Part one: What's the score, 2024?
My highlights and the things I'm still mulling over
We have all made it to the end of 2024. Congratulations, I know it’s been a grind of a year. I am pre-loading as much as I can this week to actually try to give myself a couple of weeks off - hooray! But I know you will all miss me terribly so I have written the longest thing to tie you over.
I say I wrote this for you but honestly, like everything I write it’s for me too. It’s no secret that the world of women’s sport is growing at an ever accelerating rate. Because of this, it’s hard to hold the thread of what happened when and where it’s all got to. With this recap, I’ve attempted here to pick these pieces back up and put them into chronological order. Sharing my personal highlights and the things I’ll still be thinking on in the New Year.
Today, we will start with the first six months followed by the rest of the year next week. I will then take a wee break before returning to your inbox 10 January.
Sweet? Okay good.
January - Something old, something new
It was the first major women’s rugby announcement of the year, was the introduction of the long debated British & Irish Lions side. Before the TBCs were dropped off the 2024 Black Ferns schedule, it was confirmed that this team would be touring Aotearoa in 2026.
This announcement occupies the same place in my mind as doubleheaders. Very early 2000s in it’s vision and it’s usefulness. Sharing a platform when you don’t have one of your own makes sense. This Lions side is coat tailing rather than trailblazing though. It’s introduction will just entrench the status quo.
While this news was breaking, I took part in the inaugural Women’s Football Centre sessions. Whereas the whole vibe around the Lions is that of rehabbing tradition, this space felt distinctly new. Designed by women, for women, to fill in the gaps they have identified in programming. This pre-pre-season was an on ramp was for those that may have disconnected or perhaps never experienced sports. It was bloody brilliant.
All of this just again highlights for me that the best thing we can do for women’s sport is empower women in sport to lead. Let us identify problems, design solutions and we will go a long further than a world tour once every 4 years.
My highlight:
Being a participant in the football sessions. It’s been so long since I engaged with sport that way, particularly now it’s my job. It was powerful to just put the emphasis back onto play. Showing that exercise in my retirement could just be about having fun.
Still thinking about:
How deeply angry I am that it’s men’s egos sidelining the most important development space for international women’s rugby. The WXV is far from perfect but it’s a tide that lifts more boats than most. It’s so shameful that we have let this pass and that the coverage has been celebratory.
Take a look at this: The Women’s Football Centre is back for year 2!
February - Athlete’s unite
In February, the Athlete’s Cooperative won it’s case to force High Performance Sport NZ to recognise them as a union. Paving the way for negotiations with this collective of 60 of our top Olympic athletes over their pay and conditions. This was a big deal as sports in Aotearoa has seemed to be stuck in a never ending cycle of incident and review. Having an independent collective could well be the reset we all need.
High Performance Sport has since appealed this decision (booooooo!) which last I heard was back before the courts in September.
My highlight:
Seeing so many of the young women in the rugby team I coached turn up at the whole club preseason training. This felt huge as usually our women don’t turn up in great numbers until we split from the men. This group walked into the space without any sense that it wasn’t for them. It’s a small thing but felt like real progress I am proud to have fought for.
Still thinking about:
The way in which our pākehā worldview truly doesn’t make room for partnership. We define power and control as much the same thing making it so hard for us to form any meaningful connections. As a result, both we and the structures we have built, will always default to individualism. This fundamental flaw is the root of many of our current woes.
Take a look at this: Olympic champion, Emma Twigg, is involved in this collective and spoke to me about it in an episode of my podcast earlier this year.
March - Using platforms
March madness introduced the wider sporting world to two athletes who would go on to shake things up in the US. Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s rivalry translated over from college ball to the WNBA, contributing to the largest ever season in the sport’s history.
It was history in the women’s game that echoed history in the men’s. I find these loops fascinating because once you start spotting them, you’ll realise they are everywhere! Donnell broke down this parallel on Tiktok and what it says about race politics in sport. It’s well worth the watch, particularly if you still think Tiktok is just dances.
While these two athletes were building platforms over in America, back home two athletes were using theirs. Leilani Perese and the Hurricanes Poua, laying down the challenge to the agenda of this current Government in their haka. Arihiana Marino-Tauhinu, then picked up what they were putting down on behalf of the Chiefs Manawa.
I said everything I needed to say in this interview with Darcy on Newstalk ZB at the time but do not let my confident voice fool you. I knew all of this was deeply important and I was terrified of getting it wrong. I can only begin to comprehend what kaha it would have taken from these athletes to not just talk about it, but be about it that day.
My highlight:
The Poua then beat Matatū at home after all of the ire they walked through that week. It was such a good game and the win was one of the sweetest I have ever experienced.
Still thinking about:
It is telling that both kaea from that fateful day did not get contracted for the 2025 Aupiki season. Arihiana Marino-Tauhinu was the starting Black Ferns halfback going into the last season. While Leilani Perese is a prop with Black Fern experience, something still in relatively hot demand in this competition.
Both of these players have been involved since day one, we are talking Auckland’s exhibition match back in May 2021. Don’t tell me they would have been retired were it not for these events.
Take a look at this: Scrums became art this month, I still can’t believe I got to take part in this one!
April - A new set of contracts
The total number of contracts on offer to Black Ferns 15s players grew to 40 this year. Marking a steady increase since their introduction in 2017. This list cast a wide net into our prospective front rowers, with props and hookers making up nearly a third of our contracted players.
It was a reward for Aupiki form with Hannah King and Kahlia Awa both rocketing up the ranks due to strong showings. However, it would be Maia Joseph who ended up getting the game time on the world stage. Leaving me wondering, when will we see Awa get a proper shot?
My highlight:
This was the month I made my writing debut for Scrum Queens. Back before anyone bothered covering women’s rugby in any meaningful way, this site was my lifeline. To have been picked up as a monthly contributor by a place so important to me personally, was a real honour.
Still thinking about:
Monica Tagoia and what her selection potentially represents. Yet another thing I am loathed to adopt from the men’s game is the poaching of eligible players from our Pasifika neighbours. It’s feels yuck and plays poorly for the long term health of the game.
Link for more: Putting the eligibility question straight to Allan Bunting
May - Ls across the board
It was a bad month for New Zealand Rugby. The boardroom collapsed in a squabbling heap and the Black Ferns lost to Canada for the first time in their history. I watched all of this and yet struggled to feel any great sense of despair. There was an air of inevitability for both events and the hope that bad might teach us something good.
My highlight:
Controversially, watching the Canadian win the Pacific Four with that famous win over the Black Ferns. I’d been flirting for a while but this was the beginning of my love affair this year with Canadian women’s rugby. It’s a hyperfixation I will be carrying over into the New Year.
Still thinking about:
How little I honestly give a shit about governance in rugby. My interests have never been represented around boardroom tables and all this time spent rearranging chairs this year won’t change that. It’s going to be up to us to save us. We need to pull our socks up and play our game.
Link for more: I worked with a group of players to bring their views on supporting mum’s in rugby. Lots of gold nuggets in this piece from the grassroots up!
June - Here comes the crowd
Over the ditch, Aussie showed us what could be done to bring in the crowd. The Matilda’s built on the momentum of their home football World Cup to fill a stadium on a school night. Honestly, watching these scenes just made me more depressed about how NZR fumbled the Black Ferns bag.
The same week, they set new records for attendance at the Women’s State of Origin. I know I say all the time, it’s easier to stage a thing than change a thing and I do believe that. But I will also say, looking at the events of this year I don’t think we know how to do either.
NZR boss, Mark Robinson, said this year would bring a fan focus to their plans. Have you see it? I still feel outside of their view.
My highlight:
Joining a press conference online for the first drop of ticketing information for the Rugby World Cup. It made me realise what the format can be if you have a team of clued in journalists. The level of detail in the questioning is yet another reason England is at the top of the game.
Still thinking about:
The massive inflation of ticket prices in just 3 years. I paid basically the same price for a ticket to the Rugby World Cup final next year as I did for the tournament pass that got me access to every match in 2022. Such exponential growth is so normalised in women’s sports at the moment, I don’t think we ever fully stop to take stock of how wild it is.
Link for more: Sometimes I just write the snarky thing I feel and it ends up being the most fun.