Sport has long been a masculine domain. Even when women began to make inroads – as things slowly improved on the field and media coverage crept into the back pages of newspapers – men still held the positions of power.
The announcement this week that Laura Kane has been appointed the AFL’s executive general manager of football is a sign of the changing times. It is not a complete upheaval of the status quo, but it is enough of a disturbance to cause a ripple and remind people that women in sport are here to stay, on and off the field. Kane’s role is one of the most senior in the organisation – reporting directly to the new chief executive, Andrew Dillon, and overseeing competition management across all forms of the game, as well as responsibility for umpiring, game analysis, player movement, talent pathways and wellbeing.
It comes at a landmark time for women’s sport. After the month-long celebration that was the Women’s World Cup, where the inescapable fact that people want to watch women’s sport was driven home almost beyond belief, Australia now enters an important period where it must build on the momentum. With the NRLW under way, the AFLW about to start and the WBBL entering a new era with an international draft and games at the biggest stadiums, this is a crucial time for consolidation.
Simply replacing men with women will not solve all of Australian sport’s woes, but having people from diverse backgrounds in leadership roles will naturally change the conversations happening in the halls of power. More perspectives that better reflect the diversity of Australia’s population is a simple place to start to ensure better representation and understanding across all levels of sport.
Kane has been acting in the role since May, having stepped up from the general manager competition management role after Brad Scott’s departure. She graduated from a law degree in 2012 and worked as a solicitor for two years, representing victims in the royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse, before making the jump over to football administration. Her experience in football operations at North Melbourne provided the perfect platform to step up to a role at AFL House in 2021 and she has continued her extraordinary rise from there, moving into this senior executive role while still in her early 30s.
Kane is approaching the role from a strategic direction and has laid out a number of priorities to elevate the women’s game. “From an AFLW perspective, I’m focused on increasing scoring and having the ball move up and down the ground a little bit quicker,” she said after her appointment was announced. “But then also looking at technology, innovation – things like ball-tracking technology. How can we officiate the game better? How can we understand more about our game? If it’s ball speed or congestion – when the game’s happening in real time, what can be automated?”
Considering Kane’s first role in football was managing women’s football and talent pathways, she brings strong experience and an understanding of how to deliver on these priorities. At this critical juncture for women’s sport, having someone in this role with a strong focus on taking AFLW to the next level will go a long way towards the sport keeping pace with the momentum of women’s sport as a whole.
Kane has also identified the need to focus on fans, which is timely. The increasing options sports fans are provided with means there is a need to ensure fans feel appreciated and part of their sport or else they may explore greener pastures somewhere else.
“I want to be more accessible to the fans … to help them understand where it’s at, where it’s going and take everyone on the journey with us,” Kane said. These will be welcome words for fans of the women’s game, who have long asked for the opportunity to understand more about the future direction of the AFLW as it inches towards full professionalism.
Kane’s performance in the role thus far has earned plaudits from AFL leadership, and she now has the opportunity to make it her own. Her appointment is by no means the final piece of the puzzle for gender equality in sport, but it’s nonetheless an important one and provides Kane with the opportunity to pave the way for others.
