Welcome to The Wrap, a weekly podcast covering women's sports news.
Once again, I'm joined by my special co-host, Sez,
who is coming to us live from Wallaroo's camp.
Sez, what have we got around the grounds this week?
The prelim finals are set in the AFLW.
The Paramotors defeat the USA for the first time ever
and Whoopi Goldberg gives us all of what we want.
For the key story, we'll discuss the battle to bring together
the Afghanistan women's XI cricket team.
To play a T20 match in Melbourne in January.
We are, well, I'm actually coming to you from Narm.
You're coming to us from Gadigal land.
We're separated today, as I said, Sez is in Wallaroo's camp.
How are you going, Sez?
First morning, you've got a Bronco coming up.
How are you feeling?
Yeah, thank you so much for telling everyone I've got a Bronco test coming up.
You know, I'm just really trying to stay high performance at the moment,
sense myself in gratitude and know that I've got this.
I just hate Broncos.
You got this, mate.
I've actually got this.
Let's take a look around the grounds.
In AFLW, we had two epic semifinals on Saturday.
The first was pretty much a clinic from the Adelaide Crows at Norwood Oval.
They were just too classy for the Friot Dockers,
looking comfortable throughout their seven-goal 749 to one-goal 612 win.
It was pretty hot in Adelaide and the 35-degree temperatures saw the heat
policy put in place and extended breaks were taken.
The Crows were impressive with their pressure,
locking the ball in their forward.
For long periods and converting that pressure into goals and when Friot did manage to drive
the ball deep towards their goal, they were faced with impressive backline
doer Zoe Prowse and Chelsea Biddle, who refused to allow the Dockers weapons any space.
Ebony Marinoff, again, huge 32 disposals and Anne Hatcher, also huge 24 disposals.
They were just instrumental in everything that the Crows did.
The Crows now face their nemesis Brisbane in another prelim final.
The Lions being one of the only teams who have the wood over Adelaide,
in recent times, Adelaide coach Matthew Clarke said,
They've got us a few times, but we've been around the mark.
The good news is we don't have to play a hell of a lot better, I believe.
The second semifinal was an absolute thriller.
Port Adelaide were down by 22 points at three-quarter time and came from the clouds to
break Hawthorne Hearts by one point in their seven-goals 850 to six-goals 1349 victory.
It was the biggest final quarter comeback in AFLW history.
Port entered the final term knowing they had nothing to lose and Gemma Horton was exceptional
with 13 disposals and two goals.
The Hawks just couldn't match the speed and unpredictability of the Power's ball movement
and the pace that they showed on their wings.
The Hawks will rue their inability to convert their inside 50s.
They finished the game with 51 compared to the Power's 29.
Port Adelaide coach Lauren Arnell reflected on the rough start the Power have had in the
AFLW, winning one game in its first season, end two in its second.
Port Adelaide coach Lauren Arnell said,
That's the beauty of sport.
You go through some pretty tough stuff and once you go through some hard times and learn
the lessons that you need to get on the good end and it feels like that right now.
On the other side of the coin, as we said, Hawks coach Daniel Webster summed it up with
one word telling media he and the team were shattered.
22 more inside 50s, four more scoring shots and losing a final.
It's the Power have earned themselves a spot in the prelim final against Minor Premier's
North Melbourne next weekend.
With the Paramatildas, they are in Spain competing in the IFCPF Women's World Cup and are two
from two in their pool, having defeated the world champion USA team three to one on the
It was the first time in the history that they have bettered the USA and it was the
USA side's first ever World Cup defeat.
The defending world champs scored first, but the Aussies did not drop their heads and the
goal in the 10th minute to Talia Blanchard leveled the scores, won all.
Georgia Bakehoff broke the deadlock with an incredible long range.
Strike and Louise Northam got the Paramatildas third for the day, driving the ball into the
bottom corner of the net from a long range to seal the three to one victory.
The Aussies opened the tournament with a six to zero win over Japan and now face Ireland and
Denmark to complete their pool matches.
The Paramatildas are Australia's national football team for athletes with cerebral palsy,
acquired brain injury and symptoms of stroke, and they play in a minute version of the game
using smaller fields and goals, shorter halves and no offsides.
They also play five a side with the game being compared.
The Paramatildas won a silver medal at the 2022 World Cup and are looking to go one better in
In some surfing news, the WSL, the World Surf League, last week announced an expanded women's
field for the 2026 championship tour, increasing the roster to 24 surfers up from 18 currently.
The organization said that the increase was driven by the women's performances and with
a commitment to supporting the progression, the field size increase will provide more
opportunities for women to compete at the highest level.
Under the new format from 2026, events will include the top 14 surfers from the CT, the
championships tour, and the top seven qualifiers from the Challenger Series, two WSL seasonal
wildcards and one event wildcard.
A decision is still to be made about the women's mid-season cut will remain at just 10, which
it will be reduced to in 2025 after the seventh tour stop in the 11 event schedule.
While the increase is welcome, the number of surfers is still high, and the women's
is still less than the 36 surfers on the men's tour.
15-year veteran Aussie Sally Fitzgibbon said in a press release,
I couldn't be more proud of where the level of women's surfing is currently at.
Growing the tour is the next logical step in that natural progression.
All over the world, women are stepping it up every time they hit the water and on tour.
We're seeing intense heats and fierce rivalries.
It's what everyone wants to see.
I'm so stoked that it's happening.
The World Cup of Tennis is currently being played in Malaga, Spain.
It will be the first time in the history that the Billie Jean King Cup Finals will
be played alongside the Davis Cup Finals.
The Billie Jean King Cup will offer equal prize money to the Davis Cup, with the 2024
champions receiving a combined $2.4 million US dollars.
This year, a record 137 nations entered the competition, and we are down to the final 12.
The Aussie team captain by Stam Stoes Up features Isla Tomnanovic, Olivia Gadecki, Kimberly
Burrell, Daria Seville, and Ella.
Their quarterfinal was against Slovakia, who upset the USA in their previous tie, and the
Slovakians again proved too strong for their more fancied appointment.
Kimberly Burrell and Isla Tomnanovic both lost their single rubbers to send the Aussies
crashing out of the tournament.
Yeah, that was a rough loss this morning.
In some football news, here are some tasty crowd stats coming out of football.
Data from Two Circles published last week show that average attendance across the top
four European women's soccer leagues increased by 24% during the 2023-2024 season.
The year-on-year increase in attendances over some of the main competitions were 41% in
the English WSL, 38% in the French D1 Feminine, 11% for Spain's Liga F, and 6% across Germany's
Not shockingly, and you'll be shocked by this, I'm sure you won't be, the report stated that
attendance continues to grow as clubs open the doors to larger stadiums, tapping into
iconic venues with greater capacities to draw.
Bigger crowds, particularly from men's team first club fans and big event attendees.
Knock me down with a feather, bigger stadiums, bigger crowds.
You want to go, right?
That is some groundbreaking stuff.
A perfect example of this can be seen in Arsenal's numbers, who recorded an average attendance
of 52,000 fans for games at the Emirates Stadium, compared to the average crowd of 3,595 that
went to their games at Meadow Park in Boreham Wood.
The report points to the UEFA Women's Euros in Switzerland.
Next year as another key event, which will help continue to drive the attendance numbers
across the region.
Give it the platform and people will feel it.
In broadcasting news, we have all seen this and been very excited by the news that the
US comedian and television host Whoopi Goldberg last week.
Goldberg confirmed that she would be launching the All Women's Sports Network, known as AWSN,
a new 24-7 global women's sports channel.
The network will be available in 65 countries and show action.
From comps such as the UEFA Women's Nations League, the Women's Tennis Association Tour,
and the International Basket Federation 3x3 Women's Series.
Goldberg told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show,
Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to play sports.
My brother could play.
He played baseball.
He played softball.
He played basketball.
He played everything.
And they would say, oh, hi, little girl.
It always pissed me off.
Pissed us off too, Whoopi.
We're with you, Whoop.
Is whoop a thing?
I don't think so.
Look, I'm known for a pretty ordinary nickname, so carry on.
Back to Whoopi and her quote.
She said, so for years I've been talking to people and saying, wouldn't it be great if
we could go around the world, start getting young athletes in high school so that we can
grow with them and grow up with them.
It would be great.
Would be so good.
Excitingly, the WNBL confirmed that AWSN has purchased the rights to broadcast the WNBL with a
digital platform set to air 48 WNBL regular season games live, along with all finals games.
Christy Collier-Hill, head of the WNBL, told media, reaching fans globally and showcasing
our incredible athletes, clubs and competition is a major milestone for the league.
We're excited to see the positive impact this will bring to our players, fans and stakeholders.
That's some really exciting news for WNBL to be, I think, the first Australian sporting
organization under AWSN.
And like we said, we've got a lot of great players in the league.
We've got a lot of great players in the league.
We've got a lot of great players in the league.
We've got a lot of great players in the league.
We've got a lot of great players in the league.
We've got a lot of great players in the league.
We've got a lot of great players in the league.
And like we said, visibility is so important.
So to be streaming across 65 different countries, huge.
Kids across the globe will know your name.
And I think that's really special.
In some WBBL news, Alyssa Healey found herself in an unfamiliar position last Thursday.
The Aussie captain and wicketkeeper for the Sydney Sixers found herself without the keeping
gloves on in her side's 12 run loss to the Brisbane Heat.
Funnily enough, the ball still found her.
She managed to swallow two catches in the outfield.
But unfortunately, a knee injury will see Healey miss.
She missed the remainder of the WBBL.
And there are concerns about her fitness ahead of next month's ODI series against India.
The WBBL finals race is set to go down to the wire with just four points separating
teams one to six in the standings.
The Sydney Thunder look to be the team to beat, sitting on top of the table with 10
But shockingly, the two-time reigning champions, the Adelaide Strikers, have just one win from
And they look set to miss the top four.
The top four advance to the finals in WBBL 10.
With a top-ranked team at the end of the 56-game regular season, directly progressing to
and hosting the final on December 1st.
In boxing, I think everyone saw this on their socials, but 60 million people turned on Netflix
to watch 58-year-old Mike Tyson fight in a ridiculous bout against Jake Paul, who is
31 years younger than the veteran.
But the real contest took place in the first fight before the main card, when Katie Taylor
defended her super lightweight crown against Amanda Serrano in the WBBL finals.
In a very controversial points decision, the Puerto Rican Serrano appeared to dominate
the fight, landing 324 punches to Taylor's 217.
But when the scorecards were read out, it was once again the Irish woman, Taylor, who
got the decision, with all three judges scoring the fight 95 to 94.
Serrano was cut horribly over the right eye by an accidental headbutt, but said after
the fight, she kept headbutting me.
It's what she does.
It's not just my fight.
It's all her fights.
Taylor was won twice for excessive use of her head, and she had a point deducted in the
I mean, the nine rounds, they were an enthralling battle held at the home of the
Dallas Cowboys in front of an estimated crowd of 70,000 fans.
So this follows an equally high quality fight between the two fighters in April 2022, which
some hailed as one of the best fights ever held at Madison Square Garden.
So these two have a seriously good history going on.
Serrano said after the fight, I knew if it went to the judges, it was going to be a little
I chose to be great.
I went up three divisions.
It is what it is.
I'm a featherweight man.
Taylor defended herself and her performance, saying I certainly wasn't fighting dirty.
It gets rough in there.
It was an absolute slugfest, a war.
This is an amazing moment in women's boxing.
Thank God for another amazing fight.
So it looks to be plenty between these two, as we said.
And a third fight is absolutely on the cards with promoters looking to take Taylor home
to fight in Ireland at Croke Park, which could hold more than 82,000 people.
I think we should absolutely make that happen.
I think we should go and watch it, Bez.
All right, let's take a look at the key stories.
In some cricket news, Australian cricket has announced that Afghanistan women's 11 will
play a T20 match in Melbourne in January, more than three years after the players fled
the Taliban in their home country.
They will compete against a side assembled by the Cricket Without Borders charity at
Junction Oval on Thursday, January 30.
It will be the first time an Afghanistan women's cricket team has taken to the field since,
since the Taliban's bloody takeover in 2021.
The players will assemble for a two-day camp in Melbourne to reconnect and train with each other
after being spread between Melbourne and Canberra after their arrival.
The group of players have repeatedly asked the ICC for assistance in setting up a team in
Australia, but these requests have been knocked back by the ICC's requirement that only the
governing body of cricket in Afghanistan, the Afghanistan Cricket Board, could organize the
The players released a joint statement in July saying, in part, like the Afghanistan men's team
is important, we aim to compete at the highest levels.
We want to recruit and train girls and women who love cricket to show the world the talent
of Afghan women and to demonstrate the great victories they can achieve if given a chance
through the leadership and financial support of the ICC.
There has been a push to set aside a percentage of Afghanistan cricket revenue to fund women's
cricket, but so far this has failed.
It has been reported that the Afghanistan Cricket Board receives about $17 million US
dollars annually as part of the ICC's revenue distribution model.
The large majority of the revenue is distributed to the women's cricket team, which is the
majority of these funds are used to allow the men's team to reside and play cricket in the UAE and
India as they cannot play in Afghanistan due to security issues.
Sydney Morning Herald spoke to Afghanistan cricketer Firuza Amiri in July this year.
Firuza received a visa to travel to Australia due to her status as a cricketer contracted to the ACB,
the Afghanistan Cricket Board. However, after the Taliban took over,
her family had to hide her identity as the Taliban do not allow females to play sport in
She was unable to leave via Kabul's airport as the Taliban regime reasserted itself and instead,
her family concocted a story that the family were travelling to Pakistan for a hospital visit,
at each checkpoint hiding who they really were and where they were actually going.
To ensure her secret was kept safe, Firuza burnt everything that signified she played cricket.
She burnt her uniforms, her equipment and her bats.
The family experienced a terrifying moment in a talk-in, but with Firuza telling the CityMorningHour
When we arrived in talk-in, there were Taliban asking where we were going.
And when we said the hospital, they were asking for medical certificates, which we didn't have.
Then my brother says, okay, I'm a basketball player and I have a match I have to go to.
And so they said, okay, you can go because he was a man and that's how we got into Pakistan.
Yes, it is intense.
Now Firuza will have the chance to play again and Cricket Australia hopes the
match will highlight the skill and resilience of the Afghanistan players and reward the efforts of
groups and individuals who have helped the team continue to play cricket in Australia.
Cricket Australia boss Nick Hockley said in a statement,
many people across cricket and the community have come together to provide support for members of the
Afghanistan women's team since their relocation to Australia.
And this match will be a celebration of that work.
I'm delighted that their ambition to play together will be achieved in this exhibition match,
which will be a wonderful addition to many events around the Day and Night Women's Ashes Test.
Let's take a look at what to watch.
The Paramotildas looked
to continue their run at the World Cup when they face off against Denmark on Tuesday morning at 12.15 a.m.
You can catch all the action on Football Australia's YouTube channel and keep an eye out for the final schedule.
In football, Arsenal host Juventus at Emirates Stadium in London on Friday morning Aussie time.
Kick off is at 7 o'clock a.m.
AEDT and you can watch our Aussie Gunners stars live and free on the streaming platform DAZN and their YouTube channel.
It's prelim finals time for the AFLW with a spot in the granny on the line.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
That's what Victoria said.
7.30 p.m. ADT for the rest of us later that night.
Grab your tickets and get to the games.
And if you can't, make sure you tune in on the Seven Network or Fox 40.
It is Unite Round in the A-League,
and Leichhardt Oval will be hosting all six matches
with doubleheaders on each day.
On Sunday, first up at 1.30 p.m. is Canberra United and Perth Glory,
followed by Sydney FC and Melbourne City FC.
It'll be a great weekend at Leichhardt, so get your tickets
or be sure to watch live on 10 Play.
And that is the wrap.
See you next week, everyone.
And Sezi, enjoy camp.
Win at the Bronco.
I receive all of it.
All the good things that you're asking of me.