AFLW players will no longer have to wear the classic white away game shorts, in a move to help make players more comfortable on their periods. Ya (bloody) love to see it.
Instead of the white shorts, clubs will now have an extra set of coloured shorts which are different to their usual home uniform.
“Following extensive industry consultation, the removal of white shorts will address athlete in-competition performance anxieties and barriers to participation across all levels of womens’ and girls’ footy,” the league said in a memo seen by The Age.
“This initiative will take place across the AFLW competition, VFLW competition, AFLW U18 National Championships and any AFL-managed talent pathway activities from 2023 onwards.”
It’s actually a move we’ve seen across the sporting world — ya might remember Wimbledon ditching its all-white uniform policy ‘cos of the negative impacts on players who menstruate.
AFLW football manager Nicole Livingstone said she was “proud” of the decision, per 7News. She also thanked the players “for their leadership and passion”.
Livingstone brought up the “ripple-effect” the decision would have for community sports.
“We want to lead to remove any barriers that prevent women and girls participating in Australian football,” she said.
The change comes after a study by Victoria University which interviewed more than 300 girls aged 12 to 18 about sport uniforms.
It found a couple of interesting things — for example 90 per cent of respondents preferred wearing shorts in school sports and 94 per cent preferred them in outside-of-school sports.
Shorts! For! The! Win!
One respondent specifically said they’d prefer navy or black shorts as “it would make me less self-conscious when on my period”.
The move has also been welcome by AFLW players.
Richmond’s Gabby Seymour said though white shorts wouldn’t stop people from playing, it was nice to have “one extra stressor” removed, per The Age.
She added people would be “surprised” at how often the white shorts contribute to player anxiety.
“At almost every away game people are like, ‘Oh no, white shorts’, or, you know, ‘It’s my time of the month’ or, ‘I’m worried about wearing this’,” she said.
Frankly, white is a deeply impractical colour for sports, period or no period.
And I can’t think of many thing more stressful than playing actual professional sport while being worried about leaking.
