Before footy evaporates from memory for another year, consider one of the daffier aspects of spectatordom – outrage over free kicks. It is half-time and the scoreboard reveals the blatant umpiring bias: 12 free kicks to the Hawks, a miserable three to the Demons. "Do you see that? 12-3! Umps are hopeless!"

It has ever been thus – the inane presumption that free kicks should always be equally distributed, like cake at a kids' party. Never mind that those priceless frees are awarded on the basis of the code's playing rules – and that right now those dual-premiership Hawks might just be a lot more skilled at playing within those rules than the battling Demons. "Twelve to three! Bloody disgrace!"

Trick question: If the Hawthorn Hawks are awarded more free kicks in a footy game, is it because the umpire is biased or because the team played better than their opponents? Credit:Pat Scala

State Education Minister Martin Dixon was similarly disturbed by numbers recently when education stats showed a huge gender divide in primary teaching jobs at Victorian schools – for every male teacher there were four female teachers. Dixon sounded the trumpet call for more blokes, but he was soon undone by his own department. A spokesman insisted gender was not considered when choosing teachers for schools – "the hiring policy focuses on merit and teacher quality". Ergo, this gender imbalance was not necessarily discrimination – maybe women were just better at this particular role.

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Deborah Lawrie who (going by her married name of Wardley) set the airline industry on its ear in 1979 by taking Ansett to the then-new Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission. Back then, the gender scoreboard for airline pilots nationally was stark: all male, no female. Lawrie won and became the first woman in an Aussie airline cockpit – but you could hardly say it started a revolution. All these years later at Tiger Air, where Lawrie now flies as a training captain, there are 13 female pilots and 172 male pilots, and she says that is better female representation than at most airlines.