Siren 12: Netball history, AFLW statistical leaders, rewatch schedule & more
A Women in Sport Collective
53,034.
On March 31, 2019, a record-breaking 53,034 fans piled into Adelaide Oval – this broke not only the attendance record for women’s Australian rules football but the record for any standalone women’s sporting event in Australia.
Last week marked the anniversary of that special day. It still remains the biggest crowd for an AFLW match. With the abandonment of the 2020 season due to the impacts of COVID-19, we were not given the chance to break it at a Grand Final this year. But four weeks ago, the record for a standalone women’s sporting event in Australia was broken.
The 86,174 fans who filled the MCG for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 Final between Australia and India now have the proud honour of a record-breaking crowd (and a matching badge to buy from our friends at League Tees!).
It was not even a year later that 53,034 was beaten. A year before it was 41,975 AFLW fans streaming through the gates to the new Optus Stadium in Perth to see Fremantle take on Collingwood.
Before that the record was 41,000 for a 1929 women’s exhibition football game at Adelaide Oval. A record that stood for 89 years.
Women’s sports are building, have been building. The shutdowns and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus can’t stop that. We’ve seen progress for women’s sport come to grinding, heartbreaking halts before. We’ve seen the ‘booms’ dissipate and how when things ‘return to normal’, it often excludes so many of us.
But 53,034 of us, and 86,174 of us and more and more of us, must band together now more than ever so women’s sports not only survives this crisis, but continues to thrive at the end of it.
At Siren, we’ll be doing all we can to keep women’s sports covered for the fans we know are not going to let it fade away. We’re all in this together.
In this issue
Gemma Bastiani continues her recap of the 2020 AFLW season with a look at the teams in Conference B. Plus this week, the Siren crew have put together their picks for the AFLW Awards, plus our favourite game and moments of the season. There’s some interesting conversations being had in there! Kirby Fenwick has jumped back into the history books (it’s her favourite place to be!) and has a look at some fascinating and remarkable stories in the history of netball. And we’ve put together a list of some women in sport that you should definitely be following on Instagram.
5 moments in the history of netball you may not know about
By Kirby Fenwick
Netball—which prior to 1970 was known as basketball in Australia—has a very long and very interesting history. Kirby Fenwick has rounded up five fascinating moments in netball history you may not have heard.
AFLW Season Wrap: Conference B
By Gemma Bastiani
Madison Prespakis gets a handball away against the Saints. Image: Megan Brewer
In the second part of Siren’s season wrap, we’re casting an eye over the tighter and more competitive Conference B. Even with so many unknowns surrounding the season’s end, there is still plenty to take out of the performances of these clubs, including a number of incredible highlights. As with Conference A, we’ll be looking at what went well for each team, what didn’t and what their focus areas should be heading toward 2021.
10 women in sport Instagram accounts you should be following
We’re all in isolation, and it sucks, but what better time to make sure you’re following all your favourite women in sport accounts for some entertainment? The Siren team has nominated ten accounts to make sure you’re following, for various reasons.
Siren’s favourite AFLW moments and performances of 2020
The season may be unceremoniously over, but that doesn’t negate some of the outstanding individual and team efforts. Siren co-founders Alison Smirnoff, Kirby Fenwick, Kasey Symons and Gemma Bastiani took a look back at the season and shared their vote for the 2020 best and fairest, best first year player, most improved player, who they thought would win the flag, their favourite moment and best game.
AFLW: Your Club's 2020 Leaders By The Numbers
By Gemma Bastiani for Play On Radio
It’s been fairly clear that young players are really starting to take over the competition, and looking at the statistical leaders of each team proves that is very much the case. There are the names everyone expects appearing up the top—Ebony Marinoff, Maddy Prespakis, Jasmine Garner—and then some new additions that may have flown under the radar but had a massive influence on season 2020.
While sport is temporarily suspended, we’ll be releasing a rewatch schedule every week. This is where you can join the women in sport community on twitter and still have that live game experience, with live tweets coming from different women in sport on the Siren twitter account.
All you have to do is head to the provided link at the time scheduled and join in on the chat with hashtag #sirenrewatch.
This weekend’s schedule
Friday April 10 @ 7PM AEST
AWIHL 19-20 Season: Game 19 - Sydney Sirens Vs Adelaide Rush, live tweets from Ice Hockey expert Alyssa Longmuir.
Saturday April 11 @ 2PM AEST
AFLW Round 2, 2019: Adelaide Crows v Carlton Blues, live tweets from Siren co-founder Kirby Fenwick
Sunday April 12 @ 1PM AEST
Gymnastics documentary: Magnificent Seven, live tweets from Siren co-founder Gemma Bastiani
The ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 not only delivered Australia the trophy but delivered record-breaking fan engagement numbers including 1.1 billion video views across ICC digital channels as well as becoming the most watched women’s cricket match ever in Australia.
Of course one of our fave tweeters from the team was quick to celebrate!
Shout to Genevieve Gregson who on March 24 became the fastest woman to ever run a lap of The Tan in Melbourne, running 11:54 for the 3.827km loop.
Need some ISO work out inspiration? Well 3x Olympic Diver Michelle Wu has got you! But also, maybe don’t try these at home! Wow!
Mary Konstantopoulos interviews boxer Caitlin Parker about what the delayed Tokyo Olympics mean for her.
Congratulations to Baylor Basketball Coach Kim Mulkey , who was introduced on Saturday as part of the 2020 class for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Mulkey has won 604 games and three national championships in 20 years at Baylor. She might not have got the celebration she deserved in a time of social isolation, but that didn’t stop people showing her their support and appreciation.
Learn more about Opal Cayla George and her entrepreneurial side in part 1 of this WNBL profile.
Thunderbirds star Layla Guscoth returned to the UK to work in hospitals to help fight COVID-19. Stay well Layla.
Darts sensation Fallon Sherrock talks about her experience being high risk for the virus.
Megan Maurice writes on the continued impact the coronavirus is having on women’s sports, even with no sport on and Rana Hussain writes on how sport can use this experience as an opportunity to rebuild sporting organisations to be more inclusive and equal spaces.
We’re really worried about what might happen to the NRLW. We hope this exciting new league is going to be OK.
April 2 was World Autism Awareness Acceptance Awesome Day and Disability Sport and Rec Victoria hosted an online forum to discuss diversity and acceptance in sport with a particular focus on sport in the time of the coronavirus.
And check out the New Zealand Women's U-17 Football Team! Amazing!
We’re so thankful for all of the healthcare professionals and frontline workers who are helping us all through this hard time. We’re also super thankful that some of our favourite athletes also give their talents to help save lives. We’re in awe of all of you.
Runner up
Anyone else’s housemate already watched Tiger King and cleaned the whole house while you tried to work from home? Darcy V feels your pain!
Online Screening Event
The Griffith University Asia Institute is celebrating International Day of Sport for Development and Peace through an online screening of the documentary Power Meri, that follows Papua New Guinea’s first women’s rugby league team on Thursday 9 April 2020. RSVP here
Community Clubs - we’re here if you need
Last week, Collective member Alison Smirnoff wrote about how the shutdowns of all sports had impacted communities and groups who use sport to come together to not just participate in and spectate, but to meet friends and be around people. Community sports clubs become a family and it has been hard enough to lose sport, but missing the social connections have been equally as tough. Alison shared some great tips to help with this and keep your community club connected if you’re part of one.
We’d love to hear any ideas from others involved in community sport that we can share to help others in this position.
Collective member Kasey Symons has shared some of her suggestions below from her experience as a Director of the Fitzroy Football Club in the VAFA:
During the season, we have a weekly newsletter. We have kept this going. We wanted some sense of normality, you get our club newsletter every Friday, but we use it to share updates from us and the league, post flashback stories, photo galleries and some fun things. Just because we’re not playing, doesn’t mean we’ve stopped communicating with our members and community.
We are in contact with other clubs and are being collaborative when we can. We were part of a video campaign last week that included 44 clubs across Victoria to encourage our community to stay at home. All community clubs are in this together so it’s good to reach out and communicate with other clubs and learn what they’re going through.
We have formed a working group that catches up via phone conference every week to go through any issues, address questions and have a chat. The group is made up of some Directors, Coaches, and players from our women’s and men’s teams so every group in our club is represented and can raise any topic for us to discuss, even if it’s which just players are making the funniest videos for us to post on Facebook!
Support us
We really appreciate your support in signing up to our newsletter. If you’d like to further support us in our mission to build Siren we have a few options.
For $5 a month, you can become a Siren Supporter where you’ll receive access to our exclusive AFLW stats database and our Australian women’s sport calendar.
You can also make a one-off donation of $10 if a regular subscription isn’t your thing.
If you can’t financially support us, just sharing the word about our newsletter would be wonderful. Forward Siren to all your women’s sport loving friends and encourage them to subscribe!
We are also open to discussions from businesses and organisations about sponsorship and collaboration opportunities. Contact us at contact@sirensport.com.au to start a conversation.