AFL clubs have reportedly been told to include women in their decision-making process in the 2024 draft, a move labeled as “symbolic”.
All 18 clubs strengthened their roster of rising young football stars over two nights at Marvel Stadium.
Now Tom Elliot has told 3AW listeners that AFL Executive General Manager Football Laura Kane instructed all clubs to include a woman in their ‘war room’ where club management determines their draft selections and transactions.
“A prominent football identity that you all would have heard of called me yesterday,” he said.
“They said that Laura Kane, a senior executive in the AFL, told every club before the draft that they should have at least one woman in their respective war rooms.
“So what this means is that the war rooms typically have ten to twelve people, and Laura Kane would have told every club that at least one of them had to be a woman.”
AFL Executive General Manager Football Laura Kane is said to have told all 18 clubs they must have a woman in their war room at the 2024 draft
While many clubs already had women involved in the process, or were able to bring in women with football and management experience, other clubs were forced to include ring-ins.
Elliot reported that an AFLW player and a young woman from a club’s membership team were brought in to appease the AFL directive, without any involvement in the draft decision-making process.
‘I then find out that two clubs from Melbourne had to do this. One of them just grabbed one of their AFLW players and said please come sit here so they can see there’s a woman there when the cameras are on us,” Elliot reported.
“Another very well-supported AFL team went looking for a young girl to work in the membership department as they called people to make sure they renewed their membership.
“They told her, come and sit in the war room so that when the camera is on us, they will see that there is a woman there.”
Elliot denounced the alleged edict, calling it insulting to women who have ambitions to work in management and decision-making positions at football clubs.
“Now I know what the AFL is trying to do. “They want to say, oh look, we have women who are part of the club’s decision-making processes and look, there’s a woman here and she helps decide which young player gets called up,” he said.
‘But it’s symbolic, really.
Some clubs brought in token women, including an AFLW player, to meet the AFL requirement
“If you were an ambitious, talented, successful woman, you wouldn’t want to be told that the only reason you’re here is because there’s an AFL House edict that says we have to have at least one woman in the house. the room.
“That’s an insult to the women who work at the club.”
Ny Breaking Australia has contacted the AFL for comment.
Many football fans questioned the alleged edict.
‘Why don’t we just choose the best people? Why do we have to have quotas?’ someone asked.
“You didn’t earn your spot, you don’t get a place in the war room,” another posted.
‘This is disgusting. It’s great when women are involved in football, but they have to be the right person for the job and not just force us to fill a quota,” another added.
Others defended the decision, saying it was necessary to force change in the male-dominated landscape in the AFL.
“We need to focus less on Laura Kane’s directive itself and more on why the AFL felt compelled to issue it. In certain situations, “ambitious, talented and successful” is not enough if you are a woman. This is not tokenism; it’s a necessary step towards change,” wrote one footy fan.
“As a woman who is qualified to be in the war room, but who has been given opportunities given to men because they are men, even though this instruction is hurtful… it is imperative for women that the door be left even ajar is being opened because it has been so tightly closed for decades,” another added.