Women’s game in danger of scoring
Everyone involved in SWPL needs to get on board in promoting sport to prevent falling further behind
HOW the SWPL could do with another photo finish. And, with nine games to go, it looks as though they might well get it. For much of this season Rangers have been the team to beat as they have set the pace and tone in the league. But last weekend’s defeat to Celtic scorched any idea that they will stroll their way to reclaiming a title that was lost last season on the final day of an exceptional campaign.
Rose Reilly was in attendance on Sunday afternoon as Elena Sadiku claimed her first statement win as Celtic manager. As charismatic as ever, Reilly looked as though she was still kicking every ball, particularly in the fraught final moments as Rangers pushed for an added-time leveller as they forced a series of corners.
An ambassador now for Celtic, the team she loved but could never have dreamed of playing for, Reilly has had a front-row seat as the game has slowly, slowly edged to a professional landscape. It has a distance to go but there are a generation of youngsters who will never have to cut their hair short to sneak into an-all boys’ team or are unable to dream of making a living from football.
But if last season’s finale put the women’s game on the map in a way that it had never been before with back-page stories and leading news bulletins profiling the drama, it has been tough to sustain the same level of interest.
A similarly intriguing conclusion in May will ramp up the noise around the women’s game again and it should be welcomed.
But the long-term challenge for all involved is in how to maintain interest and push growth.
To that end, there needs to be a conversation about how the game promotes itself. And at times, the women’s game is guilty of shooting itself in the foot.
Media opportunities are scorned, platforms overlooked and with it the chance to reveal personalities within the game, while stories that would resonate and endear supporters to players fall by the wayside.
So much of growing the game comes down to introducing players, managers and their backgrounds to a wider audience. Where are the Rose Reilly stories now?
Without the same exposure that is automatic at the top level of the men’s game, it is necessary to publicise who the players are and what makes them tick. It generates an interest, it encourages people out to games, it takes players into living rooms and makes them part of the footballing landscape rather than an unknown entity.
There are so many stories of succeeding against the odds and colourful tales of resolve and hard graft that go untold.
The media has a significant role in enabling an increased profile of the women’s game but, equally, the footballers and clubs have to play their part. That means speaking at times when it isn’t easy to do so; post-match interviews after defeats can come at times when players and managers are emotional and raw, but they are fundamentally part of a professional game.
Every top-flight club in Scotland outwith Celtic and Rangers in the
men’s game could discuss at length the challenges in attracting supporters into grounds, keeping them in grounds, getting themselves on to back pages and sustaining a depth of interest via media channels.
In-house club media platforms have their place and have been utilised within the women’s game, but ultimately in an effort to open the door to the game and push it properly into popular culture there has to be an embracing of media that has yet to be fully realised.
Putting up players and a manager for interviews can’t only come on the back of cup finals or final day dramatic moments. It can’t only be when the garden is all rosy.
At times there appears to be begrudging access and a perception that there is a crossing into enemy lines with media dealings. Fundamentally, there has to be a shift in approach if the game wishes to replicate the growth there has been across Europe over the last decade.
AND ANOTHER THING
SCOTLAND starlet Emma Watson recently spoke on the Scotland NT podcast about an ultimate ambition to win the Ballon d’Or. That may be an audacious goal but it is to be applauded.
The teenager is well on track to establishing herself after moving to Manchester United from Rangers last summer. It says much about the trajectory of her career that she was badly missed by Scotland across their Nations League campaign as she recuperates from an ACL injury.
Watson also has an ideal role model for her lofty aspirations in Caroline Weir. As both continue the long rehabilitation process, Weir epitomises the levels that can be reached.
AND FINALLY
CELTIC PARK will host two SWPL games in the closing weeks of the season. Last season the SWPL attendance record was broken three times with Celtic attracting a crowd of 15,822 for the final league game of the season against Hearts.
It would be interesting to see if a similarly tight title race encourages similar numbers to back the women’s team as they look to claim a title for the first time.