Australian Rules Football

This thesis is a theoretical analysis of the importance of the play element in developing communities and culture, using the Australian Football League (AFL) as my case study.  Using the historical observations of Johan Huizinga and combining them with Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of fields and capital, a theoretical framework has been created to illuminate the importance of play in creating communities.  By developing this theory and applying it to the AFL, this analysis highlights how the media and economic fields have transformed ‘play’ into ‘display’, which has changed the way AFL supporters relate to the game and subsequently weakened the AFL community.

Feminist sports histories have sought to give voice to the experiences and subjectivities of female athletes and increasingly of female sports fans. Yet the passions of female sports fans have been neglected. This paper traces the affects and subjectivities of female followers of Australian Rules football by way of indepth interviews along with the writings of, and about, female fans. More specifically, it contrasts the relatively inclusive passions fostered by the spectator culture of Australian Rules football with the gendered limits around the possible dreams this sport provokes, before turning to the supposedly “feminine” fantasies of female fans, and concluding with a coda on the problematic intersections of football and sex. Writing the passions of female sports fans into feminist histories of sport allows for a richer understanding of the layered historical interplay of gender and sexuality with the intriguing pleasures and power at the center of popular sporting cultures.

The people of Melbourne are renowned for their ‘football fever’, yet this fever is under-studied. This paper addresses this fever by exploring the loves, suffering, and strange identifications of Australian Football League fans. Building on and complicating Freud's theories of group psychology, I argue that love, or rather two loves, are at the heart of the experience of being a fan. Fans love their club in a manner that incorporates the club into their sense of self, with the club becoming an ideal that is to be served. This love facilitates a particular form of identification where fans experience the club's trials, tribulations and triumphs, as if they too were being subjected to them. Moreover, in identifying with their club through love, the fan also takes on a second love, that of the club's object of desire, the elusive premiership. This is the love of the conquest and pursuit, a love that entails pain and suffering.

At present, there has been little attention given to exploring the cognitive processes of athletes in Australian Rules football during self-paced tasks such as the set shot goal kick attempt. Therefore, this study used a Think Aloud (TA) protocol analysis to explore the cognitions of Junior and Adult footballers undertaking the performance of a set shot goal kicking attempt in naturalistic conditions. This involved 64 male Australian Rules footballers, comprising 37 elite-level senior (adult) players (M age = 23.3 years) and 27 elite-level junior (M age = 14.6 years) players. Player's verbalisations were recorded during each performance of the goal kicking task, transcribed verbatim, and deductively and inductively analysed. The analyses revealed that planning, gathering information and description of outcome were the main three verbalised themes overall among junior and adult footballers. The analyses also indicated that as task difficulty increases, athlete cognitions relating to self-doubt increases and pre-performance routines decreases. In contrast to Adults, our results indicate that Junior footballers gather more information when undertaking close range set shot goal kicking attempts and also verbalise more diagnostic outcomes and comments relating to self-doubt when undertaking long range set shot goal kicking attempts. Adult footballers were also found to verbalise more reactive comments across all kick distances and verbalise more thoughts relating to mental readiness and pre-performance routine from close range compared long range distances. These findings have implications for the acquisition of skill in sport and draw on key perspectives from Dynamic Systems Theory to advance understanding of the cognitive processes underpinning set shot goal kicking performance in Australian Rules football.

This article examines the continued presence of racial folklore and the reproduction of dominant racial ideologies as presented by the media and fan interactions. The case of Israel (Izzy) Folau's time at the Greater Western Sydney Giants Australian football club is presented, utilising an analysis of the club's email communications, media coverage and discussions by sports fans on online message boards. The analysis identifies the significance of the player's racialised body in constructions of masculinity and the extent to which it plays a role in the acceptance (or not) of an athlete. The article concludes that the narratives that are constructed around athletes are fluid and often change over time or in response to sporting performances or other external influences such as a change of team.

The absence of a recognised standard for soft-skinned headgear that is designed to attenuate concussive level impacts is a significant deficiency within Australian rugby and is of major concern.
This is of particular concern in junior rugby where young children are being exposed to head impacts that can cause permanent brain damage.
The Australian Rugby Union should re-evaluate the headgear design within IRB Regulations to allow for improved performance for headgear worn by children playing junior rugby.
Risks taken by the junior rugby players is something that needs to be addressed through reconsideration of design attributes in protective equipment, rather than intervening after the traumatic event has occurred such as field monitoring.

In 1990, the Victorian Football League (VFL) became the Australian Football League (AFL) in a symbolic gesture to mark its continuing, although fragmented, national expansion. This com- mercially strategic move solidified the League’s enduring transi- tion from a parochial competition of Melbourne and its suburbia to a clinically managed franchise business with a nationwide reach and an under-surface global ambition. In this paper, the continual yet not strictly linear development of the League is positioned as an interaction and, at times, a tension between locality and globality, from which to reflect on the stories of Billy and Steph – two AFL followers separated by a generation and dif- fering life experiences. The paper chronologizes neither the VFL/ AFL transition nor the two narratives but instead juxtaposes memories and present-day football encounters of the two fans, illuminating creative personal engagements with the League’s perpetually in-flux structures and offering insights into intimate meanings and utilities of community, belonging, and commodity within the AFL spectatorship culture.

The real or imagined connections between Indigenous ballgames, especially marngrook, and the sport that evolved into Australian Rules football, remain as contested as ever. We propose to step back from this debate and to re-frame the problem quite differently. The Deleuze and Guattari post-structuralist understanding of the relationship between colonising and colonised peoples provides a convincing meta-narrative of the situation in nineteenth-century south-eastern Australia. Particularly useful are their smooth/striated distinction, their concept of deterritorialisation/reterritorialisation, the nomad ‘war machine’, and their state of ‘becomings-animal/spiritual’. Together, these four crucial conceptualisations illuminate the relationship between settler culture and post-invasion Indigenous culture. Australian football thus arguably emerges as a product of this frontier zone.

This paper traces the emergence of an Anti-Football League in Melbourne in the late 1960s. In so doing it charts the way the extremely rapid transformation of Melbourne in the 1850s from a frontier town to a major metropolis set the scene for the emergence of a new form of football whose ensuing popularity was all the more noteworthy for the way it transcended (at least partially) traditional barriers of class and gender. The result was that all of Melbourne's inhabitants were presumed to share the general fascination with Australian Rules football. Yet while this may have made Australian Rules the envy of many other sporting codes, it caused significant suffering for those who did not share the fascination with football. At issue were problems of inclusion and community, but not as they have generally been examined in studies of sport history. For the members of the Anti-Football League did not want to be included in all the talk and community rituals surrounding Australian Rules football in Melbourne. However once founded, the anti-football group developed an uncanny resemblance to the community of football followers who had caused it such pain, finding joy in inverting the calendar and rituals of Australian Rules football and the (somewhat) mock battle between ‘us’ and ‘them’ that ensued.

In this Perspective we explore the evolution of our understanding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and its relationship with repetitive head injury. As with many neurodegenerative conditions, there is an imperfect correspondence between neuropathology and clinical phenotype, but unlike other neurodegenerative diseases, CTE has a discrete and easily modifiable risk factor: exposure to repetitive head injury. Consequently, evaluation of the evidence regarding exposure to repetitive head injury and CTE risk should be undertaken using public or occupational health frameworks of medical knowledge. The current debate over the existence of CTE as a disease of concern is fuelled in part by immediate medico-legal considerations, and the involvement of high-profile athletes, with inevitable media interest. Moving beyond this debate has significant potential to address and reduce disease impact in the near future, and provide novel insights into mechanisms underlying abnormal protein accumulation in CTE and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Background
Management of concussion remains a serious issue for professional sports, particularly with the growing knowledge on the consequences of repetitive concussion. One primary concern is the subjective assessment of recovery that dictates the time until a concussed athlete is returned to competition. In response to this concern, the Australian Football League (AFL) changed its policy in 2020 such that medical clearance for return-to-competition was extended from one day, to a minimum of five days, prior to the next scheduled match.
Objective
We sought to explore the impact of the AFL policy change by asking whether time to returnto-
competition after concussion was increased in the 2020 season relative to previous years.
Methods
Retrospective data on injury and return-to-competition were sourced from publicly available tables published by the AFL. Our primary exploration compared the number of matches missed and the number of days missed in concussed players across 2017 to 2020 inclusive, with secondary exploration analysing the proportion of players returning to play 12 days or longer.
Results
Analysis of data from 166 concussed players revealed no increase in the number of matches missed in 2020 relative to previous years as would have been expected from an extended recovery protocol. Comparing 2020 relative to 2017-19 we found that there was an overall moderate reduction in median time to return-to-competition (RTC) in 2020 (10 vs 13 days, respectively d=-0.345)) and a significant reduction in players taking more than 12 days to RTC (p=0.046).
Conclusion
This exploratory study demonstrates that clubs may not have followed policy change around concussion management designed to increase time to RTC. Ongoing auditing is required to ensure player clearance meets policy goals, highlighting the need for objective measures for RTC after concussion.

Key Points:
• In 2020, the Australian Football League (AFL) changed their concussion management policy to increase the time between when a player could be medically cleared prior to their next competitive match to five days. This should extend the number of days between concussion and return-to-competition to a minimum of 12 days.
• Using publicly available data, this study reports on the average number of matches missed and the number of day’s missed between a player’s reported concussion and their first competitive match.
• Comparison of matches and days missed between 2017-2019 (old policy) and 2020 (new policy) demonstrated that clubs weren't following the policy as carefully as they should. The data shows that players were rested for shorter periods in 2020.

No industry has influenced the transformation of the Australian Football League (AFL) into a professional, commercial business more than the media. Today, the AFL players are paid more than ever and are used as marketing tools to promote and sell the game, often to new fans in new markets of Australia - namely New South Wales and Queensland - who haven’t traditionally played Australian Football, preferring the rugby codes instead. But perhaps the biggest change in the AFL is that the play element is now used as function of business. Put simply, winning leads to more money. As such, the play element is now manipulated more than ever. The game has more coaches implementing more tactics, strategies, game plans and set plays than ever before. These changes can be linked back to the media’s influence on the game. This paper utilises the combined observations and theories of Johan Huizinga and Pierre Bourdieu to create a theoretical lens through which we can understand the media’s growing influence in sport and its impact on play’s transformation. The theory will then be expounded through an extensive analysis of the media’s influence in the AFL, particularly its play element. This analysis will be supported with insights and views from AFL fans, members, commentators and theorists.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an isometric neck strengthening program to improve isometric neck strength in elite women's football-code athletes.
Design: Randomised controlled trial.
Method: Elite female soccer (n = 10) and Australian football (n = 30) players were randomised into either a control (n = 20) or experimental (n = 20) group for a 12-week intervention study during their respective seasons. While both groups undertook their prescribed strength and conditioning programs, the experimental group also performed isometric neck strengthening exercises three times per week prior to training. Isometric neck strength of the extensors, flexors, lateral flexors, and rotators were assessed pre, mid (Week 7), and post (Week 13) intervention with a hand-held dynamometer during early to mid-competition season. A mixed design analysis of variance was performed for statistical analysis.
Results: No significant group-by-time interactions in isometric neck strength were observed. All strength variables displayed a significant change over time throughout the 12-week period (p < 0.05). No significant between group differences in isometric neck strength variables were observed except for lateral left flexion (F(1, 38) =5.064, p = 0.030, η2p = 0.117).
Conclusion: The addition of isometric neck strengthening exercises did not improve neck strength beyond a standard strength and conditioning program for elite women's football-code athletes. While this specific program may not improve neck strength in elite women's football-code athletes, further investigation is needed to determine whether sport-specific neck strength exercises may improve neck strength or if lower-level competition athletes may still benefit from an isometric neck strengthening program.

Play in the Australian Football League (AFL) is not what it was. At the game's founding Australian Football was exactly what the AFL's Latin motto tells us it is today – 'the game of the people, for the people.' In its formative years it was played and watched by Australians who loved the game because they understood the way the game was played. It was made by them, in the image of their community. However, in the age of commercialisation and professionalism, play in the AFL has changed. The AFL is now a big business. Play is less spontaneous and more structured. It is now more organised and measured. Footy Grounds to Grandstands examines the important link between play in the AFL and its communities and explores how play and community have changed as the AFL has transformed into a multi-billion dollar business. To do this, Footy Grounds to Grandstands draws on the ideas of theorists and scholars as well as the insights and reactions of the people who matter most – the fans.

In this article I apply Armstrong's anthropological approach to soccer hooliganism studies to our 20-member West Perth unofficial cheer squad (hard-core supporter group) of 1984-86 (Australian Rules football's WAFL competition). I find that the anthropological approach is able to explain many aspects of our cheer squad's culture and members' behaviours including the quick disintegration of the cheer squad early in the 1986 season without anyone officially ending it. Theoretically Marsh's definition of "aggro" as "the illusion of violence" seems to almost perfectly describe and explain the tough posturing but generally peaceable behaviour of our West Perth cheer squad. It also well explains our group members' partly subconsciously adopted submissive attitude towards the Swan Districts' supporters at Bassendean Oval in 1985 and their response to that submission (and their team's win) which was to quietly walk away, their job done. They enforced the total authority of Swan Districts' fans over every square-centimetre of Bassendean Oval without a punch being thrown.

Modern spectator sports provoke intense bodily passions in fans as well as athletes yet the embodied emotions of sports fans are understudied. This paper explores the frustrations of Australian Rules football supporters. Drawing on psychoanalysis and religious studies it traces the expressions and possible causes of their frustration by mining material from a set of interviews with fans along with the comments of
Australian Rules football followers in books, articles and internet forums. An underlying question is how the frustrations of these football supporters might reveal something of the intersections of emotion, bodies and sport that spectator sports provoke.

BACKGROUND: Australian football is a popular sport in Australia, at both the community and elite levels. It is a high-speed contact sport with a higher incidence of medically treated injuries when compared with most other organized sports. Hamstring injuries, ligament injuries to the knee or ankle, hip/groin injuries and tendinopathies are particularly common and often result in considerable time lost from sport. Consequently, the prevention of lower limb injuries is a priority for both community and elite Australian football organizations. There is considerable literature available on exercise programmes aimed at reducing lower limb injuries in Australian football and other running-related sports. The quality and outcomes of these studies have varied considerably, but indicate that exercise protocols may be an effective means of preventing lower limb injuries. Despite this, there has been limited high-quality and systematic evaluation of these data. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this liter...

This study of a schoolgirl Australian Rules football team uses life-history research to provide unusual insights into the gendered embodiment of female footballers. Focusing on the familial relations of players, the article looks at sport in the wider context of gender, showing complexities often overlooked. While documenting different patterns of female embodiment, the study examines whether the provision of full-contact sports is “schooling the bodies” of these young women in alternative forms of embodiment to those described by Young (1998) in “Throwing Like a Girl.” Specifically, this article addresses why the girls play football, whether they are consciously resisting male domination, whether playing football teaches them a different gendered embodiment, and how the girls deal with gender contradictions that arise from playing football.

The football WAG is fast becoming an iconic figure in Australian culture and a crucial part of Australian football branding. The commodification of the 'WAG' benefits the Australian Football League (AFL) as a business and bolsters the masculinity of players because the 'WAG' fits within the narrow narratives about gender that are reproduced within football culture. Despite the increasing visibility of 'WAGs', academic scholarship has been slow to address their presence and influence, representing a significant gap in research on Australian sporting culture. This paper investigates how the AFL 'WAG' is represented in Australian news media and utilises the popular Brownlow Medal Award ceremony as a case study for thematic analysis. The research concludes that the 'WAG' is represented as a 'trophy wife' and that this representation functions to reinforce the dominant masculinity of her male partner. These findings are nested within academic research on sport and sexual assault and are framed by feminist theory.

Authenticity plays a central role in the construction of invisibility. Framed within the colonial mindset, the ‘authentic Aborigine’ narrative deems Indigenous Victorians as invisible within mainstream Australian society. This article presents the argument that Indigenous football players residing in Victoria function as invisible and are therefore not ‘seen’ as contenders for recruitment into the Australian Football League.

Contemporary sports fandom expressions are plural, diverse, fluid and mobile. Despite this supposition becoming increasingly more common, sport fandom scholarship, which rests on the periphery of fan studies, remains stuck in theoretical and definitional silos, where binaries and simplistic taxonomies are all too common. To redress this disjunction and explore sports fandom in its fluidity and diversity, the paper delves into personal experiences and meanings through six detailed individual fan narratives, constructed through multiple in-depth interviews and in an active participant-researcher collaboration. The six stories unfold in the city of Melbourne and form a rich and complex picture of diverse ways to engage in (and to be a fan of) spectator sports in the place renowned for its facilities and its collective passion for sport. The close geographical, political and cultural proximity places the narratives of Australian rules, cricket and association football fans in conversation (and at times in conflict) with one another, capturing spectator sport in transitional and perplexing predicament and sports fandom as multiple, plural and often arbitrary. The volatility and richness of personal experiences and expressions invite to tackle questions of belonging, motivation and identification with nuance and integrity and, in turn, explore sport fandom not as an end in itself but as one of the many exercises of conformity, connection and creativity.

This study investigated corticomotor excitability and inhibition, cognitive functioning and fine motor dexterity in retired elite and amateur Australian football (AF) players, who had sustained concussions during their playing careers. Forty male AF players who played at the elite level (n=20; mean age 49.7 ± 5.7 years) or amateur level (n=20; mean age 48.4 ± 6.9 years), and had sustained on average 3.2 concussions 21.9 years previously, were compared to 20 healthy age-matched male controls (mean age 47.56 ± 6.85 years). All participants completed assessments of fine dexterity, visuomotor reaction time, spatial working memory (SWM) and associative learning (AL). Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to measure corticospinal excitability: stimulus-response (SR) curves and motor evoked potential (MEP) 125% of active motor threshold (aMT); and intracortical inhibition: cortical silent period (cSP), short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and long interval intracortical inhibition (LICI). Healthy participants performed better in dexterity (p = 0.003), reaction (p = 0.003) and movement time (p = 0.037) compared to both AF groups. Differences between AF groups were found in AL (p = 0.027) and SWM (P=0.024). TMS measures revealed both AF groups showed reduced cSP duration at 125% aMT (p > 0.001) and differences in SR curves (p > 0.001), compared to healthy controls. Similarly, SICI (p = 0.012) and LICI (p = 0.009) were reduced in both AF groups compared to controls. Regression analyses revealed a significant contribution to differences in motor outcomes with the three measures of intracortical inhibition. The measures of inhibition differed, however, in terms of which performance measure with which they had significant and unique predictive relationship reflecting the variety of participant concussion injuries. This study is the first to demonstrate differences in motor control and intracortical inhibition, in AF players who have sustained concussions during their playing career two decades previously.

Women have wanted to play Australian Rules football throughout the game’s history, yet given it ritually celebrates male superiority, few have actually played the game. This paper looks at the socio-historical circumstances leading to the eventual establishment of a women’s league, based on media coverage and interviews with current and former members. By focusing on their association with two men’s football organizations – one that helped them get started, and the other that allowed them to use their men’s clubs as home bases for their women’s teams – it also explores the extent to which playing a male-dominated game means having to play on male-defined terms.

ABSTRACT In Australian culture, males dominate sports such as football, cricket and Australian Rules Football. Girls and women in such sports are frequently required to negotiate persistent gender constructs and stereotypes. Despite this, in recent years there has been an increase in girls’ participation in sports that are constructed as masculine. The present study investigated adolescent girls’ experiences (N = 34, aged 13–17 years) in three sports that are traditionally constructed as masculine in Australia; football, cricket, and Australian Rules Football. Through a sociological gendered lens, results from narrative inquiry indicated that adolescent girls are required to navigate gender constructs and sexuality stereotypes. Numerous inequities between girls and boys exist and are challenging to negotiate. The present findings suggest that social connectedness, mentors and same-sex role models assist girls to navigate their sport involvement. These findings provide a sound basis for future research to explore practical solutions to keep girls engaged in such sports.

It is one of Australia’s most iconic images. On 17 April 1993, the Indigenous AFL footballer Nicky Winmar stood up against racial abuse and made history. Facing the Collingwood crowd that had taunted him all day the St Kilda player pulled up his shirt, pointed to his chest and declared: ‘I’m black and I’m proud to be black’. Published the next day, the photos of Winmar’s gesture sparked an intense debate that forced the AFL, the fans and the nation to confront their prejudices head-on. Black and Proud takes us behind the searing image to the stories of those who made it happen – the Indigenous team-mates Nicky Winmar and Gilbert McAdam and the two photographers, Wayne Ludbey and John Feder. Bound by a love of the game, the four were brought together by acts of courage and vilification that show how far we have come and just how far we have to go.

The focus of this conference report is the inaugural Oceania Performance Analysis Symposium, held in Auckland
in December 2017. Performance Analysis (PA) is a field of sport science which focuses on providing an objective
way of recording performance so that key elements of performance can be quantified in a valid and consistent
manner. While PA is a relatively new discipline of sport science, the field has grown rapidly in the past 20 years.
ISPAS Oceania – the organising body behind the conference – is a subcommittee of *The International Society of
Performance Analysis in Sport (ISPAS). ISPAS, and its predecessor the International Society of Notational Analysis of Sport (ISNAS, founded 1991). The symposium featured a number of original research contributions in the form of featured speakers and peerreviewed
presentations. Dr Kirsten Spencer (senior lecturer at AUT) opened the symposium by discussing her
research on netball. ‘FutureFern to Fast5’ is a research project she has conducted with Sophie Wolf for NZ Netball.
This explores the impact of small-sided games (6v6) on game-specific factors such as player decision-making, gamespecific
learning, whistle stoppage, shooting opportunities and psychological factors such as player engagement and
intrinsic motivation. These elements are contextualised around four main themes, described as fast, change, focus
and motivation. The findings of this project underline the relevance of a constraint-led perspective for developing
young netball players and the role of performance analysis as a data collection tool in applied research projects.Dr Sam Robertson is an associate professor at Victoria University and head of Research & Innovation at Western
Bulldogs AFL. He presented on the role of performance analysis in developing and delivering a successful culture
within AFL, including improving decision-making and answering complex problems. He shared innovative examples
of analysis work conducted with the Bulldogs, including player coupling, predicting ball and player movement, and
attempts to define and measure pressure. He also spoke of the ongoing resistance to PA within sport, generated
in part by inconsistent application and poor integration, lack of awareness and the need for continual reflection and
innovation.
In a paper entitled “What Information is used by Coaches when Making Decisions During a Match?,” Hayden Croft
(principal lecturer at Otago Polytechnic) presented his research exploring coaches’ use of performance analysis in
rugby and netball. The aim of this project was to use qualitative methods (e.g., content analysis of rugby and netball
coaches’ audio during matches) to capture and analyse coaches’ communication during competition. The aim was to
provide a framework which practitioners can use to design coach-driven PA systems. His findings – broken down
into tactical, technical, physical and psychological themes – also provide an insight into coaches’ communication
under pressure, including the use of robust language and emotional responses.
The day concluded with a series of presentations by experienced practitioners. Feature speakers included Jamie
Tout (VX Sports) who spoke about the traps of sports analysis in his presentation “Don’t be Baffled by the Bullsxxt.”
All Blacks analyst and Blues rugby coach, Alistair Rogers, presented reflections on his career and use of analysis in
“Performance Analysis, A Game Changer? Absolutely!” while HPSNZ analysts Stafford Murray and Deborah Sides
discussed the journey undergone by the PA service within The English Institute of Sport. They presented several
case studies from UK elite sport and concluded that PA should be driven by gaps in performance rather than
technology, and emphasised the importance of an analyst’s interpersonal (soft) skills.

The Australian Football League (AFL) is Australia's winter game, and one of the most popular sports in the country. While sport still isn't always treated with the same reverence as other forms of popular culture such as music and film, this case study into the coverage of AFL highlights the implications such research has for understanding political economy, cultural studies, globalisation and intellectual property .

Footy Passions is a 'footy book', but it is different from most. Instead of focusing on certain players, clubs or matches, it looks closely at some devoted supporters of AFL clubs. It explores their passion for their team. It enters the personal world of keen supporters and examines the significance they attach to the fate and fortunes of their club. It looks at the ways in which devoted supporters use their attachment to a club to express aspects of their own personality and their relations with family and friends. It reveals a new way of thinking about the passions that are aroused at the start of each new season and that accompany the devoted supporter throughout a season and, eventually, a lifetime. The stories we report and analyse reveal the range, intensity and intricacy of these footy passions. We have learned that the ways in which supporters talk about their team also tells us a lot about them. It reveals an intricate connection between the supporter's personal life and the meaning and significance they attach to the fate and fortunes of their team.

Female gender expression is still an under researched area, and heterosexual female gender expressions have received even less attention. My research investigates the different ways in which heterosexual women express their gender. Five focus groups were conducted with women from various communities of practice. This paper presents part of my findings about non-dominant gender expressions for cis heterosexual women, focusing on the women from one focus group. A key argument in my paper is that gender maneuvering was limited in its ability to create new gender relations for female Australian Rules Football players. An interesting finding was that while the women created the subject position of the ‘footy player’ which allowed for greater freedom in how they expressed their gender, this was restricted to the field. Alternative femininities were not able to develop, and thus the ‘footy player’ becomes a pariah femininity, rife with stigma and contaminating of the hierarchal gender relations by challenging male power and dominance. Despite this, there is a shift in the gender relations within female gender expressions. These findings have implications for theorizing gender relations, both between genders and within them.