effects for the entire code. Eight week ends of women's AFL when none had existed before, fit snugly into the puzzle of established domestic sport and broadcasting commitments in the two thousand seventeen Australian summer. The AFL was unprepared to make even a minor extension for two thousand and eighteen to include more than one final. This was surprising given finals build excitement and the twenty seventeen finale felt too abbreviated, but eight weeks avoids a clash with Australian Open tennis at one end and crossover with men's home and away football beyond round one at the other. It's safe. Ditto the AFL's resolution to keep entry for all but one AFL match in twenty eighteen free. This will become increasingly contentious, particularly in the context of AFLW footballer pay. A ten club competition in twenty nineteen forces the AFL to decide where afl W sits best. Does it run three months or have an American sport inspired conference structure. Does it begin in January and run concurrently with the Australian Open. Does it start in February and run beyond the opening home and away round of AFL Men's Does it begin much earlier or later in the year. Brisbane AFLW coach Craig Stasovich says the expanded league should eventually start in October and run throughout Australian summer. The Seven Network in Foxtel television broadcasters at the men's competition until twenty twenty two in a six year, two point five billion dollar deal were vital for AFLW for twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen. Seven committed to televise Saturday night games, the season launch matches and grand finals. A prematch show sponsored by major AFL and afl W backer National Australia Bank. Saw coverage kickoff in prime time at six thirty pm Eastern Standard Time in season one. Fox Sports broadcasts the other three games spanning Friday to Sunday, but watch changes when the AFLW season extends. Theoretically, it's a six month proposition. If fixtured Traditionally, with a full complement of eighteen clubs plus finals, plus preseason training to rival sports that have relished the small window of sanctity from AFL games, cricket, cycling and socket, to name just three, this stands to be threatening. Equally, the AFL must weigh up the pros of spreading matches and the cons of risking overkill. Questions abound longer term is it preferable to separate women's and men's fixtures or merge them? How will AFL club facilities and venues be stretched by longer AFLW seasons are fans with short attention spans stretched Will more women's games mean fewer men's games, Will all AFL games become shorter? What are the start times for matches in the height of summer and what does that mean for broadcasters, particularly Channel seven with its tennis commitments. Does it open up a broadcast bidding scenario for the nine and ten networks, for instance, exclusively tailored to the AFLW. And does the afl finally overhaul the men's draw so teams play each other just once before finals, which could give the AFLW clearer airtime for the code keepers. It's a difficult mosaic to piece together, and as in the beginning, there's no instruction manual. In twenty eighteen, Josh Vandalou starts a new role, head of Competitions and Player Movement, but will transition gradually after the appointment of the aflw's new overall chief everetime Olympic medalist Nicole Livingston, took up that position in early December twenty seventeen. Livingston left the Australian Olympic Committee's executive board to do it. There will be no shortage of priorities for the new boss. The art will be ordering them gaps in policies and procedures were forgiven in season one, but the AFL will not be excused again for events like the unholy venue stuff up for the first AFLW Grand Final Gold Coast metric On Stadium hosted in the end, but only after an unedifying farce just days before the most significant match in women's football history and a historic event for the AFL. The game location remained in limbo, victim to a battle in state and sporting politics. Administrators, players, fans and media would have been outraged if circumstances were replicated before even a men's home and away game. Once the first AFLW season was over. The first women's State of Origin game, played at Eddie Hadd Stadium on a Saturday night in the men's by round, had alarming holes. This proved how easily things can slip if unchecked. The AFL's promotion of the match just for starters was inadequate. The official attendance of nine thousand, seven hundred was considerably short of the league's stated target of fifteen thousand. Arguably worse was the sloppy hosting of the ally side, which was made up of the best available players of non Victorian heritage, from nutrition to training facilities. The sense was that everything was done on the cheap. It was not reported on publicly and the AFL AFLW live, of course, but from this experience particularly lessons must be learnt of the known unknowns coming for the AFLW. Transgender players wanting to join the competition will test the sophistication and sensitivity of the AFL. The application of Hannamouzi for the second afl W draft was rejected by the AFL on the basis of her physical size. Malzi accepted the decision with grace, but may nominate again. Such stories have the potential to be highly volatile. The positive is the further enlightenment of football and the broader community through experience. The risk is human well being through the navigation of new territory presented with nuanced and complex material that must be handled with the greatest of care. The AFL should be proactive where it can help it words that Adelaide chairman Rob Chapman said in a small function after the Crows one the twenty seventeen afl W flag resonate.
00:17:22
Speaker 1: We have a moral obligation to get this right.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: AFLW has opened a door to many who only ever saw it as bolted closed. In a growing collection of treasures the league offers, this stands to be the most precious. The stories in this book show the human gems the AFL has now genuinely welcomed to its family by creating the AFL W leaders and learners, inspired and inspiring women who love and know footy. Their altered sporting status changes their lives and influences many others. The push upper quality hill felt so steep it threatened to defeat. But when a size for Sharon was thrown Skywood to start that first AFLW game, decades of segregation and insult somehow seemed worth it. Women's football nirvana had arrived at last. One of Mike Fitzpatrick's last official engagements as AFL commissioner was one of the most important. He flew to Melbourne from America for the AFLW debut, then returned to the States the next day. He's glad, he's it. It was special that night, Fitzpatrick says, never won for overstatement.
00:18:53
Speaker 1: IFLW completes the AFL in many ways.
00:18:56
Speaker 2: Fitzpatrick acknowledges that the AFL followed the lead of cricket and soccer, particularly in this case.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: I think the interest in women's sport has grown on enornoutly. Could we have let it maybe, but I personally quite liked the timing. I think if we'd had it two or three years earlier, it may not have worked, because I'm not sure the punters wanted it to be frank I think Gil was very smart to bring it forward the way he did. It focused the team at the AFL, and because they'd done the club expansions, there was a confidence in there that they could do it.
00:19:29
Speaker 2: Imperfections in all, fans continued to flock to see what the aflw created. They watched it on television, read about it, live streamed it, listened to it, posted, launched podcasts and websites, and ran talk back radio about it. Old fans and fresh converts liked Australian rules footy in a way they'd never quite liked it before. They said this by turning up. They said it by downloading and liking images online. In the ultimate modern vote of approval. At the end of twenty seventeen, the AFL announced record participation. Itally in excess of one point five million. Women made up thirty percent of all participants, up twenty two percent on twenty sixteen. But what blew the afl away was a staggering seventy six percent rise in new women's community club teams. It emerged the next day that the National Rugby League planned to launch a rival women's competition in twenty eighteen. Here was the AFLW effect writ large.
00:20:48
Speaker 1: Most of all, I feel.
00:20:50
Speaker 2: Relief, DeBie Lee says, exhaling audibly.
00:20:55
Speaker 4: I feel relief that we got there, that all those battles we face were well worth it.
00:21:04
Speaker 2: Lee did not need the first AFLW Grand Final to reach this serene state. It overcame her seven weeks earlier, on the night of the afl w's birth, when a football ground was electrified on that unforgettable February evening. Feelings did not need words. They had a sound unlike anything anyone had ever heard, an almighty heartfelt Raw Written fifteenth of December twenty seventeen. Thanks for tuning in to RAW. Huge thanks to the people featured in this episode for their time, commitment and encouragement. Sam Mostyn, Peggy O'Neill, Colin Carter, Rob Chapman, Mike Fitzpatrick, and Debbie Lee. This recording exists thanks to the generous philanthropic backing of Ian Darling and Shark Island Institute. To Ian and the Shark Family, my heartfelt and eternal thanks. This was recorded in Melbourne, Victoria with the traditional owners of the land of the Warundri people of the Cooler Nation, and I pay my respects to Worrundery elders past and present.
00:22:45
Speaker 3: Raw.
00:22:45
Speaker 2: The book was published in twenty eighteen, which means that at the time of recording this in twenty twenty three, some of Raw's subjects have changed positions. I'm Sam Lane, rahw's executive producer. Courtney Carthy is rahw's supervising producer. Additional production from Paria Tarhazade. I'm very grateful to them both. Raw's artwork is by Mushroom Creative House, with banks to Penguin Australia. Sound design and theme music by Mark DeAngelo at the Backlot Studios. Special final thanks to Simon for all your support and to Bethany from the Mushroom Group.
Speaker 1: Appoche production.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: This is episode six of Raw I'm Sam Lane. If the AFLW butterfly effect were to be summed up in an image a post on Instagram republished in an official afl season review document does it Well? Uploaded by a mother watching a game with her daughters. The snap shows two little heads pointed squarely at a television with the caption first time We're feeling inspired to wat JFL in this house hashtag AFL Women's a redheart emoji punctual it's the virtual reality moment shared. AFL Men's is still the main event by a mile in terms of elite setups and resourcing, not to mention remuneration for those working in it. Trailblazing coach Peter Searle might have been tempted into the AFLW, but remained at Saint Kilda in the Allan Richardson run Men's program in twenty seventeen as a development coach because she covets the very pointy end with her expertise and AFL and VFL responsibilities and job placement. Sarle in twenty eighteen remains peerless. The aflw's birth, however, has given women a momentous status boost across the AFL, from every facet of elite club and football department workings to decision making tables, umpiring and mainstream media. Surely a surge of permanent promotions in male team settings are coming. Addressing barriers to this progress has been one of the great modern challenges for the AFL in football and administration. Often the code has not helped itself despite employing people who wanted to help it. But dissecting those travails is for another place. Eight new teams in a new league created a galaxy of opportunity with ready majorly infrastructure, medical, recruiting, welfare, coaching, and general management jobs to name but a few were grasped with both hands. The infant competition is already rich with examples of women promoted from deputy roles, even if temporarily, to manage tasks assigned to male superiors during AFL men's competition. As the AFLW grows and its players retire, they will become coaches, administrators, commentators, and experts, and so positive change propagates. Some saw this possibility years ago, now widely understood as a means for the code to modernize to the point it can say it's legitimately inclusive. Ham fisted attempts hopefully disappear. The power and beauty of this occurring with the AFLW is that it is largely organic. Moston is humble enough to say that, in a league of men, she was what she calls a quota appointment to the AFL Commission in two thousand and five. One day that will seem unbelievable, but not yet. Peggy O'Neill remains the AFL's only woman president ever and the league's only woman to hold a traditional club CEO post full time. Tracy Goudry was a fraud appointment that lasted five months. Brisbane appointed Brianna Brock a CEO of its women's team. But football would be wrong to think that AFLW remedies everything for the code on the gender equality front. Conscious promotion of women across the AFL in all jobs remains more crucial than ever because of the AFLW. The line if you can't see it, you can't be it is quoted regularly for good reason. It is true a cautionary note. Many men and women in football dedicated their time and minds to the aflw's first season wholeheartedly to help it work the way it did. Many then switched straight into their day jobs without a break as the men's season commenced. Ten months elapsed between the first day of AFLW preseason training in November twenty sixteen and the men's AFL Ground Final on the thirtieth of September twenty seventeen. Some staff at Adelaide Football Club, which won the women's Grand Final and lost the men's, worked all the way through. There is no more compelling argument for more resourcing across the AFL and AFLW. It is essential the AFLW is attracting fresh faces to the code, so best not burn them out when the fire has just been lit. The scope for the AFLW and women's football generally to grow and thrive is limited only by the imagination. It's interesting, then, that after the high benchmark set in debut season, forecasters were quick to temper expectations for year two. The AFL has lent towards conservatism since that high light field Grand Final was played to a crowd dominated by girls and women. Two thousand and eighteen will be about consolidating the strong start the league has set, not bettering records. The most pressing task for the AFL in the aftermath of the afl w's launch is planning expansion, When, who, where and how. The AFL Commission extended its deliberation time before announcing in the two thousand seventeen Men's Grand Final week two additions to the competition. In two thousand nineteen, rather than four, as many hoped and anticipated. North Melbourne and Geelong were the winning candidates. North Melbourne won with a bold pitch that gives Tasmania the closest thing yet to an Appellisle based AFL team. Geelong's case centered on the club's location and its proven eagerness and preparation to be AFL W ready by entering a new team in the remodeled vfl W in twenty seventeen, the West Coast Eagles missed out despite employing Jan Cooper as a close consultant. The Gold Coast Sons, Essendon and Hawthorne were also unsuccessful, but no two clubs were more disappointed to miss out than Richmond and Saint Kilda, with respective club figureheads Peggy O'Neill and Matt Finnis decidedly peeved they wanted in from the beginning, and it convinced their club's credentials a superior to some who won the NOD before them, even in intake one.
00:07:45
Speaker 3: Our club has a strong long term record of supporting women and girls playing football well before AFLW.
00:07:52
Speaker 2: O'Neill says, we were surprised.
00:07:54
Speaker 3: And disappointed that we weren't awarded a license the first time around. We thought our application was compelling. We certainly felt that we were missing out in twenty seventeen, and our supporters felt that too. For business and cultural reasons, we wanted a team, and we think a women's team will make us a better club.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Geelong president and former AFL commissioner Colin Carter attended the first AFLW Awards, even though the Cats won't feel aside in the competition until twenty nineteen. He sent a spirited email to AFL commissioners afterwards.
00:08:30
Speaker 4: I went to the awards because I didn't want people to think we'd spat the dummy because we didn't get a foundation.
00:08:35
Speaker 2: License, he says.
00:08:37
Speaker 4: But I felt quite cheated that night because history was being made and our club was deprived of the opportunity to be part of it. I think it's actually unfair on clubs that want a license but don't have one. I think every year that they're being forced by the AFL to wait. They're being put at a disadvantage that could be permanent.
00:08:56
Speaker 2: The AFL has said it envisages fourteen of the league's eighteen established clubs having AFLW teams in twenty twenty, but there are no guarantees. The Commission has made it clear that the health of the afl W is paramount As it stands. Unsuccessful bidders are forced to wait until two thousand twenty at the earliest to gain admission. With afl W club membership expanding to ten in two thousand and nineteen, then as many as fourteen in two thousand twenty. The brain boggles with flow on effects for the entire code. Eight week ends of women's AFL when none had existed before, fit snugly into the puzzle of established domestic sport and broadcasting commitments in the two thousand seventeen Australian summer. The AFL was unprepared to make even a minor extension for two thousand and eighteen to include more than one final. This was surprising given finals build excitement and the twenty seventeen finale felt too abbreviated, but eight weeks avoids a clash with Australian Open tennis at one end and crossover with men's home and away football beyond round one at the other. It's safe. Ditto the AFL's resolution to keep entry for all but one AFL match in twenty eighteen free. This will become increasingly contentious, particularly in the context of AFLW footballer pay. A ten club competition in twenty nineteen forces the AFL to decide where afl W sits best. Does it run three months or have an American sport inspired conference structure. Does it begin in January and run concurrently with the Australian Open. Does it start in February and run beyond the opening home and away round of AFL Men's Does it begin much earlier or later in the year. Brisbane AFLW coach Craig Stasovich says the expanded league should eventually start in October and run throughout Australian summer. The Seven Network in Foxtel television broadcasters at the men's competition until twenty twenty two in a six year, two point five billion dollar deal were vital for AFLW for twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen. Seven committed to televise Saturday night games, the season launch matches and grand finals. A prematch show sponsored by major AFL and afl W backer National Australia Bank. Saw coverage kickoff in prime time at six thirty pm Eastern Standard Time in season one. Fox Sports broadcasts the other three games spanning Friday to Sunday, but watch changes when the AFLW season extends. Theoretically, it's a six month proposition. If fixtured Traditionally, with a full complement of eighteen clubs plus finals, plus preseason training to rival sports that have relished the small window of sanctity from AFL games, cricket, cycling and socket, to name just three, this stands to be threatening. Equally, the AFL must weigh up the pros of spreading matches and the cons of risking overkill. Questions abound longer term is it preferable to separate women's and men's fixtures or merge them? How will AFL club facilities and venues be stretched by longer AFLW seasons are fans with short attention spans stretched Will more women's games mean fewer men's games, Will all AFL games become shorter? What are the start times for matches in the height of summer and what does that mean for broadcasters, particularly Channel seven with its tennis commitments. Does it open up a broadcast bidding scenario for the nine and ten networks, for instance, exclusively tailored to the AFLW. And does the afl finally overhaul the men's draw so teams play each other just once before finals, which could give the AFLW clearer airtime for the code keepers. It's a difficult mosaic to piece together, and as in the beginning, there's no instruction manual. In twenty eighteen, Josh Vandalou starts a new role, head of Competitions and Player Movement, but will transition gradually after the appointment of the aflw's new overall chief everetime Olympic medalist Nicole Livingston, took up that position in early December twenty seventeen. Livingston left the Australian Olympic Committee's executive board to do it. There will be no shortage of priorities for the new boss. The art will be ordering them gaps in policies and procedures were forgiven in season one, but the AFL will not be excused again for events like the unholy venue stuff up for the first AFLW Grand Final Gold Coast metric On Stadium hosted in the end, but only after an unedifying farce just days before the most significant match in women's football history and a historic event for the AFL. The game location remained in limbo, victim to a battle in state and sporting politics. Administrators, players, fans and media would have been outraged if circumstances were replicated before even a men's home and away game. Once the first AFLW season was over. The first women's State of Origin game, played at Eddie Hadd Stadium on a Saturday night in the men's by round, had alarming holes. This proved how easily things can slip if unchecked. The AFL's promotion of the match just for starters was inadequate. The official attendance of nine thousand, seven hundred was considerably short of the league's stated target of fifteen thousand. Arguably worse was the sloppy hosting of the ally side, which was made up of the best available players of non Victorian heritage, from nutrition to training facilities. The sense was that everything was done on the cheap. It was not reported on publicly and the AFL AFLW live, of course, but from this experience particularly lessons must be learnt of the known unknowns coming for the AFLW. Transgender players wanting to join the competition will test the sophistication and sensitivity of the AFL. The application of Hannamouzi for the second afl W draft was rejected by the AFL on the basis of her physical size. Malzi accepted the decision with grace, but may nominate again. Such stories have the potential to be highly volatile. The positive is the further enlightenment of football and the broader community through experience. The risk is human well being through the navigation of new territory presented with nuanced and complex material that must be handled with the greatest of care. The AFL should be proactive where it can help it words that Adelaide chairman Rob Chapman said in a small function after the Crows one the twenty seventeen afl W flag resonate.
00:17:22
Speaker 1: We have a moral obligation to get this right.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: AFLW has opened a door to many who only ever saw it as bolted closed. In a growing collection of treasures the league offers, this stands to be the most precious. The stories in this book show the human gems the AFL has now genuinely welcomed to its family by creating the AFL W leaders and learners, inspired and inspiring women who love and know footy. Their altered sporting status changes their lives and influences many others. The push upper quality hill felt so steep it threatened to defeat. But when a size for Sharon was thrown Skywood to start that first AFLW game, decades of segregation and insult somehow seemed worth it. Women's football nirvana had arrived at last. One of Mike Fitzpatrick's last official engagements as AFL commissioner was one of the most important. He flew to Melbourne from America for the AFLW debut, then returned to the States the next day. He's glad, he's it. It was special that night, Fitzpatrick says, never won for overstatement.
00:18:53
Speaker 1: IFLW completes the AFL in many ways.
00:18:56
Speaker 2: Fitzpatrick acknowledges that the AFL followed the lead of cricket and soccer, particularly in this case.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: I think the interest in women's sport has grown on enornoutly. Could we have let it maybe, but I personally quite liked the timing. I think if we'd had it two or three years earlier, it may not have worked, because I'm not sure the punters wanted it to be frank I think Gil was very smart to bring it forward the way he did. It focused the team at the AFL, and because they'd done the club expansions, there was a confidence in there that they could do it.
00:19:29
Speaker 2: Imperfections in all, fans continued to flock to see what the aflw created. They watched it on television, read about it, live streamed it, listened to it, posted, launched podcasts and websites, and ran talk back radio about it. Old fans and fresh converts liked Australian rules footy in a way they'd never quite liked it before. They said this by turning up. They said it by downloading and liking images online. In the ultimate modern vote of approval. At the end of twenty seventeen, the AFL announced record participation. Itally in excess of one point five million. Women made up thirty percent of all participants, up twenty two percent on twenty sixteen. But what blew the afl away was a staggering seventy six percent rise in new women's community club teams. It emerged the next day that the National Rugby League planned to launch a rival women's competition in twenty eighteen. Here was the AFLW effect writ large.
00:20:48
Speaker 1: Most of all, I feel.
00:20:50
Speaker 2: Relief, DeBie Lee says, exhaling audibly.
00:20:55
Speaker 4: I feel relief that we got there, that all those battles we face were well worth it.
00:21:04
Speaker 2: Lee did not need the first AFLW Grand Final to reach this serene state. It overcame her seven weeks earlier, on the night of the afl w's birth, when a football ground was electrified on that unforgettable February evening. Feelings did not need words. They had a sound unlike anything anyone had ever heard, an almighty heartfelt Raw Written fifteenth of December twenty seventeen. Thanks for tuning in to RAW. Huge thanks to the people featured in this episode for their time, commitment and encouragement. Sam Mostyn, Peggy O'Neill, Colin Carter, Rob Chapman, Mike Fitzpatrick, and Debbie Lee. This recording exists thanks to the generous philanthropic backing of Ian Darling and Shark Island Institute. To Ian and the Shark Family, my heartfelt and eternal thanks. This was recorded in Melbourne, Victoria with the traditional owners of the land of the Warundri people of the Cooler Nation, and I pay my respects to Worrundery elders past and present.
00:22:45
Speaker 3: Raw.
00:22:45
Speaker 2: The book was published in twenty eighteen, which means that at the time of recording this in twenty twenty three, some of Raw's subjects have changed positions. I'm Sam Lane, rahw's executive producer. Courtney Carthy is rahw's supervising producer. Additional production from Paria Tarhazade. I'm very grateful to them both. Raw's artwork is by Mushroom Creative House, with banks to Penguin Australia. Sound design and theme music by Mark DeAngelo at the Backlot Studios. Special final thanks to Simon for all your support and to Bethany from the Mushroom Group.
