The upcoming launch of the inaugural Aussie Rules Women’s League is generating a great deal of excitement amongst players who are hoping that the first season will just be the start and that they will one day join together to earn as much as a single mid-range male player.

Though the current pay agreements from the league seem to indicate that you’d need to combine the wages of 25 women’s league players to earn as much as the average wage for the men’s league, many teams have set their goals as high as reducing that number to 18, so all the players currently on the field will be earning as much as one of their counterparts.

“It’s the very start of the league,” said one player. “Obviously it’s a very exciting time and the women’s game can only grow from here. For now we’re just focused on doing the absolute best we can to come together as a team and earn as much as a single player.

“This is a huge step for women’s sport in Australia and it’s great to know that we’re going to get an opportunity to play on a professional stage. It’s very exciting. Maybe one of us will become a breakout star, dominate the entire league and earn almost as much as the absolute shittest rookie in the men’s competition.

“Of course, we’re dreaming here - but the important thing is we don’t get too ahead of ourselves and take it one day at a time. I mean, we all still have work tomorrow. You can’t exactly live off being a professional sports star in this country. I mean, if you’re a woman, of course.

“We’re just hoping we can inspire the next generation to come through and really carve out a place in the national psyche - and maybe even a wage large enough that they don’t have to juggle training with their side jobs. That’d be nice.”

Some traditionalists have argued that it’s fine for women to be paid less, saying that there’s good reasoning behind it and also that this is a perfectly fine hill to die on.

“It’s right that they should be paid less,” one punter claimed. “I’m entirely fine making this argument. It doesn’t seem strange to me at all that I would passionately advocate for female athletes to be paid far, far less than their male counterparts.

“Frankly, the level of the game just isn’t as high as the male counterparts. Now, sure, that could be because the players haven’t been earning enough to train full time and decades of stopping young girls from playing once they reached a certain age prevented people from pursuing the sports at all but I’m fine with ignoring the causes and just dealing with what’s happening now.

“First they want to be cumulatively paid as much as a single player on the men’s team - what’s next? They want a living wage? Please, you’re lucky I’m taking women’s sport seriously in the first place - it’s too much to suggest that I should want the players to be compensated for their efforts. No thank you.”

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