“Do not measure success by today’s harvest. Measure success by the seeds you plant today.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
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The phenomenon that was the opening AFL Women’s (AFLW) season comes to a close with Saturday’s grand final between Brisbane and Adelaide. But for everyone bar the premiers, there will be no sitting back to bask in the afterglow.
The success of the concept means everyone – from footballers to football executives, from athletes to clubs – is scrambling to work out what comes next.
Clare Lawton’s taste of the first ever national Australian rules competition for women is barely over and the Ganmain footballer is hungry for more.
“I don’t how to explain it – there’s not really words to describe something like that,” Lawton said.
“It’s almost depressing that it’s over. It was such a great time – the time of my life. I finally got a crack at achieving my dream.
“I can’t wait for next year. In the next few weeks we should find out more about how the competition will look.”
In the meantime, she’ll be back to work at Kapooka, and back to training with the Riverina Lions, the Wagga-based women’s team about to enter its 15th season in the Canberra competition.
“A lot of people don’t even realise that Wagga had a female AFL team,” Lawton said. “This has brought light to it. I can't wait to see the new faces and new girls who have never thought about playing AFL before.”
According to Lions president and newly-appointed captain, Amy Coote, interest has grown with every passing week.
“After every game they show on the weekend, we’ve been getting more and more people come down,” Coote said.
“It’s unreal – especially when we’ve got some ex-Lions players in the national league. We’ve got Clare, Sophie Casey at Collingwood and Gabby Pound at Carlton. It’s good to see those familiar faces.”
Coote has taken over as captain following the retirement of Julie McLean – one of the founders of the Lions who was forced into retirement by a knee injury last year, after 14 seasons and more than 200 games.
“Unless you were involved, I think a lot of people didn’t know the interest so (the AFLW) has definitely opened a lot of people’s eyes,” McLean said.
“I think it was always a dream but it seemed a very, very distant dream. To see it come to fruition was amazing.
“That first game, it was a very proud moment with 25,000 people watching Collingwood and Carlton. And it’s only going to get bigger and better from here to hopefully, eventually, be a fully-fledged competition.”
McLean and Coote can’t help but wonder what might have been had a national league been an option for them to pursue.
Now, they say, the onus needs to be on growing the opportunities locally.
“The Riverina Lions have so many talented players that just can’t commit to the Canberra travel,” McLean said.
“The sooner there is a competition in the region, allowing more females to access the game, the more draftees we’ll have come from the area, just like the boys have made it such a strong recruiting paddock.”
AFL Southern NSW manager, Steve Mahar, said plans are being made for a women’s representative game between Riverina and Canberra to be played at Robertson Oval on May 20 as part of the interleague calendar.
“We think it’s a great opportunity to start the conversation around women’s footy in southern NSW and what the future holds for them in terms of competition,” Mahar said.
Given the strong association country clubs have with netball, the AFL is not yet looking at women’s football on the same day in local leagues. But a midweek autumn Youth Girls competition in the MIA, with 120 players spread across five teams, is being closely watched as a potential test case.
“The timing is aligned with the AFLW and that also helps highlight to parents the pathway that girls can come in as a little tacker in Auskick to ending up playing on the TV as the men have always done,” AFL development coordinator Che Jenkins said.
Riverina football identity Jed Lawton is one who has watched a daughter travel that very journey.
“I never thought I’d see anything like that but I always hoped that something like that would happen,” Lawton senior said.
“I’m that proud of her. It’s terrific for all the girls. And it’s just so good to see the girls and boys at the footy matches, running up and down the aisles to get autographs and high-five the players.”
He even admits to the odd tear in the eye.
“Oh yeah, more than one!” he said, finding himself on one occasion standing in the shoes of many a footballer’s mother.
“I was a bit worried in the first game, when she got smashed and broke her nose,” he said. “But she was good. She’s tough.”
Clare believes there’s been a change in public perception from the cautious ‘I might watch a game’ to a genuine appreciation.
That’s the cause for excitement in the broader sense for women’s sport.
There are no boundaries anymore... it's so amazing.
- Clare Lawton
“There are no boundaries any more, you don’t have to stop playing at a certain age,” Clare said. “I’ve got good mates who are playing rugby league for the Sharks, mates who are Wallaroos, I know girls playing in the women’s Big Bash. There's girls like Alicia Quirk in Rugby Sevens – an Olympic champion. It’s so amazing.”
Right now there a sense of sisterhood about the opportunities. But there’s little doubt that women’s sport is the new arena in the battle for young hearts and minds. Netball, soccer and basketball have long had strong national teams to aspire to. Rugby Sevens now also offers an Olympic-sized carrot. Cricket is opening up pathways to full-time professionalism with pay increases to match. And rugby league wants to match what the AFL has just offered.
Gab Suckling and Bridget Horsely have been training with the Canberra Raiders Women’s Nine’s squad, which has a second exhibition game this weekend.
“We’ve got a few more exhibition games in April, May and June and a couple of them will be played just before the NRL games,” Suckling said, adding that there’s talk of a short season next year.
The daughter of Wagga Brothers legend Chris Suckling, she gets the significance.
“Girls are really seeing that they can play sports they can tackle in,” she said.
“Before, it was really just touch and Oztag. Dad loves it. He’s very supportive and excited that I get to play league now.”
For all the differences between league and Aussie rules, that’s how it feels to some at the Riverina Lions. Like Bridget Doyle who dabbled in the sport as a student but has been playing netball for the last five years.
“AFL is completely different to netball, that’s what I like about it,” Doyle said. “You get to run around with the ball, you get to tackle people – the atmosphere’s different.”