Siren #145: Network with us! Plus NEW sports media resources

A Women in Sport Collective

It’s that time of year again… the time of year when we all say “I can’t believe it’s that time of year again!”

It’s a cliche, but the end of year creeps up on all of us and sometimes it’s a welcome sight as we look to wind down and take some well earned breaks. For some (and we’re thinking of our friends who work in professional sport and sports media now!) things just get more hectic for the summer as sport never takes a break! And for others it is a time for reflection, and maybe some planning and goal setting for the year ahead.

We know that sometimes it can feel overwhelming around this time as we sometimes wish we were more productive or achieved more and we look over unchecked to-do lists with regret. But we can only do so much ok! Give yourself a break! 

And this is also where your pals from Siren Sport step in! 

We’ve had a lot of discussions this year around how to better support women and non-binary folk in sports media and we’ve listened to our community who reach out to us with questions and queries about the industry and careers. So we think this is the perfect time of year, while we think about what might be next, to host some events and provide you all some resources to help you on your sports media journeys!

We have an online networking event coming up and will shortly be announcing in-person events in Melbourne (and hopefully Sydney!), so stay tuned!

We hope we can continue to deliver you what you need to keep motivated, feel supported and be the storyteller you want to be through these upcoming events and resource development. And we’re excited to bring you more in 2025!

Siren Sport x ABC Sport networking event – save the date! 

Calling all women and non-binary people looking to pursue a career in sports media: come along to this virtual networking event on Monday 9 December @ 6:30pm to meet members of the ABC Sport team and get some tips and tricks about the sports media industry.

We ran this event last year and were overwhelmed with the positive feedback and high demand so we are so excited to do it again.

Are you studying? Starting out or transitioning careers? Looking to build your network? Want to get some feedback on your story ideas? Then this event is for you!

ABC Sport guests will include:

• Amanda Shalala, Deputy Editor

• Kate O'Halloran, Digital Sports Journalist

• Johanna McDiarmid, Reporter and Producer

• Plus more to be announced!

With Siren Sport co-founders Dr Kasey Symons and Kirby Fenwick

This will be a speed-networking style event to facilitate introductions with prompts and suggestions to avoid those awkward moments when meeting new people – we know networking can be intimidating. But this will be relaxed and fun to help you build confidence and connections.

This event is FREE but spaces are limited so book your spot now!

Success stories from last year’s event!

Participants from last year’s networking event went on to pitch us stories and get published on ABC Sport. 

We published two stories from Jo White – the first about Lauren Robinson's unexpected journey to becoming a wheelchair basketball coach and the second about the awesome Pacifika Ballerz team in Sydney’s west. 

Danielle Croci wrote about how new data showed a lack of gender balance in Victorian sports news coverage.

Courtney Fewquandie and Kirsty Marshall covered the Queer Sporting Alliance delivering Australia's first and largest queer basketball tournament. 

So this might be just the thing to get you inspired and excited to pitch us a story and see your work published by the ABC. Don’t miss out and sign up now!

Introducing the Siren Sport x ABC Sport Academy

The ABC Sport Academy includes behind the scenes videos of ABC Sport journalists on the job, as well as informative vodcasts providing valuable industry insights on topics like interviewing, researching and writing a story, and sports reporting and presenting. 

This year, we’ve worked with the ABC to add some more content to these resources to further support women and non-binary folk working in, or aiming to work in sports media.

The most common questions and requests we get at Siren from both emerging, and established writers focus on four key areas:

• Pitching a story

• What makes a good story?

• How to go about researching a story

• The writing process

So we made some vodcasts and created some tips and tricks to help you navigate them all! 

Siren co-founder Kirby Fenwick, Kate O’Halloran and Kasey Symons.

These vodcasts include discussions and reflections from Siren co-founders Kasey Symons, Kirby Fenwick and Kate O’Halloran on these topics based on their different experiences in sports media and storytelling. We hope they help you on your sports media journeys too!

• ABC Sport Academy Vodcast: Pitching

• ABC Sport Academy Vodcast: Writing

• ABC Sport Academy Vodcast: Researching

• ABC Sport Academy Vodcast: What Makes a Story?

And be sure to check out all the other great resources through the ABC Sport Academy like social media, interviewing, producing a feature and more!

All the latest from the Siren Sport x ABC Sport partnership

ICYMI: we’ve supported some fantastic sports media stars to published stories via our partnership with ABC Sport.

First up, Sarah Burt wrote about the new documentary, “Like My Brother” that shows the reality for Tiwi Islander women who want to play AFLW.

Isha Singhal has her eyes on the A-League Women’s and lets us know the players to watch as the 2024-25 season kicks off and Matildas spots open up.

Kasey Symons also wrote on how after accusations of toxic culture and Indigenous representation issues, Australian netball aims to turn the tide and the work Diamond #105 Sharon Finnan-White is doing through her First Nations Academy of Excellence to drive change. Kasey was awarded a Melbourne Press Club Michael Gordon Fellowship to tell this story and we are excited to see it published through the ABC.

Siren is now on Patreon!

When you become a Patreon you support us to: 

• commission and pay writers and content creators

• run our Emerging Sports Writer Programs

• create opportunities for women and non-binary folk in sports media.

The support of the Siren community has helped support those commissions and opportunities and we can’t thank you enough. 

You can become a Patron of Siren today and help us continue to challenge the status quo of sports media.

Siren #144: Fast Five with Tara Murray, women in sport in India + we’ve been in the archives again!

A Women in Sport Collective

The weather is getting warmer as we enter the second month of spring and you know what that means… it's cricket season, friends!

The ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 is coming up this week and will be followed by an exciting summer of cricket for our Aussie women as well as the WBBL keeping us all entertained.

With a historic Ashes Test against England also at the MCG in January marking the 90th anniversary of the first Women’s Ashes (yes, women have been playing cricket for that long - just ask our resident women’s sports history buff Kirby Fenwick!) and some exciting ODIs, we can’t wait to see the action unfold.

The Indian Women’s Team will also be paying a visit down under and we know that series will be fire.  

Siren co-founder Dr Kasey Symons was recently in India representing Deakin University in her academic role working with the ABC Women in News and Sport (WINS) team who ran an amazing program for women in sports media from all over India. 

There are some awesome women media stars and content creators in India covering women’s sports and Kasey got to know many of them in the past week who are also passionate cricket followers. We’ve included a few of their stories and profiles this month so you can find the experts as India heads into the World Cup as serious contenders and prepares to come to Aussie shores in December.

We love connecting to women in sport media all around the world, this is what makes our women in sport space so great! Community and connection are the key to change!

Meet some amazing women in sport in India!

ABC Women in News and Sport (WINS) is a fantastic initiative run by the ABC as a training and mentoring program that provides women journalists in the Pacific and Asia with the tools to carve out a career in the male-dominated world of sports media.

The team were in Delhi last week working with some amazing women from all over India who are working or aspiring to work in the sports media industry. Get to know some of them!

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Fast Five with Tara Murray

In Fast Five we catch up with women and non-binary people in sports media and ask them about their work, their career highlights and their advice for emerging sports media content creators.

Tara Murray is a sports journalist and commentator. She works full time as the sports journalist and editor for Star Weekly Newspapers covering a wide range of sports. You can find her calling for the Essendon District Football League, WARF Radio and the Victorian Netball League among other places. Tara has some fantastic tips for emerging creators!

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The sports newsletters we love that we know you’ll love - V2.0!

Women’s sport goodness delivered right to your inbox? Sign us up! 

We love a sports newsletter around these parts and we figure if you’re here, you might be the same. So we rounded up a few of our faves earlier this year and now we have some super fun updates for you. 

Got a tip for a sporty newsletter we should add to our list? Let us know! 

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Catch up on latest from our partnership with ABC Sport

Sarah Burt follows up on the lives of the incredible women footballers who fled the Taliban and their stories as they continue to live and play in Melbourne.

Jo White shares the story of the Pacifika Ballerz basketball team in Sydney’s south-west and the mums who built the team for their daughters.

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AFLW sports research opportunity

Click here to complete the survey and feel free to send to anyone you think would be interested!

If you have any queries about the study, please don’t hesitate to contact Chief Investigator Dr Kelsey Richards, School of Allied Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences, Charles Sturt University via email: krichards@csu.edu.au.

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From the (podcast) archives

We’ll be sharing some good stuff via the Siren podcast in the coming weeks so we thought what better time to hit up the archives and share some of our fave chats. 

This episode features co-founders Alison Smirnoff, Kasey Symons and Gemma Bastiani discussing how they come up with feature piece ideas, and the challenge of synthesising multiple interviews into a single piece of writing. A good listen for the emerging writers out there!

In this episode, co-founder Kirby Fenwick has a chat with friend of Siren Marissa Lordanic about her work in the women’s sport space.

And in this episode, Siren co-founder Dr Kasey Symons speaks with Dr Rebecca Olive about her relationship with sport and her academic journey.

Co-founders Kasey Symons and Gemma Bastiani catch up with friend of Siren and former Age sports journo soon to be ABC Sport journo,  Marnie Vinall.

And finally, we talk about sports pop culture in this episode with co-founders Kirby Fenwick and Kasey Symons catching up with friend of Siren Rana Hussain for the sport/pop culture crossover you never knew you needed.

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Siren is now on Patreon!

When you become a Patreon you support us to: 

• commission and pay writers and content creators

• run our Emerging Sports Writer Programs

• create opportunities for women and non-binary folk in sports media.

The support of the Siren community has helped support those commissions and opportunities and we can’t thank you enough. 

You can become a Patron of Siren today and help us continue to challenge the status quo of sports media.

#143: The Paralympics, of course! Plus Georgia Munro-Cook, AFLW + the Siren archives

A Women in Sport Collective

We are keeping the Paris vibes high as we continue to support our athletes at the Paralympics!

Like with the Olympics, we’re seeing more women participate in the Paralympics as well, and that is welcome news. But we also know that these numbers are not the full story and women and non-binary folk need more support across all levels of sporting participation.

One way we can play a role in supporting our para athletes is by following disability sports all year round, and this month we have Paralympic wheelchair basketballer and academic Dr Georgia Munro-Cook to tell you just how to do that! Dr Munro-Cook has also written for The Conversation on the Paralympics so be sure to check out the article “The Paris Olympics celebrated the gender-equal games. The picture isn’t so rosy for women Paralympians.”

We also want to send a big congratulations to Dr Munro-Cook who also just published her academic book “Building the WNBA From ‘Dunking Divas’ to Political Leaders” - these textbooks are a lot of work so well done at getting this important research out into the work Georgia! 

We’re also celebrating the start of the AFLW this week with some recommendations for all your AFLW coverage - the content creators you should have on your radar and in your follow list so you can be across all the big stories and the little stories this season. 

Happy reading!

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Athena Sports Nutrition

Our friends at Athena Sports Nutrition have generously extended their special offer for our readers this month. Thank you Athena! 

Siren subscribers get an exclusive 30% off Athena products!

Use the code SIREN30 when shopping the range. 

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Keep watching our Paralympians beyond the Games!

Paralympic wheelchair basketballer and academic Dr Georgia Munro-Cook gives us a guide on how to follow your new favourite disability sports after Paris.

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Melbourne friends: watch the Paralympics at Federation Square

Off the back of the excitement of the Olympics, Fed Square will be streaming the Paralympics from this Wednesday 28th August, live from Paris on the big screen. As Victoria’s official live site, Fed Square will be broadcasting coverage between 12 pm and 10 pm throughout the Paralympics and welcomes all to come see the excitement! 

Presented in partnership with the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), Paralympics Australia (PA), and Channel Nine, Fed Square is the ultimate hub for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

Details:

What: 2024 Paralympics LIVE Site at Fed Square
When: Paralympics: 28 August to 8 September
Time: Highlights and replays from 12 pm to 10 pm daily
Where: Fed Square, Swanston St and Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000

For the full schedule of Paralympic events that will be screened live, visit the official website. 

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Women for the win!

Have you seen our latest League Tees collab??

Thirteen gold, nine silver, ten bronze. That’s 32 reasons to invest and elevate women in sport.

We’ve teamed up with our wonderful friends at League Tees to create this new shirt that celebrates the passion of fans who support our mission and who love women’s sports! Proceeds from this shirt go directly back to Siren and support us to continue our work creating community and opportunity for women and non-binary people in sports media.

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Congratulations to The Ladies League!

Australia’s first bar dedicated to showcasing women’s sport is open this weekend! We are so thrilled for Rose and the team at The Ladies League bar in Sydney and we know this place is going to be so special to so many people.

At Siren, we try as much as we can to support women and non-binary folk in our sporting community and we are so proud to have been able to support The Ladies League by sponsoring our very own Siren Sport table! 

If you’re in Sydney and head down to The Ladies League, we hope you feel most welcome to take a seat at our table. And if you do, send us pics! 

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It’s AFLW Season!

The AFLW is back and we’ve rounded up a great list of pods and journos and content creators to follow to help you keep across all the big stories and little stories and everything in between. 

There are some great podcasts that will keep you up to date on all the stats and numbers, the stories and people and the big talking points. Follow Credit to The Girls, The Outer Sanctum, AFLW Weekly, Chicks Talking Footy, Tagged, The W and AFLW Today. Those are just a few to get you started. 

There are plenty of journalists and writers and content creators that provide awesome coverage of the league. We’ve listed some below with links to their Twitter/X profiles. We know not everyone is on that platform, but you can also search them on other platforms. 

Gemma Bastiani, Sarah Black, Sarah Burt, Brihony Dawson, Nat Edwards, Bobby Macumber, Tara Murray, Kate O’Halloran, Sarah Olle, Eliza Rielly, Meg Saultry, Marnie Vinall, Lucy Watkin, Jess Webster, Lauren Wood.

This is not an exhaustive list so continue to tag Siren with the AFLW coverage you love so we can keep adding more awesome women and non-binary folk to this list!

As our friends at the Outer Sanctum would say, go footy!

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From the Siren archives

You know we love the archives at Siren. And lucky for us (and for you!) we have our own jam-packed archive full of gems that absolutely deserve to be re-read or read for the first time. 

And with the Paralympics here, we’ve pulled together some of our fave Paralympics stories from the last 140+ newsletters! 

If history is your jam, dig into some great stories from the history of the paralympics. 

Five moments from the history of the Paralympic Games

And if you love under the radar sports (we absolutely do) then you’ll want to read up on some of the best ones at the Paralympics.  

5 under the radar sports to watch at the Paralympics

We’ve done a heap of profiles of para athletes over the last few years, which are always great reads: 

• AJ Jennings: AJ Jennings is going for gold

• Amber Merritt: Amber Merritt on Tokyo 2021, Leadership and Mental Health

• Robyn Lambird: Robyn Lambird is dreaming of gold

• The Aussie Belles: The Aussie Belles are bound for Tokyo

• Tyan Taylor: “I play for her”: Tyan Taylor's Goalball journey

• Roby Storm: Taking the Paralympics by Storm

• Alexandra Viney: A Powerful Place to Be: Alexandra Viney on rediscovering her ability

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Deakin University research into athletes and menstruation 

This study aims to identify barriers to participation in sport and active recreation during periods (menstruation/bleeding) and strategies to overcome the barriers to participation. 

If you meet the eligibility criteria and are interested in participating in the survey, click here.

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Siren is on Patreon!

We have a Patreon! And we’ll be adding some cool things for our Patreon supporters over 2024 so if you can, sign up now! 

Funds from our Patreon go towards:

• commissioning and paying writers and content creators

• running our Emerging Sports Writer Programs

• creating opportunities for women and non-binary folk in sports media

The support of the Siren community has facilitated that work and helped support those commissions and opportunities and we can’t thank you enough. 

You can become a Patron of Siren today and help us continue to challenge the status quo of sports media.

Siren #142: The Olympics, of course! Plus Tracey Holmes, Fast Five with Megan Maurice, Sharon Finnan-White, and the Siren archives

A Women in Sport Collective

We have a bumper issue of the newsletter for y’all this month!

Firstly, happy Olympic Games to all who celebrate! We are so excited to share a piece by award winning journalist Tracey Holmes on the women at the Games who are making it the most gender equal in history.

We also have the amazing Megan Maurice featured in our Siren Fast Five where we catch up with women and non-binary people in sports media and ask them about their work, their career highlights and their advice for emerging sports media content creators. 

This month we’re also sharing the voice of Australian Netball Diamond #105, Sharon Finnan-White who has provided some advice and reflections for those looking to create more culturally safe spaces for First Nations people in sport. Sharon works tirelessly in this space and we appreciate her generosity in bringing us along on her journey.

We’re also thrilled to have Athena Sports Nutrition as our sponsor for this edition! Welcome Athena!

A message from Athena Sports Nutrition and a special offer

Athena Sports nutrition is changing the sports nutrition game.

Did you know that athletic women need double the iron that men need, and that iron is lost through sweat? Well Athena knows, and that’s why their Protein Shakes have added iron. The range of Protein Bars, Protein Powders and Supplements are formulated with quality ingredients and a +factor like Iron, Calcium or Electrolytes that are designed to deliver the optimal fuel and recovery range for athletic women.  

Athena is backed by science, endorsed by athletes and the range tastes absolutely delicious. 

Siren subscribers get an exclusive 30% off Athena products!

Use the code SIREN30 when shopping the range here.

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Change Our Game Women in Sports Media Program

Applications for the 2023-24 Change Our Game Women in Sports Media Program Advancing Career Round close at 5 pm AEST, Monday 5 August 2024.

This round is open to grads of the Program or those who can demonstrate exceptional relevant experience in sports media and/or sport industry knowledge. If that’s you and you live in Victoria, apply!

Delivered by industry experts and friends of Siren, Emma Race and Lucy Race from Making The Call, the Advancing Career program designed for individuals seeking to progress career goals and skills in sports media to the next level.

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Paris 2024: a celebration of women

Award winning journalist Tracey Holmes writes on the women who will make the 2024 Paris Games the most gender equitable yet, and one special woman in particular.

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Fast Five with Megan Maurice

Fast Five is where we catch up with women and non-binary people in sports media and ask them about their work, their career highlights and their advice for emerging sports media content creators. 

This month we caught up with award-winning journalist and author Megan Maurice. Megan has some great advice on unconventional pathways and pushing through when the imposter syndrome hits. 

Megan recently published her third book, Life Goes On, stories of survival, support, hopes and fears. Find more info and get yourself a copy at your local bookstore. 

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How Sharon Finnnan-White is creating culturally safe spaces in netball

Sharon Finnan-White is the second First Nations woman to pull on the Australian Diamonds dress. She’s now working to drive more Indigenous representation in netball.

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The latest from the Siren Sport X ABC Sport Partnership

ICYMI: the latest story published via our partnership with ABC Sport is a fantastic read from Jacinta Govind about how basketballer Mary Goulding overcame a near-fatal car crash to star in the NBL1. 

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MIFF sports movies

One of our fave newsletters, SportsMovies82, shared some sporty movie highlights from the Melbourne International Film Festival program on socials last week and we were running to book our tickets. 

Here are some you might want to have on your radar: 

Copa 71

Think the global surge in interest in women’s football is a relatively recent occurrence? This eye-opening documentary asks you to think again.

Did you know that there was an unofficial Women’s World Cup tournament held in Mexico way back in 1971? It was a mammoth success, capturing hearts and minds worldwide, introducing fans to new heroes. And then FIFA swung in to shut it down, erasing their glory from the record.

Executive-produced by Venus and Serena Williams – the latter of whom also acts as narrator – this invigorating documentary features not just the women who competed there (such as Carol Wilson) but also their successors today (including Brandi Chastain and Alex Morgan), writing their voices back into history. 

Like My Brother

From the Tiwi Islands to Melbourne and back again, four young women who seek to make it in elite sport must face uncertain futures.

Although Rina, Freda, Juliana and Jess hail from the Tiwi Islands – at the opposite end of Australia’s sporting capital, Melbourne – they all dream of playing professional footy in the AFLW. But while dreaming is one thing, achieving it is another. 

This coming-of-age documentary shot in the Northern Territory and Victoria is the feature debut of Sal Balharrie and Luritja and Warumungu filmmaker Danielle MacLean. Confronting the universal themes of family, ambition and sacrifice through the specific lens of sport, Like My Brother is an inspiring film that will open viewers’ eyes not just to the realities of life in the Tiwi Islands but also to the resilience required to find success as an outsider.

Queens of the Concrete

Three Australian girls seek the ultimate success in the world of competitive skateboarding while sliding into an adolescence without handrails.

It’s 2016, and talented young skateboarders Hayley, Ava and Charlotte – aged 14, 13 and nine, respectively – have their sights set on one goal: to represent Australia at the Olympic Games. But this is no mere half-pipedream. Already nationally recognised as being among the best competitors in their age groups, they’re buoyed by the news that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be the first ever to feature competitive skateboarding – a sport where the usual rules of gravity don’t seem to apply, and where there’s no safety net to break your fall.

Shot over seven years, including the lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Eliza Cox’s coming-of-age documentary provides a gripping and at times devastating look into the challenges these girls must endure while navigating the complexities of growing up. 

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Watch the Tillies live at Fed Square and The Sydney Opera House!

Following the awesome vibes from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Federation Square in Melbourne and the Sydney Opera House will be live sites for those turning nocturnal for Paris 2024.

Entry to Fed Square will be ticketed for Tillies matches but tickets are free. All patrons must register online to secure their entry and avoid missing out. Registration is open for the Matildas matches listed below:

• 29 July, 3:00 am Australia vs. Zambia

• 1 August, 3.00 am Australia vs. United States

Additional ticketed matches for live screenings will be added to Fed Square’s website for registrations as, hopefully, our superstar Tillies progress through to finals!

For more information and other live screening head to 2024 Olympics & Paralympics LIVE Site at Fed Square

For the Sydney Opera House, it’s the same process. It’s free to attend but you need to register and there is a strict 2 ticket limit per person.

Register your free spot here.

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Welcome back to our Sanctum sisters! 

The Outer Sanctum podcast is back for a limited season thanks to the AFLPA and we could not be more excited to have these clever, insightful, reflective, fun and friendly voices back in our lives! We’ve missed you!

And Siren co-founder Kasey Symons makes an appearance on episode two - check it out! 

One of our faves, Dr Indigo Willing is doing awesome research on women skateboarders. Check out her work here on how women skateboarders are flipping the script ahead of the Olympics.

Loving following WNBA fashion? Check out this piece by the awesome Frankie de la Cretaz on how stylists are helping WNBA players elevate their drip and The Proud, Fashionable WAGs of Women's Sports.

It’s been a long road into the spotlight for women’s cycling after decades of exclusion. At last, women cyclists have the chance to race the pinnacle of cycling, the Tour de France Femmes. All episodes of the new documentary series “Second to Now” are now streaming on DocPlay to see this journey unfold.

AFLW season countdown is on! Siren co-founder Gemma Bastiani is back behind the mic for the Credit to the Girls show with Sarah Black and Lucy Watkin - subscribe! And also be sure to follow Gemma for all your AFLW news!

It’s not all fun and games at the Olympics, sport is, and has always been, political and France’s ban on the hijab is a painful reminder of that. Friend of Siren Shireen Ahmed has written this powerful piece: French hijab ban in sports called a 'shameful moment' as it prepares to host Olympics and Australian Muslim Olympic athlete, Tina Rahimi, has spoken on the issue on social media. We won’t have gender equality in sport until all women are able to participate in sport as their authentic selves. We stand with the athletes impacted and hurt by this decision. 

tinarahimii_

A post shared by @tinarahimii_

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From the Siren archives

We love the archives at Siren. Lucky for us, we have our own jam-packed archive full of gems that absolutely deserve to be re-read or read for the first time. 

And because the Olympics are here we’ve pulled together some of our fave Olympics stories from the last 141 newsletters! 

• Sports journalist Marnie Vinall jumped in feet first when working on Australia’s official Tokyo 2020 broadcast, and shares some things she learned in the process.

• The Tokyo Olympics have proven themselves a worthy distraction this year and the Siren family has been brimming with talk of their favourite Olympic moments.

• Deakin University journalism student and Siren intern, Felicity Smith looks at some recent—and not so recent—commentary on women’s sports uniforms and the control over women’s bodies.

• Of the 488 Australian athletes headed to Tokyo, 261 are women. Here are some of the women who paved the way for today’s superstars to shine.

• Inaugural Emerging Sports Writer Program participant Courtney Hagen makes her Siren Sport debut with her exclusive interview with Australian Women’s Bobsled Team captain, Ash Werner.

• Siren’s new Deakin intern Georgia Dunne dips her toe in the water with our My Favourite Sporting Moment series, another moment from the 2016 Olympics.

• The newest piece in our My Favourite Sporting Moment series tells us how Australia’s Rugby 7s gold medal inspired Brielle Quigley to return to sport.

• Siren co-founder Alison Smirnoff shares her favourite sporting moment: that moment from the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

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Deakin University research into athletes and menstruation 

This study aims to identify barriers to participation in sport and active recreation during periods (menstruation/bleeding) and strategies to overcome the barriers to participation. 

If you meet the eligibility criteria and are interested in participating in the survey, learn more via the study website.

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Siren is now on Patreon!

We have a Patreon! And we’ll be adding some cool things for our Patreon supporters over 2024 so if you can, sign up now! 

Funds from our Patreon go towards:

• commissioning and paying writers and content creators

• running our Emerging Sports Writer Programs

• creating opportunities for women and non-binary folk in sports media

The support of the Siren community has facilitated that work and helped support those commissions and opportunities and we can’t thank you enough. 

You can become a Patron of Siren today and help us continue to challenge the status quo of sports media

Siren #141: Trailblazers, introducing Siren’s Fast Five and newsletters you’ll want to subscribe too

A Women in Sport Collective

We were thrilled earlier this month to see the newest Making The Call cohort hit the ground running on the hallowed turf of the MCG! 

What a crew. 

We love the work Emma Race and Lucy Race do with Making The Call, creating connections and community and networks that lead directly to opportunity. We love to see it. 

At Siren HQ, we’re working away behind the scenes putting the finishing touches on some fantastic resources we’ve co-created with ABC Sport. We are very much looking forward to sharing those with you very soon but in the meantime, we have some fun stuff to share this month. 

We bring you the first ever Siren Fast Five where we catch up with women and non-binary people in sports media and ask them about their work, their career highlights and their advice for emerging sports media content creators. 

We’re kicking off with the very talented Georgia Rajic – if you’re an aspiring sports commentator, Georgia has some excellent advice. 

We also have a list of sporty newsletters that we love that we’re pretty confident you'll love too. We’ll continue to add to this list so make sure you bookmark it so you can check back for updates so you’ve always got great sports writing hitting your inbox. 

And if you know about, are subscribed to, or create a newsletter that you think we should have on our list, let us know! 

Read on for all that and much more!

Trailblazers

We love sports documentaries at Siren. And we love the Matildas. So it should come as absolutely no surprise that we love Trailblazers, a documentary that tells the amazing story of the fight for equality by Australia’s female footballers.

For a long time, the stories of women’s sport—stories that are decades and centuries old, not weeks and months old—have gathered dust in the memories of players, in their scrapbooks and photo albums, in the recollections of their friends and families and in the newspaper archives where they were sometimes lucky to get a line or two. Documentaries like Trailblazers are important, and necessary, to ensure that the public historical record reflects the real story. Even if that story is sometimes uncomfortable. Here’s to more trailblazers and more documentaries!

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Fast Five with Georgia Rajic

Fast Five is where we catch up with women and non-binary people in sports media and ask them about their work, their career highlights and their advice for emerging sports media content creators. 

We are thrilled to be kicking off with football and netball commentator Georgia Rajic who has some fantastic advice for aspiring commentators. 

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What support do you want as you build your sports media career?

Creating resources. Creating opportunity. Creating community. That’s what we’re all about. But we're keen to hear from you!  

What kinds of resources would be helpful and/or useful for you as you build your career in sports media? 

Are you looking for tips and tricks, practical how-to guides, insights into interviewing or finding stories, tips on research or maybe something else? 

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The sports newsletters we love that we know you’ll love

Sports news, sports pop culture, and deep dives into women’s sporting history all delivered right to your inbox? Sign us up! We love a sports newsletter around these parts and we figure if you’re here, you might be the same. 

So we rounded up a few of our faves. 

Got a tip for a sporty newsletter we should add to our list? Let us know!

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swim by Ellen van Neerven

Attention all NSW subscribers: Ellen van Neerven’s debut play “swim” premieres at Carriageworks on 10 July with performances continuing until 27 July. 

Sizzling hot concrete. Rainbow towels on half-dead grass. On a hot summer’s day, bodies of all shapes, colours and sizes journey to the public pool longing to do one thing…

Swim.

Genderfluid protagonist E negotiates the space between the men’s and women’s change rooms. They flex in front of the cute pool attendant. As they step onto the diving blocks, the words of their Aunty come to them—and suddenly, the crystalline blue tiles give way to much deeper water. 

swim is delicate and tough, honest and achingly beautiful—and it muses on everything from the sovereignty of water to gender identity and the binding strength of culture and family.

For more info and to book tickets, visit Griffin Theatre Company. 

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Why Tayla Williams believes netball is the perfect place to spark a conversation about endometriosis and periods by Brittany Carter for ABC Sport.

Jenny Sinclair talks to Aussie Diamonds coach Stacey Marinkovich for Netball Scoop.

Sam Lewis reported on how Cortnee Vine's departure from Sydney FC is yet another warning sign for the future of A-League Women's.

US athletes to be given air conditioners at Paris Games amid heat fears for Olympians reports Esther Linder for ABC News.

For The Age, Marnie Vinall looked at how the AFL is dealing with the impact of climate change on grassroots clubs.

The release of the AFLW fixture raised some questions. Siren co-found Gemma Bastiani looked at the draw for AFL Media, while Marnie Vinall reported on the player’s response. 

The 'special and unique' part of footy that drives West Coast Eagles coach Daisy Pearce.

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From the archives

We love the archives at Siren. Lucky for us, we have our own jam-packed archive full of gems that absolutely deserve to be re-read or read for the first time. 

Back in 2021, our inaugural Emerging Sports Writer Program participant Courtney Hagen spoke with athlete Taylor Ling, on cricket, identity and sport’s role in bringing it all together.

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Siren is now on Patreon!

Funds from our Patreon go towards:

• commissioning and paying writers and content creators

• running our Emerging Sports Writer Programs

• creating opportunities for women and non-binary folk in sports media

The support of the Siren community has facilitated that work and helped support those commissions and opportunities and we can’t thank you enough. 

You can become a Patron of Siren today and help us continue to challenge the status quo of sports media.