AFLW is a 'political' competition but that is not something to be afraid of.

[_Happy boy]

There can sometimes be a fear of the new but sport can be an incredible driver for social change

Last week’s furore over the letter ‘M’ drew more attention to the political tensions that exist in the AFLW competition, to the chagrin of many. And after the Gold Coast Suns became the first of the four expansion teams to get an inaugural win on the board over the weekend, yet another talking point surfaced.

An impressed Suns coach David Lake made the provocative post-match comment that, “when you ask girls to give up their life for $1.50 basically, and they produce at that level, that’s what I get excited for”.

The comment comes at an interesting time for the game; the collective bargaining agreement for salaries is signed to the 2022 season and discussions for a potential co-CBA with the men’s competition beyond that date have arisen out of the changing media landscape for future broadcast rights.

The current agreement increases player wages over the next few years as the season length also increases – in line with the total hours players are expected to commit. It is somewhat comparative to the additional work, but will continue to make it difficult for players to manage other career commitments while the league remains semi-professional for the next few years.

This doesn’t sit well with fans and campaigners for the AFLW – and women in sport in general – who are constantly being told to be grateful for what they’ve got, that a women’s league exists at all and that things will take time. They are also told to be patient and to stop making everything so political.

There is a constant argument over the politics of sport. We argue that politics should be kept out of sport and we should just enjoy the game. Or we argue that sports are, and always have been, political. And in just having that argument, sports become inherently political, whether we like it or not.

Sports are political because we have never experienced this ideal that so many cling to when challenged about the political nature of sports. That some utopic ideal of sports exist. But it doesn’t. Sports have excluded and exploited, and been unfair to people based on their gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or ability since they were first played.

There are those who want to see change and who fight for sport to be better. Given that, how can being political be such a bad thing? And what is most interesting is that while some might struggle with accepting that politics are intrinsically linked to sport, the data suggests that most Australians look to sports as leaders in our society.

A survey distributed in late 2019 by Swinburne University found that Australians believe the nation’s sports organisations are doing more for the greater good than government (local and state) and religious organisations. Sporting organisations in this country are looked to by the general public for leadership on and off the field.

Sports are an incredible driver for social change. Their capacity to bring people together, to share in an experience and achieve broader good, should be celebrated. To get 35,185 fans to a game, as Fremantle and West Coast did at Optus Stadium over the weekend, to help raise money for those affected by the bushfires is a good thing. So too to rally around a young female athlete when she uses her voice to challenge online trolling and abuse, or to continue to question a league about the future of a competition and use that as a broader conversation about women in sport and gender equality in general. They give a voice and help achieve change.

When the term “political” is used as a negative, as something that should stay out of the sports we love, it is used out of a fear of change. Sometimes maintaining the status quo would be so much easier, but being political in sport is not something to be afraid of. The issues that arise out of sport should be talked about so solutions can be found and this perfect ideal of what sports should look like can be achieved. Maybe then sports would not be so political.

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