Tackling the sport of men

Throughout her 35-year career in sports journalism, Caroline Wilson has been a trail blazer for women sports journalists in Australia.

Ms Wilson has delivered Deakin University’s David Parkin Oration – attracting a full house at Deakin Edge in Federation Square on 21 July. She is the first woman to deliver the annual lecture, which was introduced in 2012, with the aim of highlighting the importance of sport as a driver of social change.

Caroline Wilson grew up immersed in football. Her father Ian Wilson was Richmond Football Club President throughout much of her childhood from 1974 to 1985.

She entered sports journalism as “an experiment,” when she became the first woman cadet in the old Melbourne “Herald’s” sports room. Now, there are many women sports journalists, including “Age” Sports Editor Chloe Salter.

In her early career, she wrote on every sport except boxing, moving into football after the men on the subs desk couldn’t believe that she “wrote a reasonably accurate summary of a game.” This was the beginning of her weekly football round.

Highlights of her career included writing about Greg Norman, Kathy Freeman, footballer Ken Hunter in the 1980s, being taken into the fold of Fleet Street sports journalists, accompanying a football tour of Ireland in 1984 and covering the “tanking affair” in 2009.

Referring to the notorious “ice pool” comments of Triple M commentators Eddie McGuire, James Brayshaw and Danny Frawley, Ms Wilson said that, while she saw harsh criticism as part of the job, “the Triple M guys broke the boundaries…  If I didn’t say anything, I thought I would be letting down all those who’ve been bullied.”

“Attitudes like those expressed on the ‘Footy Show’ are generally on the way out, though some people are dragging their feet,” she said.

Ms Wilson concluded the Oration by praising the different perspectives that women bring to sport. For instance, AFL commissioners Linda Dessau and Sam Mostyn had helped to stop doping charges against Essendon being diluted. The AFL could do more to break down barriers, perhaps appointing a woman as their next Chairman, she suggested.

“Women do see things differently. We cover football differently, we love football differently and we have changed things,” she said.

“I’ve always thought there was something magical about footy and the Tigers. I remember when I was a kid watching Disneyland with my brother on Sunday nights, dreaming about going to Adventure Land or Fantasy Land. Mum said we were luckier than the Americans because we could go to Tigerland.”

• Watch the 2016 Oration.