‘Women’s footy booming in Australia,’ says new AFLW CEO
After a successful first season of the national AFL Women's league, three-time Olympic swimming medallist Nicole Livingstone is joining the booming sport as CEO with a focus on making the league financially stable.
With more than 10 years of sport administration under her belt, it was an easy decision for Ms Livingstone to leave the Australian Olympic Committee to head up the rapidly-rising AFLW as its first female leader.
In her first week in the top job, Ms Livingstone weighed in on the prospects of full-time professionalism for female players, the challenges of being up against competing sporting codes, and the future of the women's premier football league.
Ms Livingstone was in Darwin this week to oversee the first AFL Women's Academy training camp for the 2018 squad.
The Academy consists of 44 of the best under-18 football players from across the country uniting for accelerated skills sessions and personal development.
"The AFLW season number one has made everyone stand up and take notice of women's football," Ms Livingstone said.
"What we're seeing is participation grow right around the country. If there's one market in sport in Australia that's just booming, it's women's footy.
"Right around the country, local clubs are trying to grapple with, 'How do we deal with this influx of all these girls that have realised they can actually come and play too?' It's a good problem to have."
Women's AFL and rugby to go head-to-head
The league — and Ms Livingstone — aren't afraid of uncharted waters. The eight-week competition began last year as a semi-professional roster of eight club teams.
With season one racking up crowds of 24,568, a 145-player draft, and a hotly-contested grand final, the women's league was granted a 12-month extension by AFL bosses, a journey Ms Livingstone wanted to be a part of.
"It's very rare that you can have something that is effectively a start-up business, but also has the support of something that is iconic and part of the national landscape, being the AFL," she said.
"We've had one season, but the guys have been around for over 100 years. To have the support of the AFL infrastructure in taking that to a new place was something that really sparked my interest."
Earlier this month, the National Rugby League announced its own women's competition to start in 2018, boasting six club teams and its own State of Origin match.
But Ms Livingstone isn't afraid of a little competition; she says her players are safe.
"Don't they say imitation is the highest form of flattery? The fact that they've realised the AFLW has been such a success, and now they need to do something as well, I don't fear that we'll lose players," she said.
"The systems that are in place — the engagement of the media, the engagement of the young girls around the country with AFL and the fact that we've had these amazing role models — I'm not worried about it at all."
Hope that players can become full-time paid professionals
The landscape for women in sport is changing, and creating a more dynamic world of opportunity for players, for sponsors, and for the competing sporting codes.
Ms Livingstone said to ensure the AFLW took precedence, it would have to be the best product it could be.
"The girls will continue to showcase what women's footy is all about and that will spark some interest; we also need to prove that we can offer value for money," she said.
"We're on TV, the girls are on TV, but we can make a difference in a lot of areas."
She said that anticipation was building.
"It's a slightly different audience, too — we're seeing grandmothers bring their granddaughters to watch AFL football," Ms Livingstone said.
There are challenges that come with a rapid growth spurt, and the AFLW won't be putting a timeframe on when they expect players to move on from short-term contracts.
A deal signed last month will result in players being collectively paid $500,000 more in an effort to more accurately reflect the hours they put into their careers.
"I think we need to be patient; we can talk about data and research, but at the end of the day we are talking about people's livelihoods," Ms Livingstone said.
"But a lot of the data shows that if you grow too quickly with something like a professional sport, there can be issues that arise.
"Part of my job is to make sure this league is financially sustainable … but I hope one day we will get to a time where the girls are full-time professionals."
What will the next round of women's football look like?
The game will continue to have shorter quarters than the men's competition, with a few new rules recently being announced.
Similarly to basketball or netball, the 2018 season will see the introduction of a free kick paid against a team where a kick or handball goes out of bounds, without the ball being touched by an opposition player.
Team sizes will also move to 16 on the field with five on the bench (as opposed to 16 on-field with six on the bench last year).
But first, Ms Livingstone has goals to line up.
"My first and foremost focus [is] preparing for AFLW season number two," she said.
"This year we're going to trial five matches that have a bit more of a full-match experience."
She said the AFLW didn't know what that would look like just yet, as the teams were in planning at the moment.
"We need to make sure it builds on what we had last year, there's a lot of expectation around that," Ms Livingstone said.
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ABC .net
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