Just who are the vocal supporter’s for the South Melbourne Women’s team that we hear on the streams and through the photos being shared around? I have the opportunity to introduce them to the football communities to catch a glimpse of their personalities and their reasoning behind their actions
It is important to know that football in itself has demonstrated in playing ‘an important role in collective identification, place representation and in connecting people and groups to place” (Wagner and Schobe 2017). The power of this sport stems in part from its ‘global ubiquity and its ritualised character’ Where it provides opportunities to create a life long connection and attachment to a place (Wagner & Schobe) and forming collective identities, cultural meanings and principle values that fans form and create within the stands of the club they are attached to. By the same token, “Supporters’ behaviour and culture exhibit their own uniqueness or characteristics that have evolved and developed for many years within a specific cultural context” ( Lee & Han 2012).
Round 24
South Melbourne vs Geelong Galaxy
03.08.2019
What has drawn my interest to interview Bill and Ken, and I’m sure it had raised eyebrows across the stands and on social media societies, is the fact that perhaps these two are the sole representative of the vocal fanatics of a women’s team. Yes, they attend South Melbourne Men’s games and sit with Clarendon Corner (their active group) but they took that extra step to commit to attending almost every women’s home and away fixture, that neither club within the league have such fans, and may be envy of.
The more I covered photography of the club’s women’s team and hung out with Bill and Ken, the more I got to gain an understanding of the attraction it holds to support them but also understanding the financial and exposure struggles this specific gender has, a hurdle that may seem almost impossible to overcome, as where the men’s side have been well established in the global economic market for over a century.
It does not help the fact that there have been monumental blunders of micro-management choices and marketing that created a rather distaste or negative stigma of the quality of women’s football. Take for example Germany’s footballing association who opted for a controversial slogan to promote the women’s game “Third places are only for men”. This is in reference to the men’s German international team that finished third in the 2010 World Cup and disregarding it as an inferior level of achievement (Lee, Branch & Silva 2017) and the fact that it’s certain the women’s can do one better. Ironically they were sent packing early in their world cup in 2011. ( Meier, Konjer & Leinwather 2016)
It does not also help the fact that Australian women’s teams have friendlies with under 15 boys [and lose] and have this reported in mainstream media. Ken himself quoted Serena Williams that either gender category have their own way of expression through sport. Any sort of politicising or continual sensationalist headline bickering from inter-gender fixtures, can create this disillusionment and attitudinal development of inferiority towards either gender in the public eye.
06.04.2019
Support of the women’s game in Australia is in its own fledgling stage. In fact all over the world besides North America. It is a challenge for clubs to generate more interest and attendances to their games, but one can argue that these two are pioneering the fanatic support and level of commitment that no one had witnessed across Australia within the women’s league. It is the mentality and realisation that Bill wishes to address to others, that if you call yourself a supporter of the club, why not go and support the women’s? they too fall under the same umbrella and wear the same badge on the shirt. It takes two to tango in order to produce growth in the women’s game. If there is enough attraction at club level, then other parties will invest into the women’s department.
Case in point: “NWSL had a national broadcast agreement with ESPN to air nine NWSL matches on either ESPN2 or ESPN 3 in 2014, which provided a necessary platform to expose games…available to more than 92 million households…but also provided the needed exposure to the league, which is critical to build fan loyalty.” (Lee, Dallas & Silva 2017)
30.06.2019
No Pyro, No Party [?…]
All images provided are of my own and can be found within my South Melbourne Photo Blog Archives : https://smfcbehindthelens.blogspot.com
References
Lee, S & Han, K 2012, ‘Understanding soccer team supporters’ behavior and culture in a globalized society from social learning theory’, Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education
Lee, C, Branch, D & Silva, F 2017, ‘Examining Women’s Soccer Spectators on Game Attributes and Loyalty’, Journal of Contemporary Athletics, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 97–109.
Meier, HE, Konjer, M & Leinwather, M 2016, ‘The demand for women’s league soccer in Germany’, European Sport Management Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–19.
Wagner, JH & Shobe, H 2017, ‘Identity, scale and soccer supporter groups: the case of the Timbers Army’, Sport in Society
Behind The Lens - LMR 