Adelaide AFLW 2017 premiership a high point of the revolution for South Australian women's sport

Adelaide celebrates its 2017 grand final win in the Australian Football League Women's first season.
Image courtesy Adelaide Football Club

Adelaide Crows' 2017 premiership in the Australian Football League Women’s competition reflects one of the biggest 21st Century revolutions in South Australian sport.

The profile and number of women taking part in sport has taken a big leap. About 150,000 girls and women were registered with sporting clubs in South Australia.

This included almost 5000 registered female football and soccer players and a record number of more than 1000 registered cricket players.

The state government responded to this at the top level with to $550,000 going to the Adelaide Crows AFL Women’s team through to 2018. The government partnered with the Crows AFLW team and the club’s female-focussed grassroots football and schools programs, aiming for an audience of up to 10,000 girls.

At the broader grassroots level, the government pledged an extra $10 million to overcome one of the most basic problems for girls and women: the lack of change rooms for them at sporting venues.

A South Australia Women in Sport Taskforce aims to improve gender equality, change the face of sport leadership and increase spectators for women’s sport.

Besides South Australian women competing in national competitions such as AFL, BBL and T20 cricket, netball and basketball, a parallel Tour Down Under international cycling event has been encouraged.

In 2016, the 130-year-old Bay Sheffield, for the first time, had women competing for the same $10,000 prizemoney as men.