League girls loyal under heavy fire
By Josh Massoud | June 13, 2009 12:00am
Despite the fact that this year's most shocking off-field dramas have involved female victims, a new study has shown that support among women for the NRL is rivalling Aussie rules.
And it has somehow continued to rise in 2009 - defying Brett Stewart's sex assault charges, the Matthew Johns group sex scandal and this week's grubby allegations against ex-Sharks boss Tony Zappia from a former female staffer.
In a major boost for the NRL on the eve of its inaugural Women In League round, researcher Repucom has found that 40.9 per cent of league fans were women at the end of 2008. The two-in-five ratio is just 0.8 per cent less than the gender split recorded in AFL, long suspected to be the most female-friendly football code.
The national poll of 4000 sports fans was conducted by Lynne Anderson, wife of former Australian Test coach Chris Anderson. She admitted rugby league's continued appeal among women was surprising at the end of last season, let alone during the first quarter of 2009 when feminine interest soared another 2 per cent.
"I don't even know how to explain it myself," said Anderson, who polled people across Australia on their attitudes toward different sports. "All I can say is that support among females for rugby league has remained very strong since we started the surveys four years ago. There's definitely a misconception that the AFL is more female-friendly.
"And what's more, our first quarter results for this year have shown that support for women has risen another two percentage points - despite all the controversy."
NRL boss David Gallop interpreted the results as vindication for this weekend's Pink-tinted celebrations.
"It's a reminder that we need to continue to promote positive attitudes towards women because they represent such a critical part of our game's supporter base.
"I think from time to time people would suggest that (AFL is more female-friendly). But our own research shows there's only a very small level of difference. There's no doubt there's a number of women - and men - who lose interest when the game makes headlines for the wrong reasons. But they might not be dropping off at the rate that some people would suggest."
Anderson said specific questioning about the public's attitude towards player misbehaviour showed the fall-out generally centred upon the individual - not his club, code or sponsor.
She also pointed to findings that showed support for Sydney clubs had soared 10 per cent - despite gloomy headlines surrounding their demise because of poker machine taxes and smoking laws.
"The prevalence of talk-back on these issues has actually had a positive effect," she said. "It's made people more passionate."
