Making space for women in Australian Rugby

The Australian Rugby Union now has a woman on board. In an exciting move Ann Sherry moved yesterday from the Australian Sports Commission to the rugby board.

One small step. The SMH quoted chairman Michael Hawker saying: ""The first female director of the Australian Rugby Union (has been appointed) and it shows we're trying to move the governance of the organisation."

And The Australian quoted Sherry pointing out how overdue this decision is. "It's always a very strong signal of change in organisations that have not had women involved before," she said. "It just flags that rugby is fit for the 21st century. I'm really pleased to have the chance to be the person who cracks that change.

"It's a great signal to the women who love and follow rugby as well that it's not closed to them."

This clip is from a Canadian rugby match (would you believe I couldn't find an interesting clip from Australia? Hmm, long way to go ...)

Wordless Wednesday

Tipperary woman Sandra Ryan in blue

Thanks again to Melissa Vuong from Sydney-based Australian Rules Football club Western Wolves for these great shots!

Other Wordless Wednesday bloggers hanging out here.

Listen to possibly the largest football lesson ever ....

So you know there is a Guinness World Record for pretty much everything. But did you know there is one for the largest Gaelic football lesson ever? Nope, me either. Turns out there is not only a record -  held by a club in Antrim - but a challenger - na Fianna in Dublin.

I went to their record effort on Monday for NearFM and this was the result ...

Wordless Wednesday

Not so Wordless Wednesday today: 

Thanks to photographer and footballer Melissa Vuong from the Bondi Shamrocks Australian Rules Football Club for sending these great shots from pre-season training this week on Coogee Beach in Sydney.
Read more about the club here in this interview with Sandra Ryan (in green above).

What you loved on this blog 2011

They say a week is a long time in politics so a year ... So much happened in 2011 that events from January or February seem to have happened in another decade not just a few months back. And scrolling through the stats for this blog to see what you liked reading isn't any different.

Diana Nyad

The most popular posts were the attempts by American swimmer Diana Nyad to swim between Florida and Cuba last summer and again this year. Like many of you I was disappointed for her but also impressed that she even thought of attempting the 103 mile swim at 62 years of age. That's complete with sharks and jelly-fish. 

Following close behind numbers-wise were the stories of Australian surfer Steph Gilmore and Kyrgyzstan MuayThai fighter Valentina Shevchenko.  

You also loved the personal stories from American cyclist Deborah Atkinson, and fighter Melissa Ray's retirement interview. Australian fighter Caley Reece just keeps popping up in the stats and lots of you were inspired to get climbing by Alaskan mountain-lover Ti Conkle.

Irish women you enjoyed reading about included soccer- goalie Emma Byrne, Down Under Aussie rules player Sandra Ryan and listening to MuayThai fighter Siobhan Foley prepare for competition. 

Martial arts and boxing pages definitely strike a cord which maybe says something about where I promote the blog, but it seems you're happy to take inspiration from anyone as long as she's doing something she loves - that's where the real passion lies. 

These great photos from the World Freestyle Kayak Championships by Emily Wall were a huge hit - pun intended - as were the photos from Siobhan in France. 

As the seasons turned, the snow queens have been sneaking up the list again. I haven't interviewed them (yet) but profiles of Swiss-French champ Anne-Flora Marxer and American veteran Tara Dakides are your favourites. 

Getting fewer hits but making you stick around were women like Egyptian rower Heba Ahmed, the story of the Palestinian soccer team and this short film on soccer in Brazil.

Have I missed any of your favourite posts? Leave a comment, share why you loved it.

Tomorrow: your favourite photographs (thank you download counter)

Torah Bright, Australia

Dreaming Olympic Rings in Italy

Italian boxer Romina Marenda is getting ready for London.2012 in this short from Tony Gentile. She says: "Sometimes they only show the worst of this sport but it (boxing) is also elegant, also technique. If you are clever, you don't break your nose."

Have a great weekend!

Women's Australian Rules Football is growing

The Banshees, the Shamrocks, Demons and Angels. Sounds like Roller-Derby day, but they're all women's football teams in the Australian Rules code. Played with an oval ball which one player says "lands in front of you and can go anywhere" the fast game has only opened up for women in the last decade.

Sandra Ryan for the Ireland Banshees

Irishwoman Sandra Ryan lives in Sydney, and has played with local team Bondi Shamrocks for three years. And yes, she's also a Banshee - an Ireland Banshee, world champions at the International Australian Rules tournament. Confused? I was too. So the deal is that outside of Australia countries are setting up their own leagues with teams only open to non-Aussies. But when teams travelled to the world cup Down Under, they picked up a few sneaky Exile players. 

Sandra loves the game. "My life revolves around it really. It's played on an oval pitch, no goal-keepers. We can tackle from any side and it's one of the few sports where the rules for the women's team are the same as for the men's." 

Physical is a word often used to describe a match, with most players clocking in at well over 1.8m (6 ft) and that's just the women. Sandra at 1.7m (5ft6) is one of the shorter players on her team but jokes she's also one of the fastest. "You'd be a bit sore after a game but it's great coming away with a good result."

The International World Cup

Joining up with the Ireland Banshees was one of the highlights of a successful year for Sandra. "I’ve been playing with the local team in Sydney for three years," she says. "Our coach said the Irish team might need some players for the world cup so I found them on Facebook. We clicked straight away for a team that hadn't played together before." 

It was the first time the tournament hosted women's teams and Sandra didn't waste any time making her mark (pun intended) as this report says: "It took less than a minute for Ireland to open the scoring with a spectacular goal from Sandra Ryan."  And people new to the sport might be startled to learn they have to sing too, each winning team sings a song after the games. The Irish team cranked out "On the one road" and Sandra adds: "A lot of people didn't know what a Banshee was but I'd say they did after we sang" referring to the traditional Celtic role of a banshee in wailing for the dead.

Future of women's AFL

But away from the highlights of tournaments, Sandra says it can be hard to get attention for the sport as it's vastly overshadowed by the more popular men's game. "You talk to (Australian) women and they're like What? You play AFL? I didn't know women could," she says. So in a seemingly counter-intuitive move, the women's league in Sydney is moving in with the men. Sandra says it's sad but all for the best, explaining "the men's side are very good at development and supporting us and their head guy's job is to develop the game. We're hoping to have the women's game televised by 2020." 

In the meantime, she'll just keep on training. Winters are busy  for her with AFL, and her first loves Gaelic football and camogie to keep her out most nights of the week for the Central Coast team. Heading into the southern summer now, she's playing a little soccer to keep things ticking over. Beach training starts in January when it cools down, pre-season in April and then the Shamrocks are back in action.