KIERSTEN DUKE: Alexander Volkanovski’s $10k NRLW donation to St George Dragons makes big difference

There has been a colossal growth in women’s sport in recent years in case you have missed it. FIFA reported 3.2 billion views of their social and digital content for the 2023 Women’s World Cup and in 2024 the Paris Olympics had an equal number of male and female athletes competing for the first time.

In Australia women’s sports media coverage has tripled since 2019. Additionally, there’s a rise in female participation in the NRL with NSW seeing a 14 per cent increase in registered female club participation to an all-time high of 29,970.

And it doesn’t stop there. Last year was a record-breaking season in the NRLW. There were more viewers than ever before watching on television and more people attending games.

The ascendancy continues this year with Game I of the Women’s State Of Origin drawing a whopping number of eyes to TV screens, with more than two million Australians tuning into the coverage.

It was the second largest TV audience of all time for a women’s game. The blockbuster spectacle smashed the men’s AFL free-to-air ratings despite it being a standalone game in Brisbane.

To those who say people don’t want to watch women’s sport, well it turns out it’s even more popular than the men’s. Stats don’t lie baby.

The meteoric growth of women’s sports offers brands and investors an opportunity to reach new audiences and new revenue streams. But it’s not only CEOs who are backing the girls.

Just last week UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski ran the first of several wrestling sessions with the St George Dragons NRLW side.

Alongside training partner and UFC contender Colby Thicknesse, Volk targeted the women’s tackling skills both defensively and offensively. The plan, to use grappling strategies to make their hits harder and escapes faster.

Craig Bellamy would have been eating his heart out.

Statistically, the Dragons were the worst defensive team in the competition last year. With a premiership to aim for, head coach Nathan Cross and female head of football Sammy Bremner are keen to pull out all the stops to set the team up for success.

As we know, it takes a village. Managing director Michael Baines has worked in women’s rugby league for the past decade and isn’t just the performance director for the NRLW but also happens to be Volkanovski’s physiotherapist.

In my opinion, we need more men to be like Baines and invest the way he does in women’s sport.

The more investment in the girls, the better they will be.

This wrestling session is the perfect example of that. In fact, the two-time featherweight champion was so impressed with the athletes that he put his hand in his pocket and even donated $10,000 to the Dragons NRLW side.

For Volkanovski, putting all his eggs in the basket of women’s sport make sense

He’s the father of three girls and has another on the way. It only makes sense for the future of his little ones.

To any man reading this, your daughters, nieces, granddaughters and friends deserve a chance. Believe in them the way a UFC champion would and invest in their sport.