GEORGIE PARKER: Respect for Collingwood Magpies AFLW side should be black and white

Collingwood’s 11th AFLW season ended with another loss on Sunday, this time to Essendon. One win for the year, a departing captain and Sam Wright’s final game as coach.

This group will never look the same again. Now comes an off-season that must deliver more than another promise of better days.

The club has commissioned an external review. But what happens if it finds something Collingwood doesn’t want to hear?

If the recommendations demand greater investment, different appointments or changes to the club’s priorities, what is it actually prepared to do? Whose heads are on the chopping block?

A few weeks ago, I wrote asking why being Collingwood counted for so little in the AFLW and the scrutiny has continued throughout the season.

The warning signs existed well before Wright’s resignation and Captain Ruby Schleicher’s decision to return to Western Australia.

Her personal circumstances deserve respect, but the broader question remains: why did it take this long for the club to act on issues that have clearly been brewing for years.

During my time at Collingwood in its early days of the AFLW, I felt there was a clear hierarchy: the AFL men, the VFL, netball (which no longer exists) and then the AFLW. And honestly, I often felt they didn’t want us there.

Having a women’s team felt like a box the club had to tick, with our presence something everyone else had to accommodate.

This was a feeling built through everyday experiences. We could use the space, provided we weren’t in the way and made ourselves small.

One incident has stayed with me.

Shortly before our Christmas break, we arrived for training to discover the ground had undergone maintenance and was unavailable. The men were already on leave, but our summer season meant we were still training. My understanding was that the ground staff believed we had finished too.

We headed just down the road to Gosch’s Paddock and sure, using another oval wasn’t a catastrophe, but the additional walk was hardly ideal for injured players, and relocating complicated access to treatment. But mostly, it reinforced the feeling that nobody had thought about us.

I could not imagine the men arriving without a usable ground or advance notice of alternative arrangements.

My experience covers only a few years. I cannot speak for today’s players, which is precisely why this review must give them room to speak honestly. They need confidence that uncomfortable feedback will be taken seriously and that being candid will not count against them.

Players should feel valued and respected while still being challenged. They need coaches who improve them, staff who support them and appointments that reflect what the program needs, and ultimately, a club that wants them there without feeling forced to.

Feeling cared about does not mean being protected from scrutiny. It means knowing the club is invested in helping you meet its expectations.

I understand the men generate the money. But how does a team become successful enough to attract supporters, sponsors and investment if the conditions needed to build that success are always waiting on the other side of profitability? Financial backing, practical support and a sense of belonging help create success. They cannot all be rewards for already achieving it.

Collingwood’s netball program disappeared after a review concluded it wasn’t sustainable. That history makes it reasonable to ask what commitment to women’s sport means when the commercial return falls short.

And this is Collingwood, with its enormous support, influence and commercial appeal. North Melbourne is, to me, the benchmark for a program players would want to join in the AFLW. Brisbane has been one for years, despite this season’s drop-off, as too Adelaide, so why haven’t Collingwood’s advantages translated into something remotely comparable?

The off-season must produce reasons for players to stay and recruits to come. A new coach alone cannot supply them. The review needs to lead to decisions, resources and accountability that players can recognise in their daily experience.

Collingwood has finally agreed to examine what is wrong. If the answer points to the priorities of the people running the club, will they change them? Or will the women once again be asked to work around everyone else?