GEORGIE PARKER: Trip to Paris Olympics on eve of AFLW season a bad look from one of league’s stars

On the eve of the ninth AFLW season I want to air some frustrations.

I’m frustrated by the AFL men’s fans, who don’t watch the women, yet are happy to tell us all how much they hate it.

But I’m also frustrated by those men who have watched it but expected the same type of football you’ll see in the men’s game.

Expectation management is the key to happiness for me, and if you’re expecting a peak Jeremy Howe mark every match, of course, you’ll be disappointed.

It is incredibly naïve to believe women and men will play the same style of footy when we have very different physical abilities.

What the women’s game lacks in certain areas, it makes up for it in others so watch the game with a different lens and I promise you’ll enjoy it more.

I’m also frustrated by the AFLW players who are in a very fortunate position to be backed by the juggernaut of the AFL.

I believe the sport can no longer hide under this banner of infancy which has been its shield since it began.

The competition is on the verge of its ninth season, and in my eyes, it is the final year the players can say they’re only part-time athletes.

This season, after the joint Collective Bargaining Agreement signed by the women and the men last year, the lowest salary an AFLW player can earn is $55,077, going up to $67,337 in 2025 and to $72,373 in 2027.

At the other end of the scale, the stars of the game are earning over $200,000 per season.

We have just finished watching the Olympics, where we have seen athlete after athlete be committed to their sport and their team, in the pursuit of being the best.

A majority of them are not being financially rewarded for chasing their dream (I lived off about $500 a week for multiple years when playing hockey for Australia), yet still put their sport first.

During my Olympic preparation I missed weddings, funerals, birthdays, job opportunities, the lot, because of the standard my team set and that I set for myself.

To see a high-profile player, on more money than I could have dreamed of as an athlete, overseas on a sponsored PR trip to the Paris Games two weeks out from the season is a slap in the face to the rest of the players in the league (and other female athletes in the country).

It’s also totally ironic that it was to “learn from the best” even though the best would not have done the same.

In her defence, it is the club who should have said no, and given they approved it, it’s not on her, but on them for setting up a very dangerous precedent going forward.

I am also not happy women are playing multiple sports, while wanting to be seen at the same elite level as the men.

This can’t go for too much longer, can it? Not with the amount of money being thrown around. The Tasmanian Jack Jumpers in the NBL last week released teen sensation Roman Slulepa from their list after they requested him to not play rugby, yet he continued to do so.

If the AFLW is trying its best to be seen as a top tier competition, you need complete buy in from the players.

I feel this isn’t happening from all players, and they’re tip-toeing on this line of “because we can, we will”, as opposed to “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.

And finally, I’m frustrated by how we in the media appear too scared to be critical of the players, even when they’ve been loud in their desperation to be seen as professional athletes, not just puff pieces.

You demand excellence and it will come. When there is no informed criticism, and only feel-good stories, you’re not creating a league that is not going to be taken seriously.

Things need to change in many aspects with the AFLW and we are right on the verge of having something very professional and well respected, but it’s still got a long way to go.