Welcome to The Wrap, a weekly podcast covering women's sports news.
Bez, what have we got around the grounds this week?
We need 200,000 people to fill in the bloody big survey.
Talk more about that later, obviously.
Football icon Lydia Williams retires from the Matildas
and the WNBA is heading to Toronto.
For the key story, we'll chat about an absolute debacle
that happened in the Suncorp Super Netball game last night.
We're recording on Sunday today.
This will come out on Tuesday.
So this is confusing for the listeners, but I'm off to Japan on Monday.
So we had to get it done a little bit early.
Someone's going on holidays.
So don't send me an email.
No, she's out of office, people.
My name is Chloe Dalton.
I'm joined every week on the show by my co-host Bez.
We're recording on Gadigal land.
Let's take a look around the grounds.
Bit of survey news.
So Bez, as you said, share the dignity.
They do a survey.
It's called the bloody big survey.
They're trying to get 200,000 respondents.
I was just looking on their website.
I think they're at about 144,000 respondents.
So what they found is, as a lot of women know,
there's a real lack of data when it comes to menstruation.
They are trying to advocate for change in that space for people
who experience really serious period poverty.
And they're seeking people to fill out their survey that's aimed at learning
and understanding more about attitudes, behaviors,
and shortcomings related to periods.
So I'm going to put the link in the show notes so you can learn
a little bit more about that one.
And you've got till May 31st.
In some Rugby Union news, the Wallaroos opened their pack four series
on Saturday night in Sydney with a 33 to 14 loss to Canada.
The Canadians were really strong in set piece and they scored all their
tries through that powerful weapon.
The driving more from the line out was exceptional and their scrum won four
of the Wallaroos' feeds.
So they're definitely stats that the Aussies will be looking to reverse
when they take on the USA in Melbourne on Friday night if they can get their
set piece working.
And I think they're probably lacking a little bit of punch in the middle.
We were last night.
It's hard to get crack at the moment.
No one knows what day it is.
I think if they can do those things.
So obviously sort out those set piece shortcomings and just get over the advantage line more
often in the middle of the field.
We've got some amazing edge forwards and some great outside backs.
We'll find space.
But I think we were just lacking that midfield punch on Saturday.
The USA were outclassed by the Black Ferns.
The New Zealand going down 57 to five.
So this Friday is a must win for both teams.
It's a top three teams from the pack four series qualify for WXV one later in the year.
And pre-match you got to go to a Wallaroos reunion.
You weren't you were almost you were one of those.
I was almost a Wallaroo.
I was almost a Wallaroo.
I got invited to a training camp.
Because of the beep test?
Yeah, pretty much.
I knew my skills at that age.
I think what is very cool.
Not the not not cool about the fact that you weren't actually a Wallaroo.
But it's amazing to see more effort being put in in the women's space to recognize alumni and former players.
Because that's one of the things in the women's game that has really been lacking.
It was a really it was a really amazing buzz in that room.
There was probably I don't know between 40 and 50 women there.
Some hadn't seen each other for up to 20 years.
Yeah, it was it was a real amazing vibe.
And just think little things like they had a heap of kit out.
Like old old jerseys.
Old training gear.
I think most of it was Selena Worsley's.
And then at the end we were still there and I was talking to Sel at the time.
And the archivist, the RA have a proper archivist, was putting her stuff back into a like tissue wrapped box with black gloves on.
And I was like, Sel, I'd be using gloves.
I was touching your jersey too just quietly.
Never got to wash.
And they had a whole heap of information up and cap numbers and photos.
And yeah, it was it was really great.
Probably overdue, but it's very welcome from our age.
We put in the classic Waller history putting some time into this.
In athletics world pole vault champion Nina Kennedy has made an impressive start to her Diamond League campaign.
Kennedy finished second in her first international competition of the year.
Been only on count back by Great Britain's world indoor champion Molly Cordery.
Both leapers, polars, vaulters, vaulters.
What do you reckon?
What do you reckon?
What is the short?
Vaulters, I think.
But I'm, you know, getting in the zone.
Heard it here first.
At pole vaulters.
Please help us in the comments section of this one.
They both sawed over 4.73 meters on their first attempts to separate themselves from
the field before the bar of 4.83 meters proved too high for the rising duo who passed at 4.78
Kennedy had one miss at 4.53.
That's really the podcast.
That's really the podcast at 4.78 meters.
Kennedy had one miss at 4.53, which came back to haunt her on the old count back.
Didn't you hate that?
Did you ever do high jump in school athletics?
The face you just gave me!
Not your strength?
How long have we been friends for?
Well, I enjoyed high jump back in my day.
But you didn't enjoy a count back?
I didn't enjoy a count back.
It comes to haunt you like it did for our mate Nina Kennedy.
Anyway, on to Jessica.
Hull, friend of TFAP. She was immense
in a very physical 1,500 meters
that she sort of... It's a bit of a
I love that. Which is quite interesting in a race
that is technically a
very non-contact sport.
Happens a bit in those distance events
though. Yeah, it does. Jostling for position.
Isn't jostle a great word? Great word.
us on the straight and narrow here. Goodness me.
She finished strongly to also take
second in four minutes flat
0.84. Still need to work on my
time pronunciation. Just behind Ethiopia's
who was about 0.4 of a second
ahead of her. And in difficult
conditions 2022 world
champ Eleanor Patterson was back
in peak high jumping form
clearing 1.91 to claim third
place. Not as good as Chloe Dolan at school
though. In football,
Lydia Williams, a proud Noongar woman and
longest serving Matilda has announced she will
retire from international football at the conclusion
of the Paris Olympics. This is
devastating. I like expected
19 years is probably
probably a decent, decent time to serve
your country. I first represented the Matildas in
2005. I think she deserves a break.
Williams is a goal
keeping legend and has played for the Matildas
103 times over a 19 year career.
She's been to five World Cups
AFC Women's Asia Cup
title. Williams told media after
a lot of thought and discussion with my family
and friends now seems like the right time to announce. I'll
be stepping away from international football following
the end of Paris 2024 Olympics.
It has been an absolute honor and privilege
to represent my country, my heritage, my
sport, my family and many teammates over
the past 19 years. Playing for
the comeback Matildas across FIFA, Women's World Cups,
Olympics and Asian Cups has provided
me with memories and friendships that I will cherish
for the rest of my life. Congratulations
Lydia. Also, if you do want to hear a little bit
more from her, we had her on the podcast just
a few weeks back. So yeah, it was
a great chat. Scroll back a little bit and you'll find her
there. Yep. Get it in your ears.
In basketball, some more big
WNBA news. The commissioner
Cathy Engelbert announced that a full
league wide charter flight
program will be phased in beginning with the
start of the 2024 regular
season. They are making it happen quickly, aren't they?
They sure are. The charter flight topic has
been a hot one amongst the playing group after
having to fly in crowded, delayed and
sometimes cancelled domestic flights.
In February of 2022,
75 million US dollars in capital and
has been deploying the capital in strategic
areas such as marketing, digital
transformation, globalisation and fan
engagement. With the buzz around the
upcoming season, it looks like
they're banking on the old Clarkonomics
spares, bringing in even more
investment to the game. There is a
big buzz. I think there's a big buzz.
There is a big buzz. What did you say the other day about
it's almost like they've had a little futures
out a mortgage on Caitlin Clark. Pretty much.
I don't mind it. I'm here for it. Go buy
a really big house on Caitlin Clark.
I'd back you in. If that applies to
us as well. Yes. There are also
reports from ESPN that WNBA is
in the final stages of negotiations to add
a Toronto franchise for the 2026
season. So the Golden
State, so there's teams coming next
year from Golden State. Has that been
confirmed? Yes. Yeah, cool.
Yes, it has been. So that's next year
and then Toronto sounds like very
certain for 2026 and Portland still
making noise as well. So
the official announcement for the Toronto edition is expected
on May 23rd and it'll be a big reward
I think for Canadian fans who last season sold
out 20,000 seat Scotiabank
Arena for a Chicago Sky versus
Minnesota Lynx game. So that's
great. Yeah. The people have spoken.
The organisation has listened
and some more expansion
news. I guess it's not really expansion
but a new licence in the WNBA
who announced that Geelong United would take
over the licence that was previously
held by the Melbourne Boomers.
The team will play out of Geelong Arena and will be
added to the 2024-25 season.
I think the Boomers were pretty
devastated about that one. Yeah, that's rough.
It is rough for a club that's had a huge
amount of success. Won
the title two years ago, didn't it? Yeah, it was
just recently. Yeah. But
keen to see how Geelong gets around this new team.
Yeah, it's a good, I think it's a
pretty interesting
move from what is really
you know, obviously a decent sized city that only has
one team or two teams, one
club as in Geelong, Cats.
I think it'll be good for them. Quick shout
out before we get into the key story.
Welcoming Sophie, our new
producer, who's online with us,
watching away. She's coming on board
to work across the podcast and
our newsletter, which is super exciting.
And a big thanks to Bailey, who's been
on board doing the production for
I think three and a half years. I was doing the maths.
Crazy. And to Riley, who's
done the newsletter for a number of weeks.
Sophie's always... A number of weeks.
Did I say weeks? Yeah. Definitely
years. Definitely. Sorry, Riley, I really
sold you short there.
She only started the other day.
We let her go. Riley, number of years,
I reckon at least 18 months. And Bez,
research for however long.
You're not going anywhere. You're still co-hosting,
but Sophie's coming on to take on lots of roles, which
is amazing. But yeah, big, big thanks to
those people who will still be involved
in TFAP just in different capacities,
which is exciting. Thought I'd give them a quick shout out.
Yeah, I love that. Thanks, guys.
Takes a village. Takes an absolute
village to raise the TFAP child.
Let's take a look
Unfortunately, all the Suncorp Super Netball news
at the moment is centred on the farce
that took place in the game between the GWS Giants
and the Sunshine Coast Lightning.
Go the Giants. Thank you.
The result was debated.
The result was debated
for more than 35 minutes with a full
recount done of the fourth quarter.
So I'm assuming they
sat down. They did. Watched the
fourth quarter again. I think they sat down and went through every single goal.
This is mind-blowing. It was
so bizarre. So the scoreboard
the Lightning won by a goal.
Yeah, so the scoreboard at the game
But scoring program champion
Dada had it as a 71-all
draw. And I believe both benches score as well.
I think the Giants bench said, no, it's a draw.
The Giants bench thought it was
a draw while the last 90 seconds
was going. I believe so, yeah. Oh, interesting.
Because the TV said 71-all.
So, having believed the game was over,
the umpires and the Lightning players headed to
the sheds, but the Giants stayed on court.
Expecting extra time and kind of
continued to stay warm. Yeah.
Little joggy jogs across the court. The old joggy jogs.
And when the score
was finally confirmed as 71-all,
there was some more debate because it's a new
rule that they play overtime now. Which I'm
here, I'm so here for overtime. Draws suck.
In AFL, they just
stick to draws and it's really disappointing.
It's super flat. And I think in sports
like netball and AFL,
like rugby union,
I get for finals, but it's
not as easy to score when
you're in the game.
You don't score in, say, a 10-minute period.
Yes. Whereas in the
AFL and netball, if you don't score in 10 minutes, there's something
severely wrong. That's very true.
Like a point or, you know, like something.
Just anything. So, a game like
that that can be decided, I think, should be.
Yeah, I totally agree.
So, that's obviously a new rule this year.
And it just went from one
calamity to another. The umpires, they couldn't find the
umpires. After they finally made the
decision that, yep, it's a draw, we're going to
extra time, they couldn't find the umps.
Maybe they were down the road at Subway having
tapped out for the night.
Cup of tea, I reckon, the umps.
Anyway, they were located.
They put down their footlong and they got the whistles out.
That was quite, we didn't even plan
that. That was quite good. Subway's
partnership coming in hot.
Overtime period started nearly an hour
after the match finished.
There's just like so many issues.
Well, you can say the score situation.
So, the Giants dominated overtime
11-1. So, the Lightning
obviously just should have stayed in the sheds.
Go the Giants. There's so many
things to discuss here.
Probably, number one is the fact that
it's ridiculous that this has happened.
It's a really, really poor error for a professional
competition. And I think the second
thing was how it was then handled.
What is happening there with the
level of injury risk to those players?
The time frame. Once it had taken
35 minutes to do the recount,
I feel like they should have said,
okay, we've made a mistake here.
Almost like this game is either
actually declared a draw or,
unfortunately, we reschedule it and we play it again.
Because at that stage, you're not getting
a true result. And I
would have guessed that they might have had parameters
in place for things like, well, they don't really
have weather impacting them. Wet weather.
But like, there was
a light issue. A blackout?
A blackout. That's what they call it. A little while
A little while ago. I hate light issues.
I would imagine that there's
kind of a maximum amount
of time that it's safe to continue playing.
Absolutely. So, it's kind of
weird that it just seems like all protocol went
out the window. And they said, off you go. Good luck.
Get back out there. They gave the Lightning a
10-minute warm-up period before
And they had three girls coming back that have
recently had knee injuries that they were concerned
about. Yeah. Yeah, it's rough.
It is rough. But go the Giants.
Got the first win. We'll take that.
Doesn't matter how it happened.
Let's take a look at
The WNBA season is here and the New York
Liberty hosts the Washington Mystics today.
Tuesday, when you're listening. In the opening
game, tip-off is 9 a.m. AEST
and you can catch all the action live on the WNBA
League Pass. We bought one last
week. Yeah, we did. I watched a trial.
It's bloody excellent.
Do it. Do yourself a favor because 30 minutes
Apparently, I think the Indiana Fever had
their final preseason game last night.
The crowd was three
times bigger than their normal
average league crowd
A trial. Is it a trial? Preseason game.
Yeah. Huge. Massive.
A praccy, they call it. It's not
called a praccy. That's one of the most ridiculous
things. That's right up there with a corky.
What the hell? It's a cork. The AFL have their own terms,
don't they? But 30 minutes later,
the Clark Era does lift off with Indiana Fever
playing at the Connecticut Sun.
Top-off is 9.30 a.m.
Game one of the State of Origin.
Is this Thursday night? It's Origin Week.
How good. 16th of May at Suncorp
Stadium in Brisbane. Kick-off will be
7.45 p.m. And if you're in Brisbane, get
to Suncorp Stadium. But if you're not, watch it live
on the Nine Network. And the Wallaroos
will face the USA in game two of the
Pac-4 series on Friday night in
Melbourne. The match is at Amy Park. Kick-off is
4.55 p.m. It's before the Rebels game.
You can watch all the action live
on Nine Gem and Stansport. Go
the Wallaroos. On Saturday, the
West Coast Fever hosts the Adelaide
Thunderbirds at RAC Arena.
First beat third on the
ladder and it will be a cracker.
The match starts at 5 p.m. local time
7 p.m. AEST and is
live on KO and Fox Netball.
That's the wrap. That is the
wrap. Have an amazing time in
Japan. Thank you very much. If you're in
Japan and you see Chloe, please
get a photo with her.
Getting recognised around here is kind of cool.
Getting recognised in Japan will be next level.
I will still be seeing you from my
we'll do a virtual pod next week.
Oh, thought I had a week off.
Oh, we'll discuss that off
air with the boss.
Head of operations, me.