An article by Katie
The NRL are seemingly taking steps to promote women in rugby league. A wise marketing move on their part, but I question whether they are genuine and serious about promoting women in rugby league, or just hoping to increase ticket numbers and merchandise sales. Let’s be honest, sport is business. Big business! But sport is much more than that; it is a social institution, and a powerful tool in the promotion of social progress, including gender equality.
The NRL promote the role women play in rugby league, but they do not do not do enough to support and promote women who play rugby league.
Every year, the season opens with the All Stars clash. This game features the Indigenous All Stars vs. The NRL All Stars and promotes the Indigenous athletes who play the game. In 2013, the pre game curtain raiser for this event was a women’s match. This was bumped to the first game of the day, for an under-16’s match. What message does this send from the NRL? There was an NRL player led protest regarding this change of schedule, however the NRL didn’t appear to care, as no match throughout the 2013 season featured a women’s rugby league curtain raiser to make up for the one that was promised.
Every year, the NRL celebrate the role women play in rugby league but promoting Women in League round. A selection of NRL teams play in pink jerseys (a concept my team, the Rabbitohs, are yet to adopt – I’m not complaining - pink and green don’t go so well together, and I have strong objections to our team wearing anything but the historic cardinal and myrtle! The feminist in me also objects to the ‘blue is for boys and pink is for girl’s’ mentality behind the marketing – but it seems popular, so I won’t argue with that!), a range of pink merchandise is available and there is a focus on the role of women in the game.
The 2012 advertisement shows the role of women in the game, but with only a 4 second shot of a female referee in a girls rugby league match, the advert shows women in their typical support role, canteen lady, mum of a young boy, physio, paper stapler, trophy lugger! The 2013 commercial showed considerable improvement, with the 2012 advertisement cut in with shots of girls and women playing the game of rugby league.
The 2012 advertisement can be viewed below:
Women in League Round would be the perfect opportunity to showcase women’s rugby league, perhaps bumping the Toyota Cup to an earlier timeslot for one round to showcase a women’s rugby league game prior to the each of the 8 matches. An unexpected ally in the promotion of women’s rugby league has been Greg Inglis, who is pushing the NRL to showcase women’s rugby league before a match in the 2014 NRL season. While it is satisfying to know the players support women's rugby league, the NRL need to take this on board and progress. One match is merely a start if the NRL are serious in promoting women’s rugby league. What about women's State of Origin? THis is one of the most successful components of the NRL season, and could easily be adopted to promote women;s sport! The NRL needs to work with media to promote the broadcasting of women’s matches, if only for the women in league round. After recently signing a record broadcasting deal for the game rights, the NRL have proven they have the capacity to bargain!
Women in rugby league are going from strength to strength. In 2012, female participation in rugby league increased 20% and women made of 41% of NRL Club financial members.
In 2013, the Australian Jillaroo’s won the 2013 Women’s Rugby League World Cup, beating New Zealand to bring home our first World Cup Victory. A massive win for women’s sport, but nothing that the NRL seemed to promote heavily! In an interview, the Jillaroo’s noted that they appreciated that the NRL funded the team’s trip to England for the event, the first time they had not had to self fund the trip, and as a result, the first time they had been able to send a full strength team to compete. Again, this shows improvement from the NRL, but I cannot believe that the NRL failed to provide this financial support in the past!
The NRL are making progress, but women in league simply deserve better. Rugby league is not traditionally a game played by women, but perhaps the NRL should look at the recent success of women in the UFC.
UFC, a brand of mixed martial arts, is certainly not a sport I would associate with women’s participation; however they have had considerable success promoting women in the UFC. A recent women’s fight between Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche was the co main event in a recent UFC card and the success of women in the UFC is growing.
The UFC has an associated reality TV show, The Ultimate Fighter, where two UFC stars coach teams of mixed martial artist hopefuls in a knockout style competition to win a UFC contract. This successful show has produced genuine UFC stars, and attracted big name coaches.The 18th season, which has just begun airing in the United States, will feature mixed gender teams, with half of the contestants being women. In a further development, the two coaches will be women, Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate. The fact that a male dominated sport has two female stars coaching men and women in a popular reality TV show, shows the success of women in the UFC, and the respect given to female competitors by other fighters, both male and female, by the supporters and by the organisation.
The president of the UFC, Dana White, once said that women will never fight in the UFC. If he, and the UFC, can have the success with women’s sport that he is having, I see no reason the NRL cannot focus on a bigger promotion of women in the sport. The possibilities that are open to the NRL are endless!
