HANNAH Mouncey was knocked back from the AFLW because she is too big and too strong.
You wouldn’t have read that in
Tuesday’s official announcement from the AFLbecause they didn’t want to say it.
It’s got nothing to do with anything else.
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So, people wondering about a man becoming a woman and all the complications which go with that, just park your curiosity.
Mouncey’s physical attributes precluded her from playing semi-professional sport, which is
AFLW.
Her position as a transgender woman allows her to represent Australia at the Olympics because her testosterone levels are way below IOC guidelines and allowed her to play for Ainslie in Canberra in a non-professional capacity.
Hannah Mouncey has been excluded from the AFLW draft. Picture: Ray Strange
But it does not allow her to play AFLW.
Mouncey is 190cm and 100kg.
That puts her in the range of Cam Pedersen (193, 99) and Tom McDonald (194, 101), take a few centimetres.
It seems the women currently playing in the competition need protection from Mouncey.
While some of the women playing might voice concerns about her, the majority of women I’ve encountered have the same verve and competitiveness as the men and would treat Mouncey as just another big lump of an opponent.
Remember, there’s not a lot of fear in these women.
But the AFL believe otherwise.
They believe the current bunch of women are too meek, too mild and too soft to handle the might of Mouncey.
It’s rubbish. The women’s game needs more skill and precision, but it doesn’t lack for heart and aggression.
Look at Lily Mithen. She’s 159cm and competes like a demon.
A YES sign posted outside AFL House earlier this year.
Macca’s take on the AFL’s exclusion of Hannah Mouncey.
If elite football is open to women, and Mouncey is recognised as a woman, then women of all sizes and shapes should be allowed to play.
It’s the mantra for football from day one.
It’s why we had Tony Lockett and Tony Liberatore on the same field. Big Carl Ditterich and thin Robbie Flower. And last season, Shane Mumford and Caleb Daniel.
Football is partly about confronting fears and confronting — and avoiding — bigger opponents.
The AFL has its arguments, despite them not being clearly revealed.
The league thinks the current competition isn’t ready for Mouncey.
Next year it might be. The AFL banned Mouncey from this year’s draft, but will allow her to apply again next year, when, to use the words of the league, the “maturity of the AFLW competition (and) its current player cohort” presumably will be stronger.
The ruling has given Mouncey hope and you just can’t imagine the AFL slamming the door in her face for the second time.
Inclusion? Try exclusion.
The AFL should be disappointed in itself for ruling on Mouncey a day before the AFLW draft.
