AFLW star Nicola Barr has fired back in response to Australian media personality Steve Price’s claim that ‘high school boys games’ are better quality than her league.
The GWS Giants player slammed the criticism as ‘shattering’ and ‘infuriating’.
Price’s remarks in his Herald Sun article titled ‘Why female footy is substandard and doesn’t deserve focus or funding it gets from AFL', sparked controversy in response online.
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Barr, who was the number one overall pick in the AFLW’s inaugural draft, has been an integral part of the game.
Speaking on The Only Sports Show podcast, she offered up a brilliant response to Price’s column.
She said: “It’s shattering and disappointing, it’s just infuriating is probably the right word to read articles like that.
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“I’m in the competition, I know the competition is quite uneven at the moment.
“But the only way for us to get better, to grow as footballers and continue and learn to put on a really good performance is to invest in the game.
“The AFL knows that the only way for us to get better is to continue growing the game and that is by putting potentially more games on, increasing our pay, increasing the number of professional teams.”
Speaking on The Project, Price claimed he believed the AFLW had expanded to 18 teams too quickly and the quality of football had suffered as a result.
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However, Barr claims it allows more pathways for young girls to look toward the sport as an option for a professional career.
She continued: “And we can see the flow on effect of all of this and what it’s having on younger generations is massive.
“There are so many young girls playing AFLW now that weren’t before and that’s because they can see that there is a pathway for them and there’s a level for them to play at in professional teams.
“We can see that flow on effect and the development of AFLW is going to take a long time … we’ve seen it with women’s cricket and the level that they’re playing at now because of the investment that’s been put in.
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“The AFLW is going to get better and better every year. The flow on effect to younger girls and having more younger girls playing the sport means there’s more investment in the game and that builds long-term.”
Price had claimed the AFLW did not warrant the media exposure or support it received as the quality of football didn’t deserve it.
Topics: Australia, Australia Afl, Aussie Rules Football
