Siren 44: Queensland footy, Sunshine Super Girl, our inaugural Emerging Sports Writer & more
A Women in Sport Collective
In her 2018 essay, Taking to the Field, Siren co-founder Kirby Fenwick wrote:
“The stories of women have been pushed to the figurative boundaries of the field, buried under the decades and in the fine print of newspapers—if they made it to the newspapers at all. At what cost? How much has their absence distorted our wider cultural narrative?”
Those questions are particularly relevant this week as we bring you the first part of a three-part series that explores the story of women’s Aussie rules in Queensland. It’s a tale overflowing with incredible moments and remarkable women and even some newspaper reports.
This project speaks to the core of why we came together and co-founded Siren. We knew these stories were out there, and they deserved to be told in a way that does them justice and gives them the utmost respect. But to tell them in this way, we needed our own space. We needed our own word limits, our own time, our own platform. We built Siren to tell these stories and tell them proudly.
Written by Kirby and Gemma Bastiani, this is a project that seeks to correct some of that wider cultural narrative, putting women back into the story—the story they were always integral to. Together, Kirby and Gemma have spent months researching and interviewing and writing, in the process uncovering some truly wonderful stories that we are all thrilled to share with you.
So grab a cuppa, settle in for our first featured women in sport longread, and get excited for more to come!
Siren’s Emerging Sports Writer Program
We’re excited to announce the inaugural participant in our Siren Emerging Sports Writer Program!
We received twenty applications for the Program and were blown away by the quality of those applications. Unsurprisingly, it was incredibly difficult to narrow the field, but last Friday we announced the shortlist of five and over the weekend we selected our participant.
It gives us great pleasure to announce that our inaugural Siren Emerging Sports Writer Program participant is Courtney Hagen!
Congratulations Courtney! And well done to our shortlisted candidates, Cat Jones, Tahlia Sinclair, Emma Blair and Miki Holmes. We’re working on some alternative opportunities with these wonderful women over the coming months.
Thank you to everyone who applied. It’s such a big step to put the effort into an application, put yourself out there and go for opportunities. We appreciate that more than you can know, and we hope to continue to bring more programs like this in the future to provide more opportunities to more women and non-binary folk. Stay tuned!
But for now, meet Courtney Hagen! Courtney is a proud Butchulla and Gubbi Gubbi woman from the Southern Sunshine Coast region in Queensland. Courtney has been involved in community engagement roles in sport and is now passionate to take what she’s learned in that space to address the gap in media coverage of these stories.
In this issue
Kirby Fenwick and Gemma Bastiani delved into the story of women’s Aussie rules in Queensland and this week we bring you part one of the three-part series. We have another edition of our My Favourite Sporting Moment series—this one from our Deakin intern Brielle Quigley. And Dr. Michelle O’Shea, Megan Stronach and Hazel Maxwell shares the story behind Andrea James’ play Sunshine Super Girl, based on the life of Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
Women made this happen: the growth of women’s footy in Queensland
By Kirby Fenwick & Gemma Bastiani
The Lions take to the field in their inaugural AFLW season. Image: Megan Brewer
In the first of a three-part series, Kirby Fenwick and Gemma Bastiani delve into what made Queensland—a ‘non traditional’ footy state—so prepared for that inaugural AFLW season in 2017. The story begins decades prior.
My Favourite Sporting Moment: a moment of inspiration
By Brielle Quigley
Australia’s women’s Rugby 7s team won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Sourced: Rugby Australia
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.
More than a tennis story: Sunshine Super Girl is challenging inequities and enabling inclusive possibilities
By Michelle O’Shea, Megan Stronach and Hazel Maxwell
Sunshine Super Girl rehearsal. Supplied: Performing Lines
Sunshine Super Girl, a performance piece by Andrea James about Evonne Goolagong Cawley, is important. Michelle O’Shea, Megan Stronach and Hazel Maxwell share why.
This piece from Megan Schutt was a powerful reminder about the importance of having ongoing discussions about race year-round and not leaving education and advocacy solely to NAIDOC week.
Women’s State of Origin has been and gone with the Maroons nabbing the win, but this story was too epic to leave out. Year Six student Matilda Kelly won the battle for her school to don their colours for the Women’s comp on Friday the 13th after writing a letter to her principal about how “unfair” it was that only the men’s games were celebrated, and you know what, the kids really are alright. We’re with you, Matilda!
Kim Ng has been announced as the new general manager for The Marlins, making her Major League Baseball’s first female and first Asian American GM. Are we still saying you love to see it?! Because if so, we really, really do. Congratulations, Kim!
And if you’re after some more women in baseball history, check out Britni de la Cretaz’s latest edition of her newsletter ‘Still Out of your League’ which includes a fantastic book list on the subject. As we alluded to at the top of this newsletter, there are so many women in sports stories out there if you know where to look, and there are many doing the work to help us find them!
Brittany Carter from the ABC gives us the breakdown on the Melbourne Stars’ sudden rise to the top this WBBL season, unpacking the changes that helped pull them up from the bottom of last season’s ladder.
Ugh. Unfortunately it isn’t all good news when it comes to women’s sport in the media, and this headline referring to elite netballer Kim Ravaillon is a particularly ick example. Do better.
How good has the WNBL been so far?! This epic moment from Canberra Capital’s young gun Jade Melbourne made us all want to pick up a basketball and try to look even a fraction as effortlessly skilled. (Spoiler: so far, not-so-good).
Football expert Samantha Lewis weighs in on Angel City FC’s unique ownership model and what that might mean for the future of women’s football on the international stage.
Noooo! Sad news this week with Adelaide Strikers’ captain Suzie Bates ruled out for the remainder of the WBBL season with a shoulder injury. We wish the skipper a speedy post-op recovery.
The deadline to register interest for the upcoming Melton Women in Sport Virtual Breakfast is drawing nearer, with December 1st the cut off! Fix yourself some avo toast and strap in for some incredible guest speakers, all from the comfort of your own kitchen table. Follow this link to register.
Jhaniele Fowler will forever be our shooting #goals - and YES, that pun was a cheap shot (okay, we’ll stop now). Major congratulations to the powerhouse goal shooter for being awarded MVP at West Coast Fever for the *second* consecutive year, a well deserved title!
We thought we were excited when this program was launched. Then we saw this incredible group of superstars all in the one place!
Runner up
More women in sport books? Yes please! We can’t wait to get our hands on a copy of Georgina’s book!
Support us
Our Siren Supporters are our biggest source of income. Every paid subscription helps us to commission more women’s sport features and profiles, cover more women’s sports and bring you more women in sport stories. For the price of a coffee a month you can help us to keep doing just that!
You can sign up as a monthly supporter today for only $5 per month. We also offer an annual supporter option for $60 a year.
All funds from our Siren Supporters go directly back into Siren to help run the collective, commission writers and deliver programs like the Siren Emerging Sports Writer Program.
Alternatively, you can get your hands on some official Siren merch and wear your support of women in sport proudly.