Siren 15: Profiling She Scores, Kate Moloney and Nicole Callinan on Melissa Hickey
A Women in Sport Collective
Every week we try to honour, celebrate and amplify the voices of women in sport.
It doesn’t matter if women’s sport is not on the TV, not in the newspapers, not at premium stadiums, not funded, not paid or not even being played. We’re here, and we’re here for women doing their best to keep women in sport as a key conversation during these uncertain times.
We’d like to dedicate this newsletter to a very special woman in sport in particular. South Australian sportswoman, Eileen Amos recently passed away aged 105.
Amos was a champion lawn bowler, winning many club titles and a state title for SA. She also was a tennis player and netballer. Her family has thrown out the challenge to see if there was anyone else with a sporting pedigree, who could match or even beat her longevity.
We hope where Eileen is now, there’s a bowls green, tennis and netball courts, and hopefully adequate coverage of women’s sports so stories like hers are never missed. Rest in the most peace Eileen.
In this issue
Kirby Fenwick spoke to Melbourne Vixen Kate Moloney as we begin a series of profiles of Super Netball players and Kasey Symons takes us through the third week of our stats partnership with Swinburne University—casting an eye over coverage of the WNBA draft.
Alison Smirnoff has spoken to her Darebin Falcons mate Nicole Callinan about the retiring Melissa Hickey (check in next week for Hickey on Callinan), Megan Brewer shares ten women’s sport documentaries and films to add to your must-watch list and Gemma Bastiani has profiled women’s footy photographer Steph Comelli—better known as She Scores—while showcasing some of her stunning images.
Melbourne Vixen Kate Moloney on leadership, playing alongside your heroes and the changing landscape of women’s sport
By Kirby Fenwick
Melbourne Vixens captain, Kate Moloney. Photo: Grant Treeby/NV
In the 1930s, the All-Australian Women’s Basketball* Association passed a motion requiring players to be silent during games. Melbourne Vixens’ captain Kate Moloney laughs when I tell her this story.
*Until the 1970s, netball was known as basketball. Read more about the history of netball here: 5 moments in the history of netball you may not know about
Nicole Callinan on Melissa Hickey
By Alison Smirnoff
Melissa Hickey leading her team out of the race. Photo: Megan Brewer
In the first of a two-part series, Siren decided to interview the retiring Nicole Callinan and Melissa Hickey about the other. After all, a teammate can gain a better appreciation for a player than someone standing on the sidelines ever could.
Profiling She Scores
By Gemma Bastiani
Carlton enjoy a win. Image: She Scores
Steph Comelli is better known as She Scores, and is one of the premier photographers of women’s footy in Australia, capturing many of the key moments we think of when it comes to the AFLW competition.
10 women’s sport documentaries and films to add to your must watch list
By Megan Brewer
With all the anticipation and hype around the new documentary, The Last Dance we thought it would be a great time to look at some documentaries and films that focus on women in sport.
By the Numbers: Vol 3
By Kasey Symons
This week’s analysis of the mainstream media coverage didn’t change too much from what we’ve seen unfortunately. Numbers were insignificantly higher on the weekend with a 1% bump on Saturday and Sunday and Friday April 24 saw our double figure day. Most of the coverage tallied for this day was centred around the reporting of Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle tendering her resignation.
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 May 1 @ 7PM AEST
2020 AFLW Round 4: Collingwood v Melbourne, live tweets from Siren co-founder Gemma Bastiani.
Sunday May 3 @ 2PM AEST
Never Say Die Matildas (documentary), live tweets from Siren co-founder Kirby Fenwick
Congratulations to all the AFLW players who have received well deserved accolades this week. From Best & Fairests, Goals of the Year and making the 2020 All-Australian Team, it’s been wonderful to celebrate these brilliant women and what they achieved in season none of us could have predicted.
The Telegraph’s Women’s Sport dropped their Resilience edition and there are some incredible pieces in the issue which can be accessed online like this feature on Hillary Allen and this amazing story on Terri Bennett who took the fight to play football with boys all the way to High Court when she was just 12!
They also have this list of some women in sport books, films and docos to enjoy during this time —we need more women in sport versions of these lists!
Molly McElwee writes on the landscape for women’s cricket post COVID-19. Fiona Tomas and Katie Whyatt write on how the FA is taking action to halt ACL injuries in women's football.
Shannon Byrne’s women in sport show, The Sunday Session on The ABC is great listening, make sure you tune in and subscribe to the podcast. This week she chats to basketball legend Lauren Jackson and jockey Rachel King.
Congrats to Tayla Harris whose book is out today!
Melbourne Boomers General Manager Christy Collier-Hill writes on how watching Save The Last Dance made her think of the iconic, mostly unchanged Chicago Bulls logo and what approaches her and her team will take as they look to re-brand the Boomers. We can’t wait to see what they come up with!
If you’re not watching Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe go live on Instagram each week for their ISO show ‘A Touch More’ - you are missing out! This week they were joined by very special guest Diana Taurasi, with a cameo from her wife and Australian Opal Penny Taylor. Here’s an awesome wrap up of all the awesome things they talked about.
We wish Notre Dame basketball coach Muffet McGraw all the best in retirement after an incredible career. We’ll always remember her amazing press conference from the 2019 NCAA Tournament where she vowed not to hire male coaches. It’s also fantastic to see that another woman will come in to take the reins. Notre Dame alum Niele Ivey will take on the role and we hope to see a continuation and increase of women coaches.
We’ve come to expect absolute fire from ESPN’s Sarah Spain and this was no exception. We want more women’s sports merchandise!
Runner up
Hoops make the world go round. They certainly do and will again soon!
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