On Sunday, thousands of people marched across the footbridge into Adelaide Oval to watch the 2019 AFLW Grand Final.
Thousands more watched the AFLW Adelaide Crows defeat Melbourne-based team Carlton 63-18 from their living rooms, which in itself, shows just how far we’ve come.
March 31, 2019, marks the end of the AFLW’s third season. When the AFL first introduced its first women’s football league, not everyone was keen to get behind it.
Who would bother going to watch women play AFL? Wouldn’t it be slower and more boring than watching the men? How could a women’s AFL league be profitable?
While we still have a long way to go before we reach equality in Australian sport – AFLW games are currently free to attend and most of the female athletes hold down day jobs to support themselves financially – photos from Sunday’s grand final on Twitter show there are plenty of Aussies out there who are more than happy to get behind women’s sport.
According to Channel 7 reporter Elspeth Hussey, the AFL was expecting a crowd of 25,000, but in the second quarter it was reported there were upwards of 45,000 packed inside the stadium.
As the final siren sounded, the scoreboard confirmed 53,000 supporters were in attendance.
The images on social media of people streaming into the stadium to watch some of our country’s finest athletes, including the inimitable Tayla Harris who just last week was subjected to sexism and online trolling for an image of her doing her job, are incredible.
And to think a mere three short years ago, *some* people thought no one would turn up to watch women kick around a footy.
Were you at the AFLW Grand Final? Tell us why you love women’s footy in the comments below.
Top Comments
Fantastic. The gate takings must have been huge (cough) - will no doubt pay for the huge pay rises / pay parity with the men that they want.
I was at the Grand Final also the week before. I think female footy is only going to get bigger & better as the next few years are played out, Whilst the women are not as "big" or as strong as the men, they tackle just as ferociously as the men, kick not bad either, & demonstrate great examples of sportsmanship (sportswomanship?). As for the crowd, I know that entry was free, but to think that over 50,000 was in attendance on Sunday & the previous days AFL crowd at Adelaide oval was just over 40,000, it speaks volumes for just how popular Woman's football is now getting!Great play by the Crows team to bet the GF cup, well played by all the team, & commiserations to the injured few as well. Carlton was not as good on the day, but they certainly had many loud & proud supporters there, & really the only sour notes about the days play were the many & often contentious frees awarded, mainly to Carlton.
Yes, it shows that a free grand final is going to attract more attendees than a round 2 clash between teams that probably aren't going to be be playing finals and you have to pay top dollar to see.
I'd hope for a closer game but in general it seems like a great beginning to the AFLW.
The proof will be when fans have to pay money to get into the games and free public transport not provided (as in the case of Sunday's female grand final). Also, many Adelaide people probably took advantage of the free game at the new oval, which otherwise they might not been able to afford. All told, it was a great day out for families - gratis.