Nine Deaf To Afl's Most Powerful Women Over Footy Show Sex Code

The Age

Thursday May 1, 2008

Samantha Lane, Miki Perkins and Martin Blake

CHANNEL Nine has ignored a call from some of the AFL's most influential women for the cast of the The Footy Show to be counselled on their attitude to women by an expert from the Federal Anti-Discrimination Commission.

A letter to Nine boss David Gyngell and forwarded to AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou proposed a code of conduct regarding the portrayal of women on the football program.

This follows a stunt involving Sam Newman and a lingerie-clad mannequin that he dressed up as The Age's chief football writer Caroline Wilson.

After Gyngell disregarded the requests in his written response, the women signatories - who included directors from five AFL clubs - are considering escalating their complaint by taking it to Australia's broadcasting regular, the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Gyngell did not return calls from The Age yesterday and the women declined to release the letter of complaint. Signatories include long-serving Essendon director Beverly Knight, Western Bulldogs director Susan Alberti, Sydney Swans director Lynn Ralph, Melbourne director Sue Natrass, Hawthorn director Janine Allis, director of AFL Sportsready Marilyn Morgan and Gabrielle Trainor, who sits on the AFL's NSW-ACT commission.

In signing the letter, the women made it clear that they were complaining as individuals not as representatives of their football clubs.

"I would hope that Channel Nine would have a good look at themselves and realise that what they're showing on television is not right," Alberti told Fairfax Radio yesterday.

"If women are going to become involved in football, or AFL football for that matter, you just can't be doing that on television." The Age believes that the

AFL's two female commissioners, Sam Mostyn and Linda Dessau, a Family Court judge, were invited to sign the letter but declined, in part because of the potential that the issue come before the league's commission.

Demetriou has not responded officially to the letter, but has privately voiced his disgust with the segment in which Newman attached an image of Wilson - who also appears weekly on Channel Nine's Football Classified - to the head of the mannequin with a staple gun before proceeding to lift it by the crotch.

"I meant to take a satirical shot at Caroline Wilson, saying she said she looked a bit dowdy in her clothes ... so I thought we would help her by getting a designer label, like Collette Dinnigan ... maybe get a clothes sponsor," he said yesterday.

Nine subsequently apologised to Wilson. In addition, Footy Show co-host Garry Lyon, who also appears with Wilson on Footy Classified, made a public apology.

While it is understood Gyngell demonstrated in his response to the letter that he regarded the matter seriously, the women had made it clear that they would not be satisfied unless there was a seminar for the show's producers, camera crew and cast, and a code of conduct was introduced.

The Age believes that the association of North Melbourne president and broadcaster James Brayshaw with the skit has been raised with his club's chief executive Eugene A'Rocca. Brayshaw is a co-host of The Footy Show.

"He (A'Rocca) got the point instantly that it does nothing for clubs who are trying to foster membership among women and that it's very inconsistent with the approach the AFL's taken on all this sort of stuff," one source said yesterday.

Brayshaw declined to comment on the letter. "I know we're having a meeting tomorrow about how it's going to be handled (on The Footy Show) tomorrow night," he said.

Samantha Lane appears on Channel Ten's Before the Game

© 2008 The Age

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