Welcome to The Wrap, a weekly podcast covering women's sports news.
Bez, have you got your spreadsheet up?
What's going on around the grounds this week?
Melbourne City steal the A-League Premier's plate from Sydney FC.
Needs to be an investigation.
Tennis to head to Saudi Arabia and NRLW is set to expand.
For the key story, we'll chat about the insanity that was March Madness.
Records broken and unfortunately some pretty horrible social media storms.
Around certain players and moments, which is just frustrating.
But my name's Chloe Dalton.
I'm joined every week on the show by my co-host, Bez.
Do we need to call you Bez Morton?
No, just one word.
I'm like Madonna and Beyonce.
Wow, she's feeling confident this Monday morning.
We are recording on Gadigal land.
Let's take a look around the grounds.
In football, the final regular season A-League weekend had it all.
Sydney FC just had to beat 11th place to Canberra United.
Which was on the Wednesday.
They had a game in hand.
Or, which they didn't.
Or Melbourne victory on the weekend.
They couldn't achieve either of those.
And they handed the Premier's plate to Melbourne City.
After a 4-0 loss to the victory on that final weekend.
It's a rough finish to a season, isn't it?
City defeated Perth Glory 2-1.
So they went into that game knowing that they win and they win.
To take first place by two points.
So this weekend we'll see the first week of finals with the elimination finals set for Saturday and Sunday.
In tennis, the WTA have confirmed that the next three editions of the WTA finals,
so 2024 to 2026, will be held in Saudi Arabia,
despite the numerous voices speaking out against the country's human rights record.
The debate around sports washing will not go away,
but the silver lining or gold lining, should we say this?
Is the increase in prize money attached?
The Saudi Tennis Federation will offer record prize money of US $15.25 million in 2024,
with further increases in 2025 and 2026 confirmed.
The WTA said the deal will support broader investment
and the future development and growth of women's tennis.
It doesn't sit right with me, Bez.
And we've seen this time and time again.
And I know it's a really nuanced debate in regards to female sport.
We've spoken about this.
We've spoken about this numerous times.
They're going to spend it.
If you don't have other people at the table wanting to spend that money,
it's very difficult to say no to it.
It is really difficult to say no.
I was thinking about this on my drive here to the podcast this morning.
And I think off the back of the March Madness,
which we're going to talk about, knowing this groundswell,
I feel like we're at the precipice of this big moment.
Good word, don't you reckon?
You tap yourself on the back.
Thanks for the tap.
If it's done right,
it's no longer this needing to find whoever's at the table.
I just think there should be so much more out there.
There's so much more that can be done in this women's sports space from a
commercial perspective.
this is not the right direction to be going in.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
I do understand what you're saying.
We've gone past the any offers a good offer stage.
Thank you for getting the words better than I did.
I did precipice and then it all went downhill.
On to the next story,
please in rugby league from exciting news for the NRLW with ARLC chair,
Peter Voland is announcing that the competition will expand to a 12 team comp
The Canterbury Bulldogs and New Zealand Warriors will be the additional teams.
And with the new teams,
the comp will expand to 11 weeks.
So I think they'll all play each other once and then head into finals after
Interestingly though,
hasn't been met with a whole heap,
not completely positive feedback.
women's state of origin coach,
Kylie Hilda did kind of warn against it before it was announced saying that we
should probably be waiting another season or two.
She noted the comp was really good this season and a good space.
And she had concerns over the standard with new teams being added.
She spoke about how important it was to build the base.
he's confident in two or three years time,
the quality will be there.
And it's interesting.
I also saw Millie Boyle had similar opinion.
I think what the NRL is doing is that they're saying,
the commercial appetite's there.
Like it's that whole,
they're building it.
And if it's a couple of years of clunkiness,
But the commercial appetite is absolutely there to see that expansion.
if the girls are rewarded and they're given the right environment to improve,
I think they'll improve quickly.
It's a tricky debate.
I think I really respect the way the NRL has gone about expanding this league.
The fact that they have increased the number of teams with the number of games,
very different to our story with AFLW,
where they expanded too quickly,
with the number of teams haven't increased the number of games at that same
And I think these arguments from Hilda and from people like Millie Boyle are
I just think I love this idea of growing the game,
giving the women more opportunities to play.
But I just think if you can do it not too slowly,
but slowly enough that you allow the pipeline to ensure the quality of the
not that it's about the social media,
There's so much pressure.
On women athletes to show that their product is valuable.
And sometimes I think if it's not done in the right way,
they're the ones at the end of the day that almost get thrown under the bus.
I was talking to you about the episode that you did with the two amazing people
from Deakin University.
Speaking about the report into the social media space.
I always listen to all of your amazing interviews,
Sometimes I zone out,
you've got a few,
a few balls in the air.
one thing that really struck me was when you actually spoke about on that
And if you haven't listened to it,
do yourself a favor because there's some really amazing study information to
come out of that study.
But one of the things that really stuck with me is when you spoke about how
when sometimes when you are lining up for a kick,
you think to yourself,
it'll just be give the men in the comment section another opportunity to have a
And I think about it when I,
when I watch other like my teammates or opponents,
there's almost some moments.
I think if I watch it on telly and I'm like,
this is going to get slammed.
If that clip ends up on socials,
it's just horrible.
we've said this time and again,
but it's so important that these organizations really heavily invest in the
development of these women so that once they get to that stage,
they feel confident to express themselves and play the way they want to play
be as good as they can be.
Jess Stenson has finished fourth in the Daegu,
in South Korea marathon in a personal best time of two 2358.
That time is an Olympic qualifier and comes just seven months after Stenson
gave birth to her second child,
Jess's time means she is the sixth Aussie woman to qualify for Paris.
there are only three spots available.
We have some serious strength in that.
Distance running stocks are rising.
Stenson said after the run during the race,
when it was starting to get a bit tough,
I thought back to the day that Ellie was born and then sort of went through
the months that have followed and how fortunately it has just clicked.
I really didn't know when I was pregnant and gearing up to give birth,
whether I'd be in a position to get back into training when I did.
And every step of the way,
things all had to line up.
That is a seriously impressive effort.
That is some serious mother power right there.
the Aussie women are coming home from Bangladesh after securing a clean sweep
of the ODIs and T20 matches.
They won the final T20,
by 77 runs last Thursday.
So they now come home for some much needed annual leave.
I think it's been a pretty long kind of really,
they've been on the go,
I think for about 10 months at this stage.
So they'll have a little time off before training ramps up for the September
series against New Zealand prior to the ODI World Cup later this year.
And we had a really cool announcement.
I think it was last week or the week before that England are coming here for
the Ashes series.
it will be a day night test,
which is amazing for those people that are at work or things like that.
The day night is really suitable to.
Explanation of a day night for those who don't watch cricket.
So normally a test match is played throughout the day.
Usually first ball around 1030 finishes around six.
The day night will start at about two 30 in the afternoon and run till 10 at
So it really gives you the opportunity to finish work,
finish uni and all the things,
finish all the things and get out there for the,
for the last couple of sessions.
but it will be held at the MCG,
which is so good.
So the match will be a celebration of the 90th anniversary of the first women's test.
And the first time back at the ground since the 2020 T20 World Cup final,
when they played in front of how many fans glow?
Did I get it right?
And I like this from say head of cricket operations and scheduling Peter Roach.
what we're looking to do is to really keep pushing to get our women playing.
In the major venues where possible.
biggest stadiums all the time.
make it happen in rugby union with one round to play in the super rugby women's comp.
The final four are set.
The Waratahs bears had a strong win over the Western force in Perth on Saturday,
45 to 21 and wrapped up top spot a little bit patchy,
a little bit patchy,
but overall a convincing win.
there's definitely some really,
really good parts of the game.
It was 32 degrees and it was hot.
It's not rugby weather.
Despite the loss,
the force have qualified to play finals for the first time in their history.
After the Melbourne rebels lost to the Queensland reds on Friday night,
the final round this weekend will confirm the makeup of the top four and the all
important semifinal matchups.
And in the sevens,
the Aussies finished third in Hong Kong at the sixth stop on the world series.
They went down to rivals and eventual winners,
in a tough semifinal,
but they bounced back to claim the bronze medal.
They scored a pretty epic try after the siren to defeat France in the three B four
Faith Nathan had a great run.
I don't know how we got the ball out of the back of that scrum.
I don't know if you saw that moment came out the back.
the back of Francis scrum rather than Australia scrum,
Great finish by Maddie Levi in the corner and some very good patients from Charlotte.
did not not knock the ball on.
The result means that New Zealand and Australia tied on top of the standings with two stops on the world series to play.
Do you know what's funny?
I'll tell you what's funny.
I love a flight with Wi-Fi,
but interestingly enough,
on the way home from Perth yesterday,
there was 30 of us on the plane all trying to watch the girls semifinal against New Zealand.
But the Wi-Fi is not always the best to watch live.
It was doing its best,
but there's a few wheel of death going on.
So it was like the different cheerings and groanings.
I like popping up from around around the girls.
It was pretty cool.
I don't know how funny it was,
but it's just cool.
Sky Nicholson won the vacant WBC featherweight title in Las Vegas on the weekend in a unanimous unanimous points decision.
You're mammonous.
I'm no good when there's N's and M's near each other.
Ozzie Nicholson called out Amanda Serrano after the fight.
So Serrano holds all three belts in the weight division.
she gave up her WBC title as the organization refused to allow her to box 12 round fights with three minute rounds as the mailboxes do.
I really respected that decision.
What happens though?
Because she's given them up like she said,
she's not going to fight until there's a quality type thing.
Does that mean they're up for grabs?
So the other three,
top belt she holds for the other three organizations.
let her fight that way.
So that's why that WBC title was vacant.
And it's confusing with all the different associations just one,
the one that Amanda Serrano gave up,
but she wants to fight Amanda Serrano to prove that she can be Amanda.
So she's all about the hype and the yeah,
so she's just caught up mid story.
She's now 10 from 10 Nicholson is and she's keen to unite the belts.
And she said after the fight,
I'm ready when she's ready.
It's nothing personal,
but I'm ready when you are.
It's always personal.
It's one on one in a ring.
if it's not personal,
what are you doing?
You're in trouble.
So the WBC title that Nicholson did win was fought over 10 at two minute
But Nicholson did say that she'll fight on Serrano's terms.
Adding if the only way to fight Amanda Serrano is over 12,
three minute rounds,
then talk to my team and we'll make it happen.
Which they could almost do that without the WBC title,
They could have their 12 minute rounds or do they just not do it like
it all has to be sanctioned.
There's a lot of red tape in boxing.
I'm obviously not aware of all this.
Let's take a look at the key story in basketball.
What a week it was huge.
what a month really,
but the last week it's reached fever pitch.
The elite eight game between LSU and Iowa broke all sorts of
records when just a casual 12.3 million people tuned in just casual.
That record lasted all of three days.
So the final four matchup between Iowa and Yukon,
added it when ESPN reported that 14.2 million people were glued to their
screens for that epic contest.
And we're talking average numbers here,
Peak was 17 million.
Those numbers make it the most watched men's or women's basketball game on
You want to say that again?
Watched basketball game on ESPN ever,
And we don't say that we'll get there,
but the final was played this morning,
so we don't even know.
We don't know yet.
Might've been broken again.
the cat that you cannot deny that the Caitlin Clark effect is influencing
these numbers massively.
So she led the Iowa Hawkeyes to a win over Yukon by two points,
I had to leave to go to the game,
my game and set up,
wasn't without controversy.
So there was a late foul called on Yukon for an illegal screen.
I don't know how that goes with these.
but I just think at that point in the game,
maybe five or six seconds left Yukon with the ball down by one with the
opportunity to score,
I would understand if you called a foul,
potentially on a player driving to a bus to the basket,
shooting a three calling an offensive foul on a screen that wasn't overly
It wasn't right to me.
You've heard it here first.
It was interesting because I really felt for Gabby Marshall.
So Gabby Marshall was the Iowa player that tried to run through the
screen and kind of went flying,
whether or not it was from the screen,
whether she added a little bit of pepper to it.
but she got absolutely slammed on social media and actually in the press
conference talked about the fact that she turned her social media off because
she just more deleted it because she just didn't want to have to deal with how
much hate she was copying.
I've gotten a lot of hate comments.
I'm not the one that made the call,
so I'm not sure why they're mad at me personally,
which is a really valid point.
She's not the referee in that situation.
And like we touched on bears with some,
this Deacon research that's come out around the fact that 87% of female athletes
experience abuse and harassment online.
It's just horrible to think that she's just trying to play the game.
Just trying to play.
It's something that's out of her control.
it's infuriating.
And I think another kind of aspect of that Deacon research chat again,
if you've listened to it,
haven't listened to it,
do yourself a favor.
you guys spoke about the fact that this is her workplace.
like that kind of personal vitriol against someone just doing their job is not okay.
she should be safe in her workplace.
Jumping on your bus in the morning to go to work and just reaming out the bus
driver for not changing lanes or whatever it is.
Like just doesn't,
it's just not like be better humans.
it does happen so much to these female athletes in this space now because you
know where they're rightly being held up,
on display where they belong in lights.
And people love nothing more than try to shoot those lights out.
So early on Monday morning,
speaking about lights,
the South Carolina Gamecocks lit it up.
They stayed perfect and won the NCAA national championship 87 to 75 over Iowa.
the wind took their record to 38 and zero for the season.
How crazy undefeated for the whole time.
And this is a team that obviously made the NCAA national championship final last year,
They lost all five starters from that,
that cop that year.
People were like,
they won't be as good next year.
Dawn Staley said that coach ridiculous.
They were definitely the best all round team in the country.
I would just couldn't compete with the,
and they will a lot bigger than South Carolina.
Like we've got to be straight up there.
They just dominated inside.
They shut down Caitlin Clark.
Clark did still finish the game as top scorer with 30,
just a quiet game for her.
But the Gamecocks,
squad was so much deeper and their bench contributed 37 points to Iowa's bench contributing none.
If your bench scores zero points,
but you don't have a lot of hope of,
of competing in a game like that.
That's not great.
You got to pull your weight a bit more off the bench.
Spoken like a true bench warmer back in my day.
Did you pull your weight when you got your opportunity?
I didn't really get a chance.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has been in charge for all three national championships for South Carolina.
And she was really emotional at the end of the day.
The game paying tribute to her freshies,
the little freshmen,
particularly Tessa Johnson,
who scored 19 vital points after coming off the bench.
Camila Cardoso won the MVP award and was dominant inside,
finishing with an incredible 15.17 rebounds and two assists.
She'll join Caitlin Clark and the WNBA draft later this year.
It's actually not even that far away.
Is it like next week or something?
it's really soon.
It's going to be,
I can't wait for that draft.
It's going to be epic.
In the post-match presentation,
Staley personally,
thanked Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport and declared she is truly one of the goats of the game.
It was really classy from classy from Dawn Staley.
they get up on that dice and there's all the confetti and there's so much going on.
It's always chaos on those days.
She literally took the time to say,
I've got one more thing to say.
And just paid tribute to Caitlin Clark.
It was super classy.
I see the pressure.
You've been under,
what you've done for this sport.
And I thank you for it.
It was really nice.
Let's take a look at what to watch.
It's finals time for the A-League women on Saturday,
Western United host sixth place,
Newcastle Jets at the regional football facility in Tarnate.
Kickoff is at 6 30 PM.
Melbourne victory will host,
host fifth place,
Central Coast Mariners at the home of the Matilda,
Tilda's kickoff will be 4 PM.
Losers head to mad Monday on and Suncorp super netballs back.
This is exciting.
Round one kicks off this Saturday with the who?
Hosting the West coast fever at Ken Rosewell arena.
The game starts at 5 PM.
We'll be live on KO and Fox netball.
The new kids on the block,
otherwise known as NKOTB,
the Melbourne Mavericks kick off their season with a Derby match against
Melbourne Vixens.
That game is on Sunday at 2 PM at John Kane arena.
And we'll be live on KO freebies and Fox netball.
How good the Tilly's are ramping up Olympics prep with a friendly in San
Texas against Mexico.
Kickoff is 10 AM AEST on Wednesday morning.
It'll be live on the 10 network and paramount.
Plus AEST is standard now and I probably don't need to put it in there,
but it's nice that we're all back.
respectful for the Western Australians,
The Australian athletics championships run it from April 11th to April 19th at
the S a athletic stadium in Adelaide athletes.
We're looking to post Olympic qualifying times and win a national titles.
You can catch all that action live on the seven network.
And that's the wrap.
That is the wrap.
See you next week,