Add Category
Updated
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate…
So according to the Tay Tay playbook, the next thing the AFLW was supposed to do was shake it off.
When you have started your third season with some compelling matches played before big crowds, experts are talking about the improved skills infused by academy players and kids are dancing in the grandstands, why care about what the Twitter trolls have to say? Right?
Except the digital team at Seven, one of the AFLW's broadcast partners, did not get the memo.
During a media session before the season, Seven filmed five AFLW captains looking into the camera and responding to the misogynistic whining of the most vile critics with a very frank message: We don't care what they think. Our league is for those who love it.
The video was duly posted on Seven's website on Wednesday without AFL consent, prompting some advocates to praise the AFLW for standing up for itself in the face of the awful, ill-informed abuse aimed reflexively at almost any reference to the league.
As they chant on the football terraces: "You don't like us? We don't care!"
But those charged with expanding the league's horizons — and financial base — were far less impressed.
Regardless of the intent, the video's message flew in the face of the AFLW's official message of "inclusiveness".
Worse, as anyone who has spent a nanosecond wading through the social media sewer knows, any response to the lowest elements is like feeding the original troll a three-course meal of Billy Goats Gruff.
Accordingly, instead of the cold indifference of the AFLW captains, the so-called "haters" will have heard: "We've spent valuable time and resources getting five captains to shoot a video aimed directly at you. Happy validation day!"
The language was also unfortunate given that, since Tay Tay shook them off, the term "haters" has been hopelessly devalued by those who use it as a catch-all defence against even the most legitimate criticism as they once hid behind the supposed tall-poppy syndrome.
So rather than a potent defence of the league, this was instead game, set and match to the troglodytes and Neanderthals — as the AFLW swiftly acknowledged when it asked for Seven to delete the video 90 minutes after its release.
"This wasn't a piece of content we authorised or which had our approval," was the AFL's official response.
"It did not reflect our message of inclusiveness and that AFLW is a game for everybody."
But if this short-lived attempt to kick back at the most ill-informed critics was misguided, it raised a pertinent question: How does the AFLW — and other women's sport — defend itself against the hateful trolling that has an emotional and potentially psychological impact on some competitors and fans?
The most obvious answer is to continue to push its many virtues, as women's cricket particularly has done this season during a WBBL season in which Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and others emerged as even more influential role models.
The most powerful AFLW image yet produced was that of a group of young girls responding with sheer unbridled delight to a Geelong player who came close to the boundary during last Saturday's match at Kardinia Park.
You could not have contrived a more meaningful message about the game's present and future.
In a column in The Australian, Sport Australia chief executive Kate Palmer this week suggested one way to acknowledge the equality of female athletes was to stop using the term "women's sport" to distinguish and refer to it simply as sport.
As Palmer noted, we don't call Sally Pearson a women's hurdler or Cate Campbell a women's swimmer.
"There is just sport," wrote Palmer.
"It belongs to all. It's what everyone plays. What has traditionally been divided into buckets should become mainstream. Everyone should feel worthy, welcome and equal."
Which is true, although rather than appealing to the media or supporters, perhaps this plea is still best directed at those administrators who continue to make distinctions between their men's and women's programs.
Indeed, if the AFLW captains want to make a statement about those retarding the game's growth perhaps they should start with a protest rally outside AFL House.
It must be galling to see the full weight of the AFL's promotional machine thrown behind AFLX, a contrived attempt to "internationalise" a parochial game and annexe rectangular fields currently occupied by football; one that should have been buried in an unmarked grave after its first lamentable outing.
Yet the AFL has doubled down on this expensive folly by introducing an embarrassingly ad hoc "schoolyard draft" and adding yet more sponsored gimmicks such as a wildcard player whose goals count double.
There have been reports participants in the AFLX will receive more than $50,000 each to have their "brands" associated with this farcical preseason kick about, although AFL sources suggest the best paid AFLX player will get "only" $20,000. Either way, this has no doubt raised the eyebrows of AFLW players who are paid between $13,400 and $24,600 for the entire season.
If you were an AFLW star busting a gut to promote Australian rules to the booming female market, surely you would hate-hate-hate this vast disparity as much as the bile spewed on an anonymous Facebook account.
Topics: sport, australian-football-league, melbourne-3000, geelong-3220, fremantle-6160, hobart-7000, homebush-2140, adelaide-5000, brisbane-4000
First posted