One lonely lockdown in 2021, a solitary poster in a cafe window caught the eye of Mitch Nivalis as the film-maker left the supermarket in Castlemaine, Victoria. The poster was a call-out for the Mount Alexander Falcons football team, a come-and-try day for women and gender-diverse players.
Nivalis, a lapsed sporty type from childhood, hadn’t seen gender-diverse people actively encouraged to join a football club before. Something stirred.
Nivalis hated football. “I went to one live game when I first moved to Melbourne [from Sydney] 20 years ago, and with the heavy drinking, the heckling and abuse that was being thrown around, all I could think of was I wanted to get out of there,” Nivalis says.
But during the pandemic lockdowns, they lost all their work as a photographer and had been angling for a way to reinvent themselves. They signed up for a master of arts with the idea of challenging gender stereotypes in some way; following the Falcons, they thought, might be the way to do it. Nivalis went along to that first come-and-try session to film it and wound up joining the team.
“And then that following week, we got rejected from the [local] league and I was like, oh – this is actually a story.”
As a child, Nivalis had played on softball and soccer teams, until high school, when many girls forsook games on the oval for sitting on the sidelines, smoking. Reluctantly, in Nivalis’ case.
“It’s so boring and depressing, and you have no idea what your body’s capable of. Now I’m 42 and I’m never going to be as good as I could have been if I’d learned to play back then. I’ll never know my full potential.”
Nivalis brightens when I mention the growing definition of their biceps beneath their red and blue Falcs jersey. The muscling-up of the Falcons diverse group of players is unmistakable during the course of Equal the Contest – the documentary Nivalis made about the team’s fight for legitimacy. Players span the gender spectrum and many are in their 30s and 40s, with no sporting background. The gradual levelling up is like the time lapse of a flower unfurling.
The Falcons were formed in 2019 by Alana Wearne and Louise Conwell, who had played in women’s teams; Sam Henty, who had played for men’s clubs; and Gabe Smith, a local physio with a long sporting history. As the sole male on the board, Henty recognised the advantage men’s clubs had – with home grounds, jerseys, sponsorship, coaches and a solid supporter base all in place. He wanted to help an independent club for women and gender-diverse people establish the same structures – and not just as a bolt-on to a men’s club. Nivalis describes such women’s clubs as a “cash cow” for the men’s clubs, as they attract funding.
The team was certain it met the requirements for inclusion in the AFL Central Victoria League, but they were rejected.
Individually, most of the Falcons had already experienced profound rejection, on the basis of their sexual orientation, their gender identity or because of the barriers women face in playing football. (In one of many initiatives, the Falcons have committed to a paid childcare worker at training sessions and games to remove the barrier for main caregivers.)
Take Herbie, who grew up in a footy family but decades before girls were able to play the sport properly. Now aged 60, Herbie has been fundamental in picking up much of the enormous workload involved in setting up a club from scratch, particularly as the volunteer coordinator, allocating jobs such as water carrying, boundary umpire and running the sausage sizzle.
“It takes someone with a really big heart to look past everything that she’s missed and still be able to give what she can, to bring all of us so much joy,” Nivalis says.
By the end of 2022, 70 players had signed up to the team and AFL Central Victoria had offered the Falcons the opportunity to have practice matches with teams in the league (with the idea of the Falcons eventually entering the competition formally). But a new league had started up in the nearby Riddell District; one formed with gender equity as a core principle. The Falcs voted unanimously to join the Riddell District football netball league. They ended the season fifth on the ladder, but with their score margins getting closer – and with the unshakable feeling of gathering momentum.
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I catch the penultimate game of the season at the Harcourt Football and Netball Club – the borrowed home ground of the Falcons. The sun’s out, there are as many dogs as people, and some supporters play music through speakers between quarters. The average age of the Romsey Redbacks looks to be half that of the Falcs, but nonetheless, the Falcons take the win.
Rachel Winterton’s two sons are in attendance. Winterton, who has played water polo for years (“I’m not a land animal usually”), was attracted by the club’s culture. This is her first game with the Falcons.
“It’s been really nice to walk into a sporting club as a middle-aged woman with very small children and actually feel like you belong,” she says. “As someone that’s been involved in competitive sports for many years, I was at the stage where I was thinking, is this for me any more? But with this culture around inclusion, you can come as you are.”
Increasingly, the Falcons are attracting experienced players, which in turn lifts the skills of the existing members. It’s a long game. As Nivalis says, “The way we’re bonding is setting us up for the next few years. We’re connected, we read each other well, and that’s what makes a good team. When the skills develop, that’s a really unstoppable team.”
Nivalis made the documentary on a shoestring budget of $10,000 from VicHealth and $6,000 from crowdfunding. Equal the Contest premiered at the Castlemaine documentary film festival last month and runs at the Queer Screen film fest in Sydney in August. At a private screening at ACMI in June, many AFLW players were in attendance, as well as representatives from Football Victoria and the Carlton football club.
“The audience was dead quiet for the first 20 minutes,” Nivalis says. This was the part of the film documenting the club’s rejection from the established league. “I was thinking, everyone’s gonna be pissed, but then afterwards everyone was incredibly positive.”
Even so, says Nivalis, the Falcons remain, defiantly, the underdog.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily something we want to shake, because it makes people think about WHY are we the underdog? Why are a bunch of people that want to play sport the underdog?” they say. “If there’s so much work going into making sport inclusive, and if it truly was accessible, then there would be no story here.”
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Equal the Contest is screening as part of the Queer Screen film festival in Sydney in August
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