Welcome to The Wrap, a weekly podcast covering women's sports news.
Bez, what have we got around the grounds this week?
Sydney FC claim their fifth A-League title.
Must be a thing about sky blue teams winning five titles.
Australia qualify for Olympic three-on-three basketball for the first time
and Liz Ellis has been appointed to a director position on the Netball Australia board.
I'm stoked about that.
A lot of the fans are stoked about that.
For the key story, we'll chat about the disparity in the number of spots for male and female surfers.
My name is Chloe Dalton and I'm joined every week on the show by my co-host Bez.
We're recording on Gadigal land.
Before we get into around the grounds, Bez, we need to discuss.
I spoke about it on my solo wrap last week.
I hated doing it by myself.
It was over in about eight minutes because it was uncomfortable.
I also haven't listened to it.
Yeah, you haven't.
That's not what I wanted to talk about.
You did do a very not subtle nod to the Waratahs.
Five-time champions.
Five-time champs.
How does it feel?
For those who don't know, you are the manager of the team.
World champs of the galaxy.
How does it feel?
It was just reward for a really impressive season from everyone involved in the group.
And yeah, got a bit close there for a little while.
A little bit nervy, but always confident in the execution and the fitness levels of the girls.
So really stoked and we gave it a nudge.
I'm not surprised.
Let's take a look around the grounds.
The Aussies sevens.
Finish runners up in Singapore with the injury hit team going down to New Zealand in the final 21 to 31.
The result means the Blackburns took home the Singapore crown.
And it's a little bit confusing.
Actually, the new format of the league.
So New Zealand take the title as league winners.
And then it's kind of like winner takes all in Madrid.
So at the end of this month, the Madrid weekend is the grand final.
They're essentially calling it.
So the top eight teams are going.
To play for the series title.
So New Zealand kind of won the overall thing on points and get the league winner's trophy.
It's a bit bizarre.
So they've like one minor prems.
Yes, pretty much.
They're minor premiers.
And now it's time for the GF.
I was there in Singapore for the weekend.
It was a great weekend back in my hometown.
I had a lot of fun working with world rugby.
And I thought the Aussie women were really good, particularly on day two.
We're already missing a couple of players.
And Charlotte Caslick and Sharni Williams back home.
And then, gosh, had a couple of injuries.
A couple of injuries to Lily Dick and Madison Ashby.
So hoping, crossing fingers, that they're okay.
A couple for the Kiwis too.
Yeah, a couple for the Kiwis, which is really big ahead of Paris.
You know better than anyone what it's like to miss out on an Olympics last minute, don't you, friend?
Thank you for the reminder.
The Women's Super League in the UK is coming to a very exciting conclusion.
And overnight, what looked like a fairly certain trophy for Manchester City got turned on its head
when Arsenal beat City 2-1 after scoring two goals in injury time.
And Chelsea destroyed Bristol City 8-0.
It's a huge, massive, whacking.
The result leaves Chelsea one win behind City, but they've got two games to play.
And importantly, the 8-0 win swung the goal difference in the Chels' favour.
Chelsea play their game in hand mid-week against Tottenham and then face Manchester United on the final day,
while City will need to dispatch Aston Villa this weekend and hope that Tottenham or United do them a favour
and take some points off Chelsea, which would be quite ironic if they were reliant on their hugely fierce
cross-town rivals United on the last day to take some points off Chelsea.
It would be very amusing.
It will be a fitting end to Emma Hayes' 12-year stint in London if Chelsea can lift the trophy on the final day.
That would be nice, wouldn't it?
In some more football news, on Saturday, Sydney FC defeated Melbourne City 1-0
and claimed a record fifth A-League Women's Championship, their second in a row.
Premiers Melbourne City dominated for long periods of the match, but couldn't find a way past Sydney keeper Jada Wyman.
Jada has been exceptional this season.
She's been very, very good.
It was nil all at half-time, and it took super-sub Shea Connors to break the deadlock.
She scored in the 69th minute.
Following an epic assist from teenager, Indiana Dos Santos.
I met her the other day.
She's 16 years old.
She's like a quiet, lovely little kid, but she's been killing it for her age.
The future of the game.
Also, great name.
Indiana Dos Santos.
It's a great name.
The match was played in front of the second largest grand final crowd.
She needs an action figure.
They played in front of the second largest grand final crowd.
And Sydney coach, Ante Durek, told media, this current group, regardless of stats, is
the best team in history in terms of how long they've done it and the success they've had.
Mackenzie Hawks be capped off an up-and-down year.
She left Sydney FC for a stint in the UK with Brighton and Hove Albion, where she didn't
see a lot of playing time, Bez.
So it was pretty special that she came back to the Sky Blue.
She scored a goal in each of the Sky Blue semifinals.
So pretty cool for her to come home and lift the trophy.
Yeah, she killed it.
In netball, the Melbourne Vixens and West Coast.
West Coast Fever are the only two teams undefeated after four rounds.
A really competitive Suncorp Super Netball.
It's pretty cool, isn't it?
The Fever were too good for the New South Wales Swifts on Sunday.
When Sunday, Ai Yang.
I think that's what threw you.
She did a defensive job on Sunday on Swift's goal to take Helen Houseman to keep her very
quiet and deliver the Fever a 75-59 victory.
The Vixens were too good for the Firebirds, running out 68-55 winners.
Liz Ellis has been appointed to the Netball Australia board.
She's been highly critical of the organization in the past, which is, I think, potentially
why it took so long for her to actually join the board.
Seems like there was a bit of a bit of heat there between the two different parties, I
She questioned in the past whether the board could regain the trust of the players after
a number of incidents, whether players were left out of the governing body's decision
making processes.
And she told the City Morning Herald after her appointment, this is not the end point
Everything's fixed.
Let's get Liz on the board.
Let's get a new CEO.
There are deep scars from the last couple of years, and I think there's a lot of work
I don't want people to think we've got the Messiah, that all our problems are solved.
I'm just one of now a team of nine.
I have skills that are different from all the other board members and can hopefully
I really respect Liz as a person, well, player person and an operator.
And even the way that she's spoken about that in the early days, I think she's got a fair
bit of self-awareness around the work she's doing.
Yeah, and I think it's super refreshing to see someone that, look, has probably stood
outside of that organising body, throwing some rocks, rocks that probably deserve to
But instead of just throwing rocks, said, hey, I'm here to help too.
Like, let me actually get in the arena, get involved and help fix the problem.
Yeah, she was throwing rocks that had solutions wrapped inside them.
Little surprise rocks.
Like a kinder surprise of rock in athletics.
Was there chocolate?
Tori Lewis, Ebony Lane, Bree Masters and Ella Connolly broke the national and area four
by 100 metre relay record when they clocked 42.83 seconds to finish second in the heat
behind Germany at the World Relays Meet in the Bahamas.
It's the first time since the Sydney 2000 Olympics that the Australian women's four
by 100 relay team has qualified.
That's a long time coming.
That's 24 years ago.
And I might be making this up, but don't we just, when you're the host, don't you just
get invited to everything?
Oh, so we didn't even qualify.
Although, Mel Gaines for Taylor.
So she probably anchored it.
Such, such an exciting time for the athletics.
Connolly said after the lightning quick run, I think we all had a lot of trust in each
So we said, you know what?
Let's just relax.
We've done the work and we've done this a million times.
Let's just go do this and qualify for the Olympics together.
Let's just go do it.
Let's just go do it.
Love a bit of trust.
Dyer has been named the new commissioner of the World Surf League, the WSL.
She will become the first woman in the role and was previously the chief of
sport for the WSL.
Miley Dyer told Sportico and She Media's winning women's winning women and
sports event last week.
Women's sports are definitely not a charity.
I think for a period of time, people have perceived as such, but we've also
shown that if the investment in their returns will come this, her posts on
socials, this is, I loved this one.
We love good quotes on here.
This is my excited fingers.
I need to stop doing it.
I do like the weird like.
I think it might bring you a little keyboard.
We can play a little excitement tune when you get like that.
Being the first woman to hold a specific position hasn't always been a smooth
road, but it's worth it.
What I believe is this.
You can be many things, but just make sure you're not the last.
Love that, Jessie.
To spell, but I spelt it wrong.
Did you take that out?
I saw it was in there before and it's gone.
Speaking of balls, Cricket Australia last week unveiled a 10 year plan
formulated with input from top players on how to grow the game.
Firstly, can we just talk about how refreshing it is for a body to come out
and say, here's a 10 year plan.
I really, really enjoy that.
Not a, oh God, we've got another season next year.
I wonder what we're going to do.
Let's make a decision one month before we start.
Bravo, Cricket Australia.
The plan includes a goal to boost revenue to $121 million by 2034
and have all domestic cricketers playing as full-time professionals by that time.
The WBBL season will be condensed by two weeks to a 40 game regular season
and a new state-based T20 comp will be launched this summer.
The restructure of the domestic season means players will earn an average salary
That's incredible.
So yeah, I've also committed to a $500 million investment.
into female-friendly infrastructure,
which is heavily linked to a goal to grow grassroots participation rates
to 100,000 players.
Off the playing field,
CA aim to have at least 40% female representation in key positions
across Australian cricket,
including executives, boards, community cricket roles by 2034.
And in the stand,
CA is targeting 600,000 fans attending women's cricket in Australia
each summer by 2034.
A marked increase from the combined WBBL,
WBBL and Women's International attendance last summer of $120,000.
They are just like, it's such a holistic approach, isn't it?
It's not just, I think a lot of time with this progression of sports,
new collective bargaining agreements,
we see standards put in place for the players around minimum
and average salaries, pregnancy policies and whatnot.
But the fact that they're targeting key positions on the board
and also very, very clear metrics on crowd numbers,
I think is incredible.
There's nothing like a measurable objective.
Like, wishy-washy, we can get all flowery and stuff.
But at the end of the day, they've come out and said,
here's some numbers.
We've got 10 years to do it.
Elise Perry, she loves it too.
the public appetite for women's sport is now indisputable.
Australian cricket has been at the forefront of the growth in women's sport,
providing some of the best opportunities for players
with resourcing and remuneration.
M's and N's close together, not my forte.
And it's reassuring to know this commitment will not only be sustained,
but greatly enhanced.
And it will be enhanced over the next 10 years.
In basketball, the Australian team, the Kangaroos,
three-on-three team, which indigenous word for kangaroos.
They've qualified for their first ever Olympic appearance.
They defeated Canada in the final of the FIBA three-on-three universality
Olympic qualifying tournament in Japan on Sunday.
Well done, girls.
We got the video up on our socials.
It was a pretty emotional moment for them.
But let's take a look at the key story.
So last time we were together on the wrap,
we spoke about Sally Fitzgibbons falling below the mid-season cut line
and finding herself on the challenger circuit for the second year running.
In the aftermath of that dreaded cut,
there has again been discussion around the difference between the men's
and the women's tour.
The men's championship tour has 35 men that are reduced.
So it begins the season with 35 men.
And they're reduced to 20.
22 at the mid-season cut.
The women start at 18 surfers and end up at 10.
It's not even half.
That's good mathing from you.
Did everything about it for a while.
I was getting angry about this before because I know you're going to go on to talk about
the equal prize money.
But I think I get a little bit frustrated on this one because there's organizations
that show that they're ticking all the boxes when participation numbers at the elite level
Pathways, opportunities.
So the World Surf League do offer equal prize money, as we said, for all events.
It's claim of equity is, as we said, pretty debatable.
Fitzgibbon's told Code Sports, it has to change.
The level of surfing is insane.
And to have 10 people for the back half of the year is a wild thing to think about.
I don't write the rules.
I just see the talent.
And I think it is an awesome show.
I love being a part of it.
It's not just because I didn't make the cut.
I'm just stating facts.
State the facts, Sal.
A WSL spokesperson said the governing body is committed to equality and the progression
of women's surfing.
Working in partnerships with our athletes, we're creating pathways to ensure continued
competitive progression.
And we're committed to our goal of having an equal number of women and men competing
in our events in the future.
Let's compare that statement to what Cricket Australia have done.
Very opposite ends of the ballpark.
That's so wishy-washy, that statement.
Nothing of substance in there.
Nothing of substance in there.
Nothing that's measurable.
Nothing that you can kind of reflect back on and say, yeah, give me a date.
I might flick a message to Jessie Miley Dyer.
She's actually an absolute legend.
She's an absolute legend.
But you know what?
This is a really good challenge for Jessie Miley Dyer.
She's just, you know, been appointed this amazing role.
So here's a problem.
So Sally, our mate, is going to join other talented surfers on the second tier challenger
series, all fighting hard to qualify for the CT next season and return to the top of the
sport where the fight for spots is fierce.
We're going to head down to Narrabeen to watch.
Yeah, starts on Thursday.
Well, the waiting period starts on Thursday.
If you're in Sydney.
If you're in Sydney, on the Northern Beaches, come down.
I was going to say, watch us shred.
Watch them shred.
I'll drink a coffee.
I believe Chloe's on the phone right now to the WSL and she's going to surf in a heat
where famous people surf in it.
Yes, that's definitely happening.
Let's take a look at what to watch.
Oh, got there eventually.
She is rusty, folk.
The Wallaroos are not rusty.
They won't be rusty.
They will not be.
They're back in action and will open their pack four series this Saturday.
Saturday night at Allianz Stadium against world number four, Canada.
Kickoff is 5 p.m.
And you can watch the action live on 9GEM and StanSport.
But better still, come to Allianz.
It's going to be a cracker.
The New South Wales Swifts will be keen to hand the Melbourne Vixens their first loss
of the season on Sunday afternoon at Ken Rosewall Arena.
The game starts at 2 p.m.
and will be live on KO Freebies and Fox Netball.
And the WNBA preseason is in full swing already.
And Caitlin Clark Fever is consuming basketball.
Do you know what's interesting?
What's interesting?
What's interesting?
What's interesting?
What's interesting?
What's interesting?
What's interesting?
What's interesting?
What's interesting?
Obviously, my algorithm does things to me.
It does things to me.
But I've seen other people mention it too.
Like, the feed should, basketball feed should be about NBA playoffs.
We're in the middle of NBA playoffs.
Caitlin Clark is, like, she has really just said, well, no, you know what?
I'm taking some of that feed.
I'm taking over the feed.
She's killing it.
The regular season starts on Wednesday, the 15th of May, Australian time.
And for just US$34.99.
You can sign up for the WNBA League Pass and stream it every single game live.
The whole season.
The whole season.
Get on it, people.
So, it's an exceptional return on investment, on your investment.
And it's a great way we speak about ways to show your support for women in sport.
Exchange rate, let's say, let's call it $50.
$50 for a whole season.
That is the wrap.
Sorry, I cut you off a few times.
No, I was just going to make a bad joke about how much I love chips.
I'm ready for lunch.
See you next week.