2025 Equality league

Will we see a fair 2024/2025 season across the board this season where we have a larger turn out of women and men and fairer prize pools or will we see another year of men dropping off due running more heats and have slimmer chances of making semis and finals?

Keen to hear input as many of the men are seeing this a major issue for the future of this sport.

Do we want to retain runners or see them turn to AV?

No doubt it won’t be long before this thread (gets deleted), and then eventually the forum the more this topic gets raised, (quite sad really).
95% of the pro running community are thinking the same thing but get silenced at every opportunity. Watch this space!

Or instead of making rubbish posts like this, spend more time looking for ways to increase the participation of women? Anyone as passionate about the sport and equality as you surely looks for solutions that benefit all.

Also interested in where "95% of the pro running community are thinking the same thing" was sourced from. Without a poll or ability to read minds, I would love to know how this was statistic was formed.

All for moving the sport forward. Official survey data would never state this as we all know “there are multiple ways to polish a turd” and the VAL spin doctors will do their best to make key data look favourable.

From a sponsors perspective, Prizemoney allocation should be incentive based, purely allocated on number of entries”, more than happy for women to get double the Prizemoney if they have the double the entries for that event.

Want more women running the Val need to sort out the handicapping problem
Front markets starting on big handicaps piss’s a lot of athletes off, male and female it should be a blanket 10 meters regardless . I’ve seen some runners sit on the same handicap for a season way out front not moving . Same goes for Stawell , you will get more athletes and a better competion for all . Sponsors will love it be more inclined to help out
This may sound like sour grapes but it’s reality .

SGOracle233, unless I’m missing something, there’s nothing wrong with Woodchopper’s post to suggest it should be removed. Seems like they are voicing their opinion in the right way, the forum encourages discussions like this to occur as long as it’s done respectfully, which so far it has been. Your comment regarding the post being deleted, and then the forum being deleted I don’t think is needed. Let’s be better.

Hi admin, just to clarify I am in agreement with woodchoppers post. My point is I was hoping there post doesn’t get removed. I guess the frustration with my smart alec comment is comments in the past being deleted when it has clearly not broken any forum rules. I do apologised if have offended anyone. Happy to not post again if that makes things easier. Cheers.

SGOracle233, lack of an official survey does not mean it is then acceptable to make statistics up based on your perspective. Also, the primary reason for a business sponsoring an event is marketing. Being viewed as a business unwilling to offer equal prize money is not a great look, regardless of how many entries there are.

Natmatt, while I do agree the women's handicap limit needs to be reviewed, I do not believe decreasing it is the solution. By limiting the handicap to 10m you reduce the field of women with a chance of winning, which is arguably more likely to reduce overall entires.

[quote="Who Dares Wins"]SGOracle233, lack of an official survey does not mean it is then acceptable to make statistics up based on your perspective. Also, the primary reason for a business sponsoring an event is marketing. Being viewed as a business unwilling to offer equal prize money is not a great look, regardless of how many entries there are.


The marketing is clearly not working is it?
Doesn’t take a genius to figure out.
But let’s keep pumping money into events with 3 heats and wonder why less men are interested.

Women had more men at Warrnambool a once off in a life time because the blokes couldn’t
Be bothered driving that far.
They got recognition for that but men don’t get any recognition for the week in week out attendance

What’s more annoying about the women’s events is seeing kids running off massive marks.
They show up out of shape and underworked and get gifted massive marks (starting within arms reach of masters age mothers). Or they run dead in plain sight by trying their hand at 800s before they roll out for their sprint events.
And then through the season “miraculously” find form and win multiple events from generous marks.

I don’t think that simply limiting the marks on all women’s events is the answer. But surely some of these kids are just taking the piss.
Makes it really discouraging for strong ammo athletes who want to come and try their hand in the VAL.