“I don’t play for sheepstations. I’m 30, I have two kids. If I felt that I was in danger, I wouldn’t have played.”

On Tuesday the AFL revealed that Hannah Mouncey had been denied entry into the AFLW draft for 2018 on the grounds that Mouncey would have had an “unreasonable physical advantage on her opponents”.

HPN reached out to one of her opponents in the AFL Canberra Women’s competition. Jaye Anderson has played with HPN on a mixed AFL 9s side for the last five years, as well as playing for the Gunghalin Jets in the AFL Canberra Women’s competition.

“I never felt in danger. There are other players in the competition, such as (Belconnen and former GWS player) Hannah Wallett, that hit pretty hard,” Anderson says, comparing Mouncey to other opponents in the amateur league.

Anderson is 156cm and 58kg. Like many smaller footballers, she must be pretty conscious of physicality.

Mouncey played eight games this year for the Ainslie Tricolours and managed to collect eight votes in the competition Best and Fairest award – second amongst all Tricolours players. Gungahlin found her to be a key player for their opponents.

“She (Mouncey) was probably one of Ainslie’s best players that day, but she wasn’t the best on the ground. I mean there was Britt…” adds Anderson.

The “Britt” that Anderson refers to is Britt Tully, the reigning two-time AFL Canberra Best and Fairest winner, a GWS-listed player and teammate of Anderson at Gunghalin. When asked by the Canberra Times about whether Mouncey should be allowed entry into AFLW, Tully said:

“She’s just played a season in Canberra so I can’t see why anything should change at the elite level. You’d think it would be the other way around if it was an issue.”

Mouncey wouldn’t have been the tallest AFLW player in the 2018 competition if drafted. Recently signed Melbourne rookie Erin Hoare stands at 194cm, four centimetres taller than Mouncey, and also comes from an elite sport background.

“Rhi (Rhiannon Metcalfe) wasn’t much smaller than her (Mouncey), and you couldn’t really take her down.” says Anderson.

Metcalfe played with Anderson at the Jets and was a key figure in their 2016 premiership year. In 2017 Metcalfe played in the AFLW Crows premiership team as primary ruck.

Anderson explains that she and most of her teammates didn’t initially know anything about Mouncey or her background. Anderson goes on, “After the first quarter, we thought about how to mark up on her a bit better, but not more than some other players”.

“We were able to tackle her. I’m not sure if we brought her to ground, but we got holding the ball frees.”

The Jets ended up beating Ainslie 78-7 on the day, on their path to making their second consecutive grand final. It must be stated that this was only Mouncey’s third game of football in the competition. Ainslie finished the year in 6th, and were knocked out by the eventual premiers Queanbeyan in the first week of the finals, in a match in which Mouncey broke her ribs.

This year, HPN was lucky enough to be involved in the first Canberra edition of the Community Cup, a vital fundraising opportunity for Reclink Australia. Anderson also played in this game, which pitted both male and female players against each other with rules that allowed female players to tackle men, and for incidental contact between both genders.

“I actually felt more in danger in AFL 9s and the Community Cup, and have been cleaned up a few times.”

“In the AFL Canberra competition, and with Mouncey, the players seem more in control and coordinated. In those other competitions, the men seem more clumsy because of the lower skill levels,” Anderson articulates. She then jokes that she’d “much rather be running flat-out into a marking contest with Hannah than, say, my brother.”

(Anderson is the sister of Sean Lawson, co-editor of HPN.)

“(Mouncey) has played high level sport, and didn’t seem out of control or dangerous.” Anderson points out. Mouncey previously played Handball for Australia, and was at one point denied the opportunity to play for the ACT after her transition.

Mouncey also played football growing up in Albury, so came into women’s footy with prior experience lacking in many of Anderson’s other fellow players.

In talking to Anderson, and in reading statements such as those from Ainslie Football Club coaching staff, there does not seem to be the element of fear or advantage suggested in the decision to exclude Mouncey from the 2017 AFLW Draft. No club made any complaints to Ainslie this season.

The AFL’s general manager of inclusion and social policy, Tanya Hosch, stated that:

“It was important to involve the right stakeholders to review all the information and data available. Every case will be decided on its own merits along with the individual circumstances of each future nominee”

Anderson said she was unaware of any contact from the AFL to Gungahlin Jets players about Mouncey and her eligibility.

When HPN asked Anderson directly whether she felt in danger, or if Mouncey had an unreasonable physical advantage, the answer was unequivocal.

“No.”

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