This is a difficult subject for me to cover. I don’t like the idea of offending people who love the AFLW as much as me. I don’t like the idea of offending people in general. But I also may have views that differ from those who have loud voices, and a platform to use them.
I think this whole debate about changing the AFL to the AFLM is quite unnecessary - there, I said it.
I listened to the Outer Sanctum podcast the other day. For the record, I am a fan of the show. It’s a group of women who share their love for the game of Aussie Rules. I co-host a show - the A3 Footy Podcast - that’s not too dissimilar: three guys that talk and share the love that is Aussie Rules Football. The fact that all three co-hosts share the name Alex is just a great quirk.
Okay, enough sidetracking - the Outer Sanctum Podcast. One of the co-hosts of the show asked the question to the head of the AFLW, Nicole Livingstone, and also to the head of football operations of the AFL, Steve Hocking about how long it would be until AFL headquarters formally commit to changing the name of the men’s competition to ‘AFLM’.
Hocking then went on the record to say that the AFL would be ‘All Ears’ on the idea, on the proviso that it had public backing. Many media outlets left that second bit out of their reports. The public backing part didn’t get clicks – just the statement the AFL was all ears. That’s all they needed.
Livingstone kind of danced around the question, but still said that she takes the time to us the phrase “AFL men’s competition” when she speaks as a point of difference. Shortly after the usual suspects started to air the “all ears” comment, the AFL quickly backflipped on Hocking’s words, stating that the league had no plans to change.
Classic AFL.
Those that read my stuff frequently would know I’m a mad AFLW fan. I can 90 percent give you names of players and who they play for and what number they wear and hell, we talk about AFLW once a week on the podcast. It’s DEFINITELY NOT - and I will repeat it if I must – NOT an attack on those who do prefer to call it as such.
As far as I am concerned any individual can call the competition whatever they like. Call it AFLM if you want to. Unlike many people who appear to be triggered by the even the slightest thought of labelling it as such, I’m not at all upset about the notion of it. I’m not mad. I’m not sulky I’m not any negative emotion about the whole thing. It’s not worth getting your undies tied up in a bunch.
However, I am pretty confused by it all, and that’s the reason I’m writing this. I want to understand – I just don’t as yet. Why aim to legally change the name? What does it accomplish if it happens? What’s next? I completely understand that in writing this, I may come off as ignorant to some, but these are genuine questions being asked by someone who, at the heart of it, is just trying to get a grasp on it all.
One of the main arguments I’m hearing and reading is that all this is just another way to ring the equalization bell. What I mean by this, is that some people believe that by calling the men’s league the AFL and not specifying the “M” implies that the men’s league is the norm that the women are being treated as ‘that other league’ with an extra letter on the end. If you believe that – great. I’m not going to kick up a stink about your choices, I’m not your mum.
However, I am not buying this reasoning - not yet anyway.
I feel like there are some who will use any excuse to ring that bell at this stage. I want equalization in sports as much as the next journalist in the queue, but I am struggling to find the reason why it’s necessary to change the name of a league that doesn’t really need it.
From a personal point of view, whenever I have had to speak about the two leagues in the same breath, I’ve always spoken about the AFL as simply ‘The Men’s league’ and the AFLW, simply as the ‘Women’s league’. More recently I’ve started calling it “The ‘W” to shorten it. This is just how I differentiate between them. When I’m writing about just a sole league, It’s either AFL or AFLW. I don’t see any superiority in one name or the other. Others might, and that’s fine, but in my experience if you’re determined to look for something to be upset or outraged about, you’ll inevitably find it, and many have found that most recently in two letters – M, and W.
This is going to be a weird analogy that I’m about to pluck out here, but how we pronounce these two leagues - I find anyway - is a bit like comparing two people’s taste in music: One person likes the classic rock stuff and the other likes the new, modern stuff. Both don’t like the other’s and that’s fine. It purely comes down to subjective tastes and labelling the leagues as such I find is really no different when it’s all said and done.
So, do we really need this change? Are we just being nitpicky? Or are we buying into an agenda that will never really be content with the footy landscape?
In the premier soccer league we have here in Australia, we have the A-League for the men, and the W-League for the women. Do we have people talking about how the A-League should formally change their name to the A-League Men or the M-League? I don’t know about you readers, but I haven’t read or heard anything of the sort. Have we heard or read anything about the NBL and Women’s NBL and how we should re-name the men’s league Men’s NBL? You can also venture overseas to the other leagues if you like - no one else is talking about it. The NBA and WNBA are prime examples of how an added letter has taken the strength of an established league and built on it for their women’s league.
Why should we be changing the names of our competitions when no one else is really talking about it in any of the other codes? Are we hell-bent on being known as pioneers? Do we wish to be on the right side of history, irrespective of collateral damage?
We’re hearing from people like Livingstone and Hocking - those from behind the scenes and journalists have come out and said their piece. But have we heard anything from the players publically? Why are they so quiet on the subject?
It’s probably a given that they will speak about the issues behind closed doors, and I know it’s only early days, but I haven’t heard one player speak out about the debate. Are they even bothered by it? I can’t speak on behalf of the players, but I’d be willing to wager that plenty of them could not be stuffed by any iota of this debate.
Rather, their focus is more likely to be on the training sessions they have during the week, their day-to-day jobs, the preparations for the weekend and the game day itself that they must endure for the next couple of months. Maybe it adds more to this growing theory that the media will make a mountain out of a molehill to just about any subject. Not saying this theory is correct by any means, purely just thought.
Jesse Hogan’s mental health issues at Fremantle I think is a perfect example. Some journalist said the other day that his time was up and that the Dockers couldn’t wait to give him the flick. None of that is true by the way, just pure speculation as Freo have denied all of it.
So I’ll end this piece by referring back to my initial question: Why do we feel we need to change it? I’m open to hearing why you personally would think otherwise. So as a fella just trying to get a grasp of it all: Why?