Meet the women who made Eddie’s week hell

Two fans, an author, a poet, a broadcaster and a lawyer walk into a podcast… and all hell breaks loose.
 
What a week it has been for Eddie McGuire, yet if it hadn’t had been for a group of footy loving women perhaps not a word would have been said about his ‘joke’ that caused a national furore.
 
In a nutshell Eddie, Danny Frawley and James Brayshaw joked about holding sports journalist Caroline Wilson’s head under water as part of a fundraiser for MND research, live to air on Triple M.
 
Emma Race is former broadcaster with 3RRR and Nova who picked up on the conversation and spoke about it on her podcast Outer Sanctum.
 
“It was unintentional! We found an article on MSN which talked about the comments that were made before the game on Queen’s Birthday Monday. We were shocked by the comments and decided to have a chat about it. Our podcast was made available on Friday afternoon. Saturday evening, we noticed people tweeting about our discussion and then it just gained more and more traction.”
 
So there you go that’s how it started.
 
“I think it is good people are talking about the issues around the importance of language. I think it is key to acknowledge that we don’t always get it right. The hope is that the discussion will effect change in attitudes and the culture around footy to make it an inclusive space for all fans. We have spoken to Caroline Wilson; you can hear the discussion in episode 15 of The Outer Sanctum Podcast.”
 
So tell us about Outer Sanctum.
 
“For the last few years the six of us (Lucy, Felicity, Kate, Alicia and Nicole) have chatted constantly via text about football. We text during games and enjoy the footy chat. Alicia and Nicole edited a book called “From The Outer: Footy Like You’ve Never Heard It”, (Black Inc.) which was a collection of stories from footy fans you usually don’t hear from. Alicia and Nicole included some of our private chats in the book. To celebrate the launch of the book, we had a dinner during which someone suggested we should do a podcast. Two weeks later we recorded our first episode.”
 
Is it aptly named because that’s how you feel as women?
 
“I think it was more about the voices we wanted to speak to. We interview people each week who are doing amazing work in footy and who we rarely hear from. As fans we are always on the outer, but that’s not a bad thing.”
 
 With so few women represented on commentary teams, do you find that frustrating as a football loving female?
 
“We think the women who work in the media around the game do a great job. We also really like and admire a lot of the men who discuss footy too. We are advocates for diversity in all aspects of the game.”
 
With a female league starting in 2017 do you see an opportunity for more female commentators?
 
“I do, I think there has been a mentoring of some of the marquee women’s talent into commentary roles. It will be a great development in the landscape of the game.”
 
…or could there be an opportunity through Podcasting to create your own show, perhaps with AFL rights to broadcast games?
 
“I think podcasting lends itself to the stories around football beautifully. There are already a slate of great podcasts talking footy including; The Footy Gospel, This AFL Life, Like a Girl, Girls Play Footy, AFL Junktime.”
 
Just for the record the girls are all Hawthorn fans.


 
 Kim Napier (Saints Fan)

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