One of my pet peeves about people talking about sport - both in the media and among regular folks - is when they talk as if women's sport doesn't exist. As recently as September 2026, during the AFLM's pre-finals bye, people posted on r/AFL daily about there being "no footy on" and not knowing what to do. You know what they would've found had they switched on Channel 7/Fox Footy/Kayo/WatchAFL at the exact same day and time of the week when they would normally watch a game of footy? They would've found a live game of footy (1). Sure, the names are different, the games are shorter, North are (almost) unbeatable, but if it's footy you want, there it is. You could clarify and complain about how there's no men's footy - to be fair, some did, and deservedly faced some attendant questions regarding their character - but you can't say there was no footy.
(1) I know other football codes refer to themselves as the "footy", I apologise for my exclusionary language, though I suspect that rugbies league and union have similar issues
I also thought this a fair bit at the end of the last Premier League season when the Arsenal men's team won their first championship since 2003/04. Admittedly, I don't follow the club game very closely at all, but the magnitude of this achievement meant I did tune in to some of the discussion around it. It is entirely possible that I didn't cast a wide enough net, but I didn't once hear a mention that, during this 20+ years of hurt, that Arsenal's women's team had won their top-flight league three times. Maybe it would've been unreasonable to expect explicit mentions, but surely it warranted some caveats like "the first championship won by the Arsenal men's team since 2003/04". Turns out that "Arsenal" only applies to the men's team, just like how the footy only applies to the men's league.
There was a world six years ago in which the Fremantle Dockers women's team won the club's inaugural flag (2). I'm not going to lie and say that my relationship with that team, which I absolutely also love and support, is exactly the same as my relationship with the men's. For starters, the men's team got more than a decade head start, including having the biggest unfair advantage of becoming known to me at my most impressionable age (seven years old, new to Australia, using sport to make friends). The men also existed in an ecosystem where men's AFL was easily accessible to watch and become immersed in, even if living in Melbourne meant that Freo people were few and far between (3). But if the Freo women had won that flag, you'd better believe I'd talk about it all the goddamn time. Including if the men's team wins one after them (4). You know how fans complain about decades of hurt when their teams don't win anything? A premiership here would've meant a lot to me, especially because the club has never tasted it before.
(2) This would've been a world without Covid and therefore been a better one in basically every way, but it's yet one more invaluable thing the pandemic robbed us of
(3) Though, through whatever twist of fate, the PhD student sitting at the opposite desk to me in our office was also a Dockers fan - a much bigger one than I am at that - and we'd even interacted on r/AFL before!
(4) I do mean this, but given the current state of both lists, I will not be happy if we have to see the men's team fumble this elite squad, which would be needed for the women to win a flag before the men
The median Australian cricket fan has been a little bit better, if only because the national women's team have won a lot of trophies since women's cricket entered the mainstream (and even more before that). They probably know that the correct number of World Cups won by the women's team is "fucking heaps" - I doubt the players know the exact number either, though it helps that it's the same answer for the men's team - and at minimum are aware that Elysse Perry is one of the great sportspeople in the nation's history. Similar with fans of the Matildas - obviously minus all the World Cups, but people in Australia are generally aware enough to pack out stadiums wherever they play and know that Sam Kerr is one of the best players in the world. What percentage of Arsenal men's team fans can name one current women's player? I'm asking because I'm genuinely curious, but also suspect that the number would be depressingly low.
Anyway, the point is, women's sport exists, and if we're going to like sports where men and women play, the least we can do is remember that fact. I would advocate for supporting and engaging with women's sport as well - I like sport, paying attention to men's and women's sport doubles the sport - but surely the bare, bare minimum is to acknowledge that women play these games too.