Club Respect

Marina Go was staggered when she realised the sheer volume of sex videos of rugby league players doing the rounds on social media. The former chairwoman of the Wests Tigers remembers how the moment came in a casual conversation last year with one of the club's coaches.

24 October 2018: Club Respect co-founders Mary Crooks AO (Victorian Women's Trust) and Paul Zappa spoke to Guardian Australia about our latest initiative Club Respect and how it will equip clubs to become places of respect and fair play.

12 September 2018: Club Respect, a new website created by the Victorian Women’s Trust and NIRODAH, will help sporting clubs of all codes and levels hit the ground running when it comes to preventing violent or abusive behaviour.

5 September 2018: Club Respect is a practical website designed for sports clubs of all shapes and sizes to reduce violent and abusive behaviour. Whether you are a coach, a player, a spectator, club president or parent, Club Respect provides you with simple strategies to make a positive impact. Pass it on.

AFL is my thing – I’ve loved it as long as I can remember. Being a Hawthorn fan, it was easy to love what happened on the field and for years that was enough. But the longer I have lived, the more that love has been complicated, fraught and frequently challenged.

“You’re starting on the bench today,” said my Under-11’s soccer coach on a cold and windy Sunday in 1994. I didn’t end up playing at all that game and it was freezing. Maybe I should’ve tried harder at the training session leading up to match day?

You can hardly talk about Australian culture without talking about sport. Whether it’s surfing down the coast on the weekend, playing a game of backyard cricket with your mates, or cheering on your team at the MCG, most Australians participate in sport in some way.

Brian Phelan is the player development manager at Melbourne Storm, a position he has held since 2006. For many years, Brian has been a friend of the Victorian Women’s Trust (VWT), one of the creators of Club Respect, and he is the prime example of someone who uses sport to bring people together.

Participation in women’s sport has grown exponentially in recent years. There are 80,000 more females playing Australian rules football in 2017; females now account for 30% of all participants. And there are now 1,690 dedicated female teams – an increase of 76% on 2017 numbers.