10 News First Reporter Natalie Yoannidis on the future of sports journalism for women in Australia.
Gender progress in Australian sport has been an issue for more than one hundred years. While it is improving for promising young women, there is still an under representation of women in Australian sports media.
The launch of the Australian Football League Women’s (AFLW) in 2017 was monumental for young females who aspired to play at an elite level.
For the first time in Australian history, females had the opportunity to pursue a career in Australian Rules football and be part of a national competition.
In a speech at the AFLW launch AFL Chief Executive, Gillon McLachlan said this moment in women’s football has “in fact been over a hundred years in the making”.
The AFLW Best and Fairest awards were broadcasted live on FOX Footy from five locations across Australia last week and for the first time in history two athletes were joint winners of the award.
The latest data from Roy Morgan shows an increase in AFLW popularity with 2.78 million people watching the competition on TV in 2020 compared to 2.42 million in 2019.
10 News First Reporter Natalie Yoannidis. By Christy Doran.
Last month Port Adelaide’s Next Generation Academy women’s coach, Naomi Maidment shared her excitement about the future opportunities for girls playing footy with Port Adelaide.
“I often tell the girls in the Port Adelaide program that I’m super jealous of them being 15-year-olds now in 2021 playing footy. I can see one day the girls having it as a career, which is exciting for young girls now who go and watch football to understand what the pathway looks like,” she said.
Despite the improvements that have been made for young females who play sport, there isn’t a direct pathway for young women who dream of working in sports journalism.
Member of Deakin University’s Centre for Sport Research, Dr Kim Toffoletti said that one way to increase coverage of women’s sport is to employ more women in sports journalism.
“We don’t need to tell the same sports stories that we’ve been telling for the last 100 years. We can be creative, we can be innovative, and we can generate really powerful content when we reach out to different voices and talk to different people about their experiences in sport,” she said.
In 2009 AFL broadcaster Kelli Underwood became the first woman to commentate an AFL game on TV.
She told the ABC that there has been progress since she started working in the industry twenty years ago.
Natalie Yoannidis at the 2021 Australian Open. By Trung Ly.
“The number of women involved in broadcasting AFL has more than doubled in the last 12 months and the growth of digital media means there are now many more career pathways available,” Underwood said.
The Victorian Government Change our Game initiative was designed to provide opportunities for women in sport both on and off the field.
They recently supported the Making The Call mentoring program created by The Outer Sanctum co-hosts Emma and Lucy Race.
The program is aimed at supporting females who have an interest in AFL broadcasting and want to further develop their skills and learn from industry professionals.
However, these programs can be competitive and there is a limited intake.
Ten News First reporter and Triple M Footy Boundary Rider, Natalie Yoannidis said that there is scope for anyone who is passionate about the sport industry to carve a niche for themselves.
“There is a lot more acceptance of women in media roles, but we still have a long way to go to get more women involved,” she said.
Featured Image: Photograph is of the GMHBA Stadium in Geelong. Taken by Daniel Anthony, from Unsplash.
