Lily Mithen won the under-14 best-and-fairest award. When she was bottom age. In a boys' team. Not club, competition. By 23 votes.
"My Dad was a bit late dropping me off at the count, so by the time I got there I'd already won," she said, "though there were still eight rounds to go." Dad, by the way, is Anthony Mithen, once a compatriot in this sports department, now the owner of a flourishing horse stud. Mitho, we hope your timing with horses is better than with your daughter!
Lily told this story at the MCC's footy launch, squeezed on a couch between Jonathan Brown and Joel Selwood. She stands just 159 centimetres. She said when when she was drafted by Melbourne into the AFLW, lifelong friend Liam Higgins suggested she wear a helmet. At first she was touched by his care, until he explained that he was thinking of the marketing prospects, Caleb Daniel-style. There is equal opportunity thinking for you.
Meantime, serving as a sort of cross-reference on progress, as a statue of Kevin Bartlett was unveiled at the MCG, the appearance of streaker Helen D'Amico during the 1982 grand final inevitably was raised. Bartlett said he had turned to Carlton legend Bruce Doull at the time and said, "I hope she's playing on the half-back flank". Hopefully, there is enough room in this new stage of the age-old dance of the genders for KB's gag still to be seen as funny.
MC Tim Lane then asked if there might ever be a day when a woman played in a men's AFL team. It is a question that could easily be misconstrued, highlighting how far the women have to go. Rather, I think the fact the question occurred at all, however hypothetically, highlights how far they have come. It is a question not about standards, but possibilities.
The two men in the immediate firing line were tactful. Selwood said anything was possible. "Some of these girls are seriously impressive," he said. "And the product now is just a sample of what's to come." That is clear. These are part-timers, minimally trained, hastily gathered, pioneers. It is the next wave that will make the lasting mark.
"The challenge for the girls always is the physical stuff," said Brown. AFL men were not just fitter and stronger than women, but "at the pointy end of athletes in the world". In the forseeable future, the safety issue would be insurmountable. For now, that is also clear. But if we have learned one thing for certain from the inaugural season of AFLW, it is that timidity never will be an issue.
Historically, the odds are against a woman finding a place in a men's sport. Experiments in tennis and golf failed, and I'm not aware even of an experiment in an elite contact sport. As for endurance sports, in the 1970s it was projected that women would surpass men at marathon running by the turn of last century. They still haven't. The trouble was that linear progression was assumed. In fact, as any sportsperson who has tried to come from behind knows, the last step is the hardest.
On average, men are stronger and more muscular than women, with all that flows from that. That is biology, and it is not going change much soon. But that's on average. It does not take account of physiological exceptions. Lane threw up Lauren Jackson as an example. She's 196 centimetres tall, powerfully built and a proven athlete. She dominated at basketball, but what if she had played AFL from childhood, with wide open pathways and total cultural acceptance?
I'd add the name of Meg Hutchins, the Collingwood defender. She reads the game like a book, takes a strong mark and might be the best kick in AFLW. For the Magpies, she played like a quarterback. She's also 35, so the AFLW has come along too late for her. But imagine the next Hutchins, say 16 years old, with all those attributes, immersed in the game 24/7 like her male peers.
She would not necessarily have to mix it with Selwood or Dustin Martin at the foot of the pack. In the US, some speculate on a woman as a kicker in the NFL, for instance, or a knuckleball pitcher in baseball. AFL has role players, too. It takes only a little widening of the mind to see it.
Now, this is all academic. As the women's game evolves, so will the men's, and as best can be judged from here, the two curves won't ever quite meet. But they are near enough now for dialogue to have changed, radically. One short generation ago, the answer to the question about what sort of woman might find herself in the middle of a game of footy would have been Helen D'Amico. One year ago, it was Eleni Glouftsis, an umpire. Now, it just might be the tigerish Lily Mithen.
