Siren 07: International Women's Day, Anne Gordon, The Mighty Jills & more
A Women in Sport Collective
To the history makers and the game changers. To the women who have come before us and the ones that will come after: we salute you and we thank you.
This week, in the lead up to International Women’s Day on Sunday March 8 (the day of the T20 World Cup Final—have you got your tickets yet?) we want to celebrate the women in sport who have inspired and encouraged us to dream bigger and be better.
The Siren team, alongside a few of our great mates, have written about a woman—or a team of women—who have been that inspiration and encouragement for us. We hope you enjoy these very personal stories about our women’s sporting heroines. And please share your personal heroines with us! We’d love to know who has been that inspiration and encouragement for you.
Speaking of inspirational women, on Monday we held our first Siren meetup at the Australia v New Zealand T20 match at Junction Oval. It was a beautiful Melbourne afternoon made even better by the Aussies recording a win and securing a spot in the semi-finals. Thanks to those who joined us at the cricket or who followed along at home. Stay tuned for more Siren fan meetups!
Mainstream media sure could do with some inspiration! We were disappointed yet again to see that barely 11% of mainstream sports coverage last Sunday featured women’s sport.
In this issue
Alongside our Women’s Sporting Heroines, we are super excited to bring you part one of our chat with Anne Gordon. Anne captained the Australian team in 1976 when Australia and England played the first game of women’s cricket at Lords and she shares her memories of that game and all that surrounded it with Alison Smirnoff and Kirby Fenwick. You won’t want to miss this!
In AFLW news, Gemma Bastiani is back with your fave: The Roundup, catching you up on all the important details and interesting stats you need to know about the fourth round of the AFLW.
Also in the issue, we have Miki Holmes writing about the triumph of the Australian Women’s Ice Hockey team who won gold at the IIHF World Championships in Iceland! And we have your women’s sport results for the week.
International Women’s Day: Our Sporting Heroines
The Lucas Girls
As we look toward International Women’s Day 2020, and aligning with our values at Siren, we wanted to highlight some important sporting icons of our own, as well as those of some women across the sport media landscape.
History makers: Anne Gordon, the 1976 Australian women’s cricket team, and Lords
By Kirby Fenwick & Alison Smirnoff
Before we all head to the ‘G on Sunday, we wanted to take a moment to look back at a remarkable story told by a remarkable woman Anne Gordon, a former captain of the Australian Women’s Cricket team.
The Mighty Jills bring home gold
By Mikahlia Holmes
Image: Ice Hockey Australia
The Mighty Jills have swept the IIHF World Championships in Akureyri, Iceland to bring home gold. Catch up on all the happenings with this piece from Mikahlia Holmes.
The Roundup: Round Four
By Gemma Bastiani
Image: Megan Brewer
We’re officially half way through the AFLW season, and round four threw up some significant results when it comes to conferences. Oh, and Cathy Svarc played out of her skin.
Quickfire results from all recent T20 World Cup, WNBL, W League and Super W matches.
This week Kasey Symons wrote about Erin Phillips’ return and what that means for AFLW for The Guardian and Kate O’Halloran touched on the balance required for AFLW players and the importance of a Collective Bargaining Agreement for the ABC.
Kick Like A Girl is back for another week, so too is This AFL Life and The Play On Review.
We want to send a special shout out to our friend Lindsay Gibbs who featured us in the most recent edition of her newsletter Power Plays and interviewed our own Danielle Warby about Australian women’s cricket. We are such huge fans of hers (as regular readers will know, we link to her amazing work frequently!) so this was very cool. Plus it’s a really great piece about the quest to #FilltheMCG and the value of investing in women’s sport.
And on cricket, we are so thrilled the Australian Women’s Team is through to the T20 Women’s World Cup semi finals! Aussie bowler Megan Schutt wrote about the pressure coming up to Sunday’s final and criticism. Brittany Carter’s piece on the impact of the tournament on Australian women’s cricket from a junior grassroots level is also a top read.
Did y’all see Nia Dennis's amazing floor routine inspired by Beyoncé's Homecoming?? Check it out!
This piece just missed our last newsletter by a few hours but ICYMI here’s Kelli Underwood speaking about women in sports broadcasting and her experiences. And also on broadcasting, this is the kind of panel we like to see—all women! More of this please!
Congratulations to the West Coast Eagles who won their first ever AFLW game on the weekend. We’re also sending love to Ash Brazill who did her ACL on Friday night and will subsequently miss the rest of the AFLW Season, as well as the Suncorp Super Netball season. Recover well Braz.
The Aussie Diamonds v Suncorp Super Netball All-Stars put on an amazing show to assist with bushfire relief and if you missed Diamond #175 Kelsey Brown getting behind the mic, go watch her sing now!
15 WNBL players have been named in the Australian Opals 2020 Olympics Squad.
Need some more women in sport in your earbuds? Sam Lane’s podcast, ‘The Originals’ about Richmond’s AFLW journey is great listening, even if you’re not a Tiger fan. The latest episode with Sabrina Frederick is great. And make sure you’re listening to Ladies Who Legspin, their coverage of the T20 World Cup is outstanding. Black History Month in the US has come to an end but if you’re keen to hear some more amazing stories about the contribution of black women to sport, the team at Burn It All Down have some great interviews on their podcast for you.
March sees Women’s History Month commence and we’ll be sharing many stories with you (in March and always!) but please feel free to send any our way that you think we should know!
Body & Soul posted their 20 most influential women in sport—what do you think? Anyone you think they missed??
TW: sexual assault in sport.
We’re pleased to see this really important research being done by Aurelie Pankowiak and Dr Mary Woessner to protect children against sexual abuse in sport which has developed from the most horrifying circumstances. This is such brave work and we applaud Aurelie and Mary for doing it. Tracey Holmes also wrote about this issue for The Saturday Paper.
March 1 saw the launch of the new This Girl Can campaign and we’re excited to see everything that is going to roll out as part of their campaign to help get women more active.
“Ladies don’t make changes. Women do.”
We can’t get enough of this video! And we need to know more about Camogie!
Runner Up
We are all proud as punch of our Matildas Caitlin Foord and Sam Kerr representing Australian football in the Women's Continental League Cup. And congrats to Kerr and Chelsea FC for winning their maiden title!
The Outer Sanctum Live Recording
On Tuesday 31 March 2020 at 6.15pm, The Outer Sanctum are holding a live recording of their podcast at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne! The event is free but please book by clicking here to secure your spot.
Victorian Disability Sporty & Recreation Awards
The annual Victorian Disability Sport and Recreation Awards are now open for nominations. The awards recognise the achievements of people with disability, those who support them and the inclusive sport and recreation sector across the state. Click here for more details and to get nominating!
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