Siren 16: Daphne Hilton, Melissa Hickey on Nicole Callinan and Ine-Mari Venter
A Women in Sport Collective
Last Sunday afternoon, Siren co-founder Kirby Fenwick watched the documentary Never Say Die Matildas for our #SirenRewatch and tweeted her thoughts.
One of the quotes she highlighted was about the growth of women’s football.
‘If it’s resourced properly, we can make huge strides.’
It’s such a simple point but it’s one we seem to have to make over and over again. That point was reinforced this week when we learnt that the USWNT lost their bid for equal pay. Their fight will no doubt continue. And so too does ours for equality in the coverage of women’s sport.
In some wonderful news, our collaboration with Swinburne to record the coverage of women’s sport in mainstream media will continue through May. Plus we’ve also got plenty of great women in sport content for you this week.
And we have lots of fun planned, kicking off with our first ever Siren (Virtual) Trivia Night this Friday night! If you're a Siren Supporter and you haven’t secured your spot yet, well, what are you waiting for!
In this issue
Kirby Fenwick delved into the history books (her favourite place) to bring us the story of Daphne Hilton, one of the most successful Australian athletes of all time, and Alison Smirnoff is back with part two of her series on esteemed AFLW retirees Melissa Hickey and Nicole Callinan. This week, Alison chats with Melissa about her Darebin Falcons teammate Nicole.
We take you through the fourth week of our stats partnership with Swinburne University plus Kasey caught up with Queensland Firebird Ine-Mari Venter and her story of dedication and persistence plus a search for flour! And Gemma Bastiani got deep into the AFLW W Awards to put together some interesting stories and numbers.
History makers: Daphne Hilton, a trailblazer and a lasting legacy
By Kirby Fenwick
Australia won ten medals at the 1960 Rome Paralympics. Six of those medals belong to one of the most successful Australian athletes of all time. In this trip down memory lane, Siren brings you the story of Daphne Hilton.
Melissa Hickey on Nicole Callinan
By Alison Smirnoff
Nicole Callinan playing for Darebin in 2017. Image: Darebin Falcons
As mentioned last week, the sudden end to the 2020 AFLW season brought with it a number of player retirements. Two of those retirees, Geelong’s Melissa Hickey and the Western Bulldogs’ Nicole Callinan, were long-time teammates at the Darebin Falcons in the VWFL/VFLW well before the existence of the AFLW.
Resilience & Rusks: How Ine-Mari Venter’s setbacks have driven her ambition
By Kasey Symons
Image: Queensland Firebirds
This weekend should have marked the return of the Suncorp Super Netball, but of course the 2020 Season is currently on hold as the world of sport looks to hopefully soon put plans into action to recover from coronavirus shutdowns. For South African, and new Queensland Firebird, Ine-Mari Venter, it was to be a new challenge.
5 quirks of the 2020 W Awards
By Gemma Bastiani
Madison Prespakis gets a handball away against the Saints. Image: Megan Brewer
The W Awards looked pretty different this year, with a virtual count and players finding their best wifi connection—instead of their best outfit—to join in at home. This didn’t, however, lower the anticipation of who would be named the competition’s Rising Star and Best and Fairest with a multitude of players rightly vying for each award.
By the Numbers: Vol 4
For the month of April, our data collection of mainstream media’s online reporting of women’s sports and women in sport found that the coverage only averaged 8.4%.
Play On Radio—Gemma’s platform—released a new episode of podcast I See It But I Don’t Believe It yesterday. Siren co-founder Kirby Fenwick was her guest and the topic was The Lockout; the inaugural AFLW match. It’s a joy to reflect back on key moments in women’s sporting history, this one being an important one for Australia (and the Siren team).
Kasey Symons also spoke to the team at Chicks Talking Footy this week about the mental health aspect of the sport shut down—particularly for those at community clubs—and the lack of women’s sport representation in mainstream media.
Congratulations Maddie Prespakis on winning the 2020 AFLW Best and Fairest! The proud Dja Dja Wurrung woman became only the third Indigenous footballer in AFLM/AFLW history to win a league Best and Fairest. Be sure to listen to her on the latest episode of The Outer Sanctum.
Congratulations to Leilani Mitchell who was recently inducted into the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame.
We’re excited to see this new academic text coming out soon ‘Developing Sport for Women and Girls’ edited by Emma Sherry and Katie Rowe. Great to see such an important resource published. And Susie Petruccelli has just published her book, ‘Raised a Warrior: One Woman’s Soccer Odyssey’, another one to add to the reading list!
Samantha Lewis writes on how girls from minority communities face high hurdles to get into football in Australia.
Molly Appleton interviews FA Women’s Super League’s Bristol City coach Tanya Oxtoby.
Lauren Jackson reflects on her career and her drive to look after women’s basketball in her important role. The Melbourne Vixens have launched online netball training clinics.
The news from the USWNT equal pay lawsuit is not what we had hoped for. Kelsey Trainor gives us the breakdown of the case here and what’s next. While we know they lost the case, they’ve not lost their fans. In fact,they’ve probably gained a whole bunch more. And this leads into a broader conversation about the impact of COVID-19 on women’s sports.
We are so saddened to see women’s teams lost from the impacts of the coronavirus. AFC Fylde women's team is the latest to be disbanded in the UK. There are collectives banding together to fight for women’s sport. The IWG had responded to COVID-19 with global ‘Call to Action’ and we are seeing conversations about how women’s sports will be easier to get back on track like this piece from Molly McElwee on women’s cricket. Lindsay Gibbs writes on the oversimplification of amalgamating women’s and men’s leagues during this time, looking at the WTA.
‘A Secret Love’ has dropped on Netflix. Make sure you have the tissues ready.
It was a tough week in news for equality for women in sport. But we’re not going anywhere. We will stand in solidarity with our sisters in the USWNT. And we will also never stop fighting for equality.
Runner up
In honour of Maddie Prespakis’ AFLW Best and Fairest, we give you Prespakis leading the pack since juniors. This is such an awesome photo!
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