The Wrap The Barty And Dellacqua Party Is Back

Welcome to The Wrap, a weekly podcast covering women's sports news.

Bez, what have we got around the grounds this week?

The Queensland Firebirds have pulled off the upset of the season,

the Super Netball defeating the West Coast Fever.

The Gangaroos have won the Fever 3-on-3 series in China

and Ash Barty is back, kind of,

and will play the Invitational Doubles at Wimbledon

with her former partner and BFF Casey Delacroix.

I didn't know they were playing together.

Yeah, and wait till you get to the actual story there.

Their anagram is ABCD.

Did they know that?

Or you are?

What?

I love those two.

What a duo.

For the key story, we'll chat about some of the results

of the Women in Football survey, which found online hate is on the rise.

Shocking.

I've had enough of it.

And whether the IOC are leading the way by using AI to fight off the trolls.

This is going to be an interesting chat.

I'm keen to learn more about this.

As we chat, my name is Chloe Dalton.

I'm joined every week on the show by my co-host, Bev.

Not Bev.

Just shout out to all the people who message us saying how much they love Bev,

that it is, in fact, Bezzzz.

We're recording on Gadigal land.

Beverly is signing out.

Just confirming her name is actually Erin, not Beverly.

Let's take a look around the grounds.

In a bit of rugby league.

News.

Women's under-19 origin game happened during this week.

They've got a single state of origin match,

and the Blues powered to a 46-4 win over Queensland.

Up the mighty Blues.

Go the Blues.

How good.

New South Wales absolutely dominated the match,

leading 20-4 at halftime before holding Queensland scoreless in the second half.

The Maroons were forced to make 234 tackles compared to the Blues' tally of 169.

Wowee.

Sore bodies.

Sore.

Sore bodies.

Player of the match, Casey Rair, was in total control during the game

when the Blues ran in nine tries to avenge last year's loss.

Interestingly enough, the New South Wales side included nine members

of the Tasha Gale Cup Premiership winners, the Illawarra Steelers.

They also only play 30-minute halves.

30-minute halves is a little silly.

Let the girls play.

In some football news, there was some income news, I guess,

released last week.

The annual review of football finance was published and the report revealed

that women's Super Leagues, the WSL clubs, generated 48 million pounds

in aggregate revenue in the 2022-23 season,

which was a rise of 50% on the previous season's revenue.

That's huge, isn't it?

It's really big.

So to put it in perspective for our predominantly Aussie fans,

that's more than $90 million Australian.

So good.

Yeah, in one season.

That's great, isn't it?

It's good numbers.

The top four revenue-generating clubs were Arsenal, Chelsea,

Manchester City and Manchester United,

and they generated 66% of the revenue for the 12-team division.

Not dissimilar to the men's game, to be perfectly honest.

It's, you know, the big clubs are the big clubs that earn the big money

and the smaller clubs are the smaller clubs that don't earn as much money.

You're really learning it all here on this podcast,

the Common Sense podcast, they call it.

Wages in the WSL encompass 75%

of revenue and it totaled 36 million pounds,

rising by more than 45% from the previous season's 25 million pounds.

But the wage bills of the big four accounted, again,

for more than half of the league's spending on wages.

So they're definitely putting the money back into the players directly,

which is good to see.

WSL's, they did, I guess the flip side of that is WSL clubs' pre-tax losses

did climb to 21 million pounds.

And I think that does come off.

The back of the fact that they are spending more money on players,

which is not a bad thing, but we, we speak about this a lot.

Revenue is important to focus on because there actually aren't many sporting

teams, male, female, or other that make any money at the end of the day.

Like there, a lot of them do operate at a loss.

So it's not necessarily a bad thing that they're spending the money on the, on the

players, Jenny Haskell, who's the knowledge and insight lead at Deloitte

Sports Business Group said, driving a loyal fan base, habitual viewing,

and distinct commercial partnerships was a clear priority for WSL clubs in the

2022, 23 season and the soaring revenue growth achieved demonstrates the sides,

the strides that have been made.

However, we're still in the foothills of growth in the women's game.

I love the foothills of growth.

Foothills of growth.

There's some, there's some very good quotes that come from these people.

They know what they're talking about, don't they?

They're just, they're not pulling things.

They are not politicians.

It's good to know that we haven't set up camp in the foothills though.

It's just a little, we're just walking.

Passing by.

Passing through the foothills.

And I think if we look at, you talked about that 20 million pre-tax loss, they

are making such a great investment in these players.

I would bet my house that I can't afford to buy on the fact that if we look at 23,

24 and the number of years to come, when they reflect on the revenue that this

league generates, that will just tenfold.

Drop in the pond.

In tennis.

Isla Tomlanovic.

Beat Anastasia Potapova in three sets to reach the final of the Birmingham Classic.

It was exciting news for the Aussie as it marked the first grass court final of her

Women's Tennis Association career.

However, it wasn't meant to be this time.

Going down 6-1-7-6 to Kazakhstan, Yulia Putinetsva.

An exciting comeback news for the first time since winning the Wimbledon singles title,

Ash Barty will return to the grass courts of the All England Club for the Invitational

Doubles, partnering with Casey Delacroix.

So good.

What a combo.

So good.

I can't wait.

When I did first see the news, I thought it was a comeback comeback.

You hoped.

I hoped.

I hoped it was a comeback comeback, but I'll take anything.

I think it's going to be amazing to see Ash out there and to see her play with Casey.

How incredible.

Delacroix joined the AO show weekly to share her excitement.

She said, I can announce that the band is back together.

A, B, C, D.

So good.

That is the best.

So good.

Barty and Delacroix finished runners-up in women's doubles at Wimbledon in 2013,

a season in which they reached three major doubles finals together.

Only 11 years ago.

Crazy.

Elite.

I can't wait to watch them.

In basketball.

So the three-on-three competition, which was held, the women's series in Chengdu,

the Australians have beaten China 18-17 in a thrilling final to win it.

There's been some close matches in the 3x3, hasn't there?

Yeah.

Do we say?

I'm stumbling over it.

Is it 3x3, three-on-three?

I was saying three-on-three, but we've got an interview coming out very soon with a 3x3 player,

and she said 3x3, so now I've changed.

Three times three?

No.

No, definitely not that one.

It's just not called nine.

Nine.

That's it.

In nine.

It's called nine.

In nine basketball.

The Gangaroos had one hand on the title with a 15-8 lead in the match,

but China stormed back with hot shooting from deep to lock up the scores as the game went down to the wire.

Australia.

Australia's only loss in the series came against China in the group stage.

The LZs came back for revenge.

Marina Whittle was named MVP after finishing top in player value, 51.9,

and points of 45 and highlights, 19.

They rank highlights?

That's kind of cool.

What do you mean?

I'm here for that.

I need to do some more research there.

I would be ranked on highlights.

Clodon, zero highlights.

The Gangaroos will face China again from the 2nd to the 5th of July at John Kane,

Marina, as the next stage of the Paris 2024 Olympics preparations.

And in the five on five format, just normal basketball.

Twenty-five.

That's some impressive maths from your friend.

Thank you.

A 12-player Opal squad have suffered back-to-back defeats to Japan in a two-game series in Japan.

The Aussies lost their first game, 96 to 85, but Amy Atwell made her presence felt with 21 points.

They then went down 95 to 87.

And Marina Tolo was awarded.

The most impressive player for the series, which was supported with 20 points and seven rebounds in game two.

How good.

Go Tolo.

So I saw, we've spoken about this before.

There's obviously a lot more WNBA players to be added to that squad.

I saw Lauren Jackson wasn't in Japan.

He was just dropping 50 points for Aubrey Wodonga again.

That was absurd.

Against Sutherland.

Poor Sutherland.

Like, please, why aren't you in Japan?

Every time I see those highlights reels, I just see that poor team.

And what are you meant to do against her?

She was just draining them from everywhere.

You can't hang up.

Like, if you body up against her, she's going to die.

She's going to take you to the rack.

If you just drop off her, she'll shoot a three on your head.

Like, good luck.

Good luck.

To anyone trying to defend her in NBL one.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

I was going to say park footy, but it's definitely not park footy.

Playing park ball.

Park ball.

In netball.

In the Super Netball, we've seen the upset of the season with the controversy ridden Queensland Firebirds defeating the West Coast Fever 78 to 80.

There's been some chaos.

There's been some serious chaos.

I think they've pulled that off as a food twin.

Second-ranked Fever were expected to make light work of the last placed Firebirds.

I forgot they were wooden spooners at the moment in Brisbane, but the hosts, desperate to avoid a third successive defeat, were up for the fight.

It comes after their coach Beck Bully departed just two years into her four-year deal, and then her replacement coach, Lauren Brown, followed her out the door just a couple of days later.

During the week, new coach Katie Walker told Fox Netball,

We're going for four wins.

And we will prepare to win four games over the four weeks, regardless of whatever else has been happening.

I feel like I can do a job and help out these girls and get them back firing and loving their netball again.

That's a really big thing, isn't it?

Because they've faced so much off-court controversy.

Has it just fired them up?

And I really actually like the language from Katie there.

Yeah, it galvanizes the change room a bit.

I think when you have that adversity and you have a lot of outside influences, sometimes it's actually you can use it.

To say, all right, what matters is us.

This circle, this is what matters.

Don't worry about anything else.

It's bringing back to the Collingwood Netball team singing the team song in the change rooms after their win, after their program had been scrapped.

Yeah.

And their training center got turned into an indoor football field by Collingwood Football Club.

Could have done a key story on that one, couldn't we?

Probably should have.

A blowout beckoned when the fever steamed ahead 20 to 12 early in the match before the Firebirds hit back in the final quarter.

Queensland.

Finished the match with a stirring seven-goal zip burst to take the victory.

Injured captain Kim Ravillian sprinted onto the court in tears seconds after the full-time siren.

One new coach, Katie Walker, was overcome with emotion after the most tumultuous period in the club's history.

Kim Rav, speaking of Kim Rav, nice segue.

Her episode is dropping this Thursday.

One of Australia's best netballers.

And it was an incredible chat with her, actually.

We talked about a whole range of different things.

A lot of parallels that we've had in each of our careers around being the older athletes.

The older athletes?

The older athletes.

The more senior athlete.

What it means to actually look after your body and change your attitude around training loads and things like that.

We both had the same back surgery and what it means going through that whole process.

Interesting.

She had the same back surgery as you?

Same back surgery.

Did she keep her piece of cartilage?

Oh, I didn't ask her.

I'll get her back on and ask her.

That was the grossest thing I think you've ever showed me.

I'm still here somewhere.

Gross.

Unfortunately.

I think very professionally from Kim Rav, though, you recorded that while this was all happening.

And she didn't spill any beans about the whole drama.

She's a pro.

Some athletics news.

So we spoke last week about athletics being one of the sports to offer prize money at the Olympics.

Well, probably alongside that, former Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson is launching a track league that looks,

that will be looking to assemble nearly 100 of the sport's top performers four times a year to compete for $12.6 million in prize money over its first season.

It's called the Grand Slam Track League.

That's a lot of cash.

It's good money.

I think that's US, I'm going to say.

Are we picking up a discus or?

Well, this is the thing.

I think I've read it's only.

It's only track, no field, are you saying?

I think it's very select sports.

Oh, yeah.

He's trying to make it exciting as possible.

So I don't think you and I throw.

A discus is very exciting.

Actually, it could be funny.

That's a different league.

I got hit in the jaw in Little Athletics.

A girl was practicing throwing her discus outside of the nets.

How ridiculous.

Discus to the face.

And it hit me in the face.

It's a trauma.

Sorry, that's so off topic.

Back to the story.

It's not really.

We're in athletics.

Yes.

It's where it fits.

Your ridiculous story.

The Grand Slam Track League will launch next April with plans for one event in Los Angeles,

the home of the 2020 Olympics,

and one in another American city.

And then two overseas.

Johnson says this could act as the final financial incentive needed to bring the world's best

athletes head to head regularly.

It's providing the fans and the athletes what they've been asking for.

I think there's a real opportunity here.

They're frustrated at an all time level with the sport at the elite level,

the way it's been over the last couple of years when they're where they're not compensated

and recognized for their tremendous talent.

I love this idea.

And we've started to see it in a range of different sports.

Live golf is not my favorite example to talk about.

Mm-hmm.

We've seen it in the basketball over in the U.S.

where they're going to play three on three.

Yep.

What's that league called again?

Athletes United.

Unrivaled?

Unrivaled, yeah.

Unrivaled?

Yeah.

We might need to fact check that.

Yeah.

And this example with track.

So what we've always seen traditionally in sport is it's always been about the glory

and winning and being the best in the world or the best in your league.

But what people like Michael Johnson are doing is saying,

let's actually recognize the commercial value that these athletes hold and put that as the priority.

Absolutely.

But at the same time, you're going to get the best entertainment value.

It's such a marketable competition.

Mm-hmm.

And it is marketed by the people, but the athletes don't often see the money from the marketing.

Yeah.

It's putting the athletes first, and I'm so here for it.

So Glanslam.

Glanslam.

Glanslam Track plans to sign 48 athletes known as GST racers to contracts.

So GST.

I go straight to goods and services tax.

That's exactly where I went, but I don't think they call it that in the U.S., do they?

An extra 10%.

Yeah.

So obviously, Glanslam track races to contracts.

Then to use appearance fees to bring another 48 athletes in, and they're called GST Challengers.

Nice.

It's like a game show.

It is.

So that's for each meet.

The athletes will be divided into categories.

For instance, a short sprint group will run 100 and 200 meters over the course of the weekend,

and they'll compete for a $100,000 top prize with cash being awarded down to eighth place.

He said, Michael Johnson said,

I'm motivated to do this.

I'm motivated by the fact that this is the opportune time to do it.

The world is looking for something like this, and we can step into that void.

Step in.

God, he was a good runner.

Do you remember him?

He's a freak.

He used to like kind of lean back almost.

I do not.

It was weird.

Impressive.

In a bit of Iron Series news, Surf Life Saving Australia will expand the field in a move

expected to attract a wave of teenage talent to the series as part of sweeping changes

to the famous Iron Man and Iron Woman series held each summer.

The series, now known as the Iron Series, will have eight additional slots for both female

and male athletes for part of the season, at least.

In another major change, the series champions will be decided in a finale rather than just

by a cumulative points system, and that a number of athletes will be eliminated after

the first and second weekend of racing, which is four events, because they do two days almost

each weekend, right?

And again, after the fifth event, leaving a field of just eight.

To fight for the 2024-25 series victory on the third weekend of the event.

It comes as the International Life Saving Federation is campaigning to be a new sport

on the Brisbane 2032 Olympic program.

Interesting.

Let's discuss.

I know we've talked about it with the WSL, that we weren't sure about the final series.

We've, again, seen a number of sports move to this final series format.

World Rugby did it with the seven series.

I'm still undecided.

I'm still undecided too.

I think, again, we're falling back into that.

Marketing conversation.

It's about having a grand final, isn't it?

It's about having that one big event, all eyes on it.

And look, at the end of the day, a bit like the surfing, you get the top five competitors

there at the end of the year.

This is going to have the top eight competitors.

It should really be the best eight.

But I think also in a sport like this, similar to surfing, Mother Nature plays a part.

Yes.

You could be the best all year, get to that final eight race, and cop a set on the head,

and you're gone.

You're gone.

That's a very good point.

I'm trying to actually, as we're talking, take a step back, think majority of sports

are run in this manner, though.

True.

We just don't think about it.

Yeah.

Right?

Like, if you think about all the domestic leagues, all the footies, soccer, all the

things, they all do it like that.

You can have a premiership winner.

Not English football.

It's first class, I suppose.

That doesn't count.

I'm talking Australian sports here.

Yes.

Okay.

Right?

So, it's kind of a standard format, but for some reason, it feels weird when they've known

another format.

Yes.

I think it makes sense.

And I guess if we talk Mother Nature, if I'm playing in the AFLW Grand Final, and suddenly

it buckets down with rain, and our game plan isn't suited to rain.

Yeah.

Similar.

Kind of.

No, she didn't really want to give it to me.

Former champion Georgia Miller told the Daily Telegraph about the updates.

This is my 10th year, and it's so exciting to be able to change things up.

Plus, it's exciting that we'll see so many new faces.

These young ones are snapping at our heels already.

I would be so happy.

If they got to race at an Olympics.

It's got to be in, surely.

It's going to be really, really cool.

Obviously, that would probably hold it down the Gold Coast, but it would be awesome.

In skating, speaking of awesomeness.

Oh, what a freak.

Australia's Arisa True has booked her ticket to Paris, winning the Olympic qualifier women's

park event in Budapest.

She's joined by her sister, Ruby True, who also qualified for the women's park event

in Paris.

All up Australia will have five skateboard representatives at the Paris Games, with Chloe

Cavell, Liv Love.

Liv Love Lace and Hayley Powell qualifying in the street event.

Why do they all have such great names?

They are amazing names.

Liv Love Lace is such a good name.

For those wondering about the difference between park and street skating, you want to tell

us, Chloe?

No, you can't.

I'm going to read it word for word.

Park competitions take place on a course that is hollowed out concrete bowl with several

different elements, including ramps, quarter pipes, bumps, things like that.

On the other hand, street skaters use the urban environment.

Therefore, those competitions take place on a street-like course using obstacles you

would find on the street, such as stairs, ledges, curbs, and handrails.

That's actually quite helpful to know.

I love that.

Yeah.

Great.

Let's take a look at the key story.

So, we're talking online athlete abuse and potentially is AI the solution?

So, the results of the newest Women in Football survey are in, and the data was collected

only last month, so it is very fresh.

The survey shows that 89% of women have experienced discrimination.

At work in the football space, despite the public outcry following the Luis Rubiales incident

in 2023, how could we forget?

The survey also suggests that women reporting discrimination in football are often still

not taken seriously.

Doc, more than 60% of those who reported an incident said no action was taken as a result,

and among those, 16% say they were not even listened to.

It's just more than 60%.

That number is appalling.

So bad.

I love how you're just quietly shaking your head.

Yeah.

Women in Football CEO, Yvonne Harrison, has said everyone knows that gender discrimination

happens in football, but the problem isn't just that it happens, there's an even bigger

problem around how football deals with it.

We know there is willingness in the football industry to work for gender equality, and

we appreciate the contribution of our male allies in achieving it.

Obviously, with that Denmark thing the other day.

For real progress to be achieved at this point, the message of our survey is clear, listen

to women and act on what they tell you.

According to the survey data, both the prevalence of gender-based discrimination and the prevalence

of gender-based discrimination in women in football are not the same.

In fact, the percentage of gender-based discrimination and the shortcomings of the reporting process

are worse for women who work in football and belong to an ethnic group that is underrepresented

in the industry.

Online hate is also perceived to be on the rise by survey participants, with 44% saying

they have witnessed an increase in discriminatory social media posts, and 18% being directly

subjected to more such abuse.

It's just, it's horrible, and I completely agree with those numbers, not that it matters

whether I agree with them or not, but just from personal experience.

It's almost as if the more women in sport are being elevated, their voices and their

stories are being championed, there's this group of men that are just fighting harder

to battle against it.

I've actually changed up my tactic lately with the TFAP socials.

For a period of time, I would try, depending on the type of comment, to reason with some

of them with stats and data, but I've actually just gone with the tactic now of just blocking.

I think it just was, I almost would get so deep in this hole.

And it would, it would, it would impact my mood, it would impact how I was feeling,

I would feel overwhelmed, particularly on Facebook, the cesspit, like thousands of comments

that I can't even keep, I can't even keep up with blocking them all.

I've put the keywords on to try and like stop those comments, but you just, you can't win.

But I just think blocking them for the time being is the solution I'm going with.

Sometimes, rarely, I'll reply, but blocking is the solution I'm going with, because otherwise

it's too overwhelming.

It is.

And I think that's a really important point.

And as someone that's speaking from a lived experience, it does affect you.

It's no joke.

It's not something that you can just ignore and people say, don't read under the line

and all that kind of stuff.

But the reality is, it's there, it affects people and it needs to stop.

It does.

Let's talk solutions because it does often feel overwhelming.

So let's talk a potential solution.

Are we a bit scared about AI?

Well, not if it can be like this.

Okay, go.

So this year's Paris Games will mark the first time that AI will be used to provide safe

online spaces.

With such a large number of athletes competing in so many sports at the same time.

The AI powered system will monitor thousands of accounts on all major social media platforms

and in 35 plus languages in real time.

I reckon the Facebook bot's going to be working the hardest.

Oh yeah, it's going to be working overtime.

Any identified threats will be flagged so that abusive messages can be dealt with effectively

by the relevant social media platforms.

In many cases, before the athlete has even had the chance to see the abuse.

That is the integral part of it.

Super important.

Because if they see it, it doesn't matter if it's deleted later.

Yeah, it doesn't matter.

Kirsty Burrows, head of the Safe Sport Unit at the IOC, highlights how online abuse has

become a key challenge affecting society and sport today.

Sport and social media are inextricably linked.

At Paris 2024, we are expecting around half a billion social media posts.

Billion with a B.

The AI powered tool was successfully piloted during Olympic Esports Week, where it monitored

targeted abusive content.

This included identifying slurs, offensive images and emojis, or other phrases that could

indicate abuse.

During Paris 2024, a dedicated mental health helpline will also be offered to all participants

for a period of four years, while the Athlete365 Mindzone, a first of its kind for the Games,

will provide a space for athletes to mentally prepare themselves, as well as creating a

safe space for honest conversations with trained staff around mental health and safeguarding.

The event will be held in Paris 2024 at the IOC.

Maybe not today.

Maybe not in any other event.

Yaarac will now engage with technical support and try to

build lead for all athletes.

So are there any surroundings that athletes think could be haven in a sport event?

really similar numbers to what deacon found and it is it's a workplace and athletes need to be

made safe in their workplace yeah 100 and especially a lot of these athletes are not

professional earning big big bucks so their social media platform is there where they sell themselves

they have to have it they can't just turn it off it's not as simple as that and they have so many

more eyes on them during the olympics yeah the argument of just ignore it and turn it off is

just not relevant it doesn't stop using it let's take a look at what to watch

state of origin yeah yeah this is all chloe's fault it's back it's i'm sorry and this time

it's going to be an amazingly historic awesome game three decider so first game three ever and

we've got a decider because of chloe while the blues got the job done against the maroons in

last year's decider in townsville the maroons still clinched the series on points aggregate

and that was just all ridiculous boring so hopefully new south wales will have plenty

of motivation in camp to win again but win and

you

hold the trophy above their heads the game kicks off this thursday at 7 45 p.m aest and you can

catch all of the action live on the nine network and if you are anywhere in queensland go because

i think they're trying to break another record again can't wait in super netball why did i just

sound like a kiwi did you hear that i know why i blame riley that's when your partner is from

new zealand super netball this week we'll see top of the table clash in the super netball

win the second place adelaide thunderbirds post ladder leaders the melbourne vixens the

thunderbirds will be out for revenge after going down to the vixens by just one point in round two

earlier this year looking to hand the vixens just their second loss of the season the match begins

this saturday at 5 p.m a.e.s.t and is live on ko and fox netball and in surfing the vivo rio pro

will i think continue their waiting period in brazil there's not a lot of sweat on the horizon

it is the final event before the olympic games in paris

which I can't wait for.

It's going to be amazing.

You can watch all the action live on the World Surf League app

and also I believe it's on Channel 7.

Great.

That's the wrap.

That is the wrap.

Always a pleasure with you.

That was genuine.

Was it?

Yes.

Oh, she's having a nice Monday, team.

Oh, you're making me sound like a jerk.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

You're not going to fix that?

No.

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