Self-identified feminist Nell Morris-Dalton is not afraid to say what she thinks.
Earlier this yr, the Western Bulldogs’ sixth AFLW season was derailed by the pandemic. So many gamers caught COVID that for 2 weeks working, the Canine have been unable to area a group. To make up for it, the part-time athletes would finally play seven video games in 30 days, travelling to 4 completely different states.
One of many video games missed was the much-anticipated Delight Recreation towards Carlton, an event the 2 golf equipment pioneered.
“[Not being able to play the Pride Game] is devastating and a reminder of the inequalities that also persist in our league in comparison with the AFLM,” Morris-Dalton wrote on her Instagram account on the time.
“Final yr the boys’s competitors did not get to see any video games missed. They have been positioned in a safe hub on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. This assured that there was just about no interruption to their season, or the integrity of the boys’s sport.”
In contrast, hubs have been dominated out for AFLW, given most gamers stability careers outdoors of soccer, many in industries that put them at additional danger of publicity.
“Initially I used to be intimidated to make use of the platform I’ve,” Morris-Dalton tells the ABC.
“However with gender equality stuff, I used to be having so many conversations with those that weren’t being shared, like about how a lot we receives a commission, and what number of hours we do, and individuals are at all times shocked.
“The one means we are able to see change is that if individuals are educated on the fact of what is occurring, so I took it upon myself to be the one to talk out.”
‘I’ve by no means felt extra exhausted in my life’
As a nurse, the COVID submit was near Morris-Dalton’s coronary heart.
On the top of the pandemic, the 21-year-old labored 800 placement and coaching hours on the Royal Melbourne Hospital, all of the whereas avoiding an infection in an try and preserve the AFLW season — and most significantly, her sufferers — alive.
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However whereas AFLW gamers are sometimes lauded for such extraordinary feats, Morris-Dalton needs to see a shift in discourse.
“At present I’ve been working two jobs: nursing and footy,” she wrote in one other Instagram submit, this one from August.
“This consists of 16 hour days on my ft. I’m commonly praised for this effort and instructed it is unbelievable, nonetheless we have to begin altering the dialog and recognising how mistaken it’s that as feminine athletes we’ve got to do that.”
Morris-Dalton has by no means had the luxurious of focusing purely on soccer. She has been on the competitors’s minimal wage since her debut in 2020.
Final season she was on a wage of $20,239. This yr, it has elevated considerably to $39,184 because of a brand new Collective Bargaining Settlement (CBA).
However Morris-Dalton continues to battle to discover a stability between the competing calls for in her life, this yr greater than ever.
Season six was performed in AFLW’s common time of yr: early summer season. However when the league introduced that season seven could be pulled ahead to August, simply 4 months after the grand remaining, Morris-Dalton’s plans have been thrown into disarray.
Having completed her nursing diploma — which she accomplished full-time over the previous couple of seasons — she is now doing what’s referred to as a graduate yr, which implies she works full-time as a nurse, underneath supervision.
Morris-Dalton had a alternative of when to start out — and selected the top of season six, in March this yr. Little did she know that one month later, she could be within the midst of one other pre-season.
“It threw my complete life out,” she says.
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“I used to be attempting to make it work as finest as potential. Once I selected March, I hoped to have six months to search out my ft in nursing. I assumed, ‘footy will come round once more, however I will be snug in my function, have robust connections and relationships on the hospital, I will be used to the workload.'”
She had additionally earmarked a much-needed break to go travelling with associates. The 12-month plan, she says, made the daunting schedule really feel extra “do-able”.
As an alternative, she discovered herself doing evening shifts in the midst of pre-season, working from 9pm till 7:30am.
“Night time shift is such a tough rhythm to get into,” Morris-Dalton says.
“I actually struggled to sleep, so I would come house, sleep for like, three hours, then do an 11km working session at coaching, return to work and be on my ft all evening.
“I’ve by no means felt extra exhausted in my life. I used to be sick on a regular basis and I could not recuperate correctly as a result of I wasn’t sleeping. I am unable to even clarify how unhealthy it felt on my physique.”
Morris-Dalton contemplated quitting nursing
The pre-season state of affairs was so untenable, Morris-Dalton knew one thing needed to change.
“I went in very bold and hopeful it might work, however it turned evident very early on that I simply could not get out of myself what I needed,” she says.
“You are so emotionally drained, it was identical to this fixed degree of fatigue I could not recuperate from absolutely. That was kinda the tipping level for me to be like, I am unable to work and do footy any extra.”
Morris-Dalton briefly thought of strolling away from nursing, however says she knew it wasn’t going to be financially viable. As an alternative, she had an essential dialog with the schooling group on the hospital.
“They have been so beautiful, I am unable to thank them sufficient,” she says.
“I simply wasn’t coping, in order that they let me scale back my hours, which usually you are not allowed to do in your grad yr.”
In addition they allowed her to place a maintain on doing evening shifts, one thing she has combined emotions about.
“Simply having the ability to sleep has been enormous, having the ability to relaxation extra has made such a distinction,” she says.
“It is positively a disgrace having to cut back my hours (although), as a result of I actually do love each my jobs. It is simply one other instance of us having to decide on between careers, and put one in entrance of the opposite always.
“That is one other stressor, coping with your employer outdoors of footy. I spent a lot time in my supervisor’s workplace with all of this.
“You are feeling like a burden since you wish to do your finest, however you are always asking for particular consideration.”
The ‘trauma’ of getting dropped
Such a gruelling expertise has inevitably had an affect on Morris-Dalton’s type this season.
“That is the toughest half for me to simply accept,” she says.
“I went into this yr desirous to have an enormous yr, carry out very well, and make an announcement that I may very well be a giant participant within the competitors.”
Golden alternatives had additionally offered within the Bulldogs’ ahead line, with spearhead Bonnie Toogood departing for Essendon and Izzy Huntington for the Giants.
In spherical one, Morris-Dalton had 11 disposals within the Bulldogs’ win over the Giants, however was dropped for the next two video games towards the Dockers and Port.
It compounded the emotional misery of her pre-season.
“Getting dropped is so traumatic,” she says.
“I’m going by means of each emotion. I am indignant, upset, triggered, it is endless. Everybody asks why you are not getting a sport, after which you have to go to coaching and be the happiest and the perfect.
“However I’ve to snap out of it shortly, as a result of on the finish of the day, it is not my full-time job and I am unable to let it outline my life outdoors of footy.
“It is so onerous, and it is such an unstated a part of the sport — outsiders by no means contemplate the affect. Every week there’s eight different women who’re doing every part to get a sport however not getting picked. Now after I’m within the group, I simply really feel a lot for them.”
Being a role-model for younger women offers Morris-Dalton function
Regardless of how onerous some elements of her footy journey have been, Morris-Dalton has by no means thought of strolling away from the sport.
“Footy’s the factor that offers me essentially the most function,” she says.
“I did not have ladies footballers as role-models after I was youthful, and now I get to be considered one of them, which is fairly wild.”
Over the past couple of years, she says, the “enormity” of what it means to be one of many first technology of AFLW footballers has began to sink in.
“It is small issues, like a younger woman recognising you and seeing the thrill of their faces,” she says.
“It is a bizarre, bittersweet feeling, like woah I want I had had that, however then I take into consideration the oblique impacts it will have on them — whether or not they wish to play footy or not, of their head they know they will do it.
“They’ll take a look at individuals of their very own gender on TV. For me, that is such a giant a part of why, for all of the hardship it takes, I’ve pushed by means of to remain on this competitors.”
Morris-Dalton additionally needs to maintain utilizing her platform to make sure improved outcomes for future generations of women and girls.
For this she takes inspiration from mum Sandra, who’s an outspoken advocate for gender fairness. Of their family, says Morris-Dalton, conversations about feminism have been “pure”.
“Individuals have this stereotype of feminism as some aggressive factor, however that is sexism in itself,” she says.
“I believe it is due to the entire ‘ladies should not communicate up, it is not fairly’ factor.
“I could not care much less about these males who’re on the market trolling us as a result of they’re scared of girls. They’re simply afraid of shedding their energy.
“Mum was positively an enormous role-model for me, having that sort of particular person in my life who did not again down from confronting issues. It inspired me to talk out for different individuals too.”
‘Talking out’ the trail to modified situations
Within the lead as much as the newest CBA negotiations, for instance, Morris-Dalton was closely invested within the strategy of making certain a greater pay deal for the gamers that recognised the quantity of unpaid work they have been doing.
An AFLPA survey from earlier within the yr discovered that many gamers have been doing 50-100 per cent in extra of their contracted hours, a state of affairs she describes as “degrading” and “belittling”.
However because of a 94 per cent pay rise this season, Morris-Dalton says situations are “much better” and that her membership, the Bulldogs, have ensured the gamers aren’t working past their contracted hours.
She can also be buoyed by the variety of her friends who’re beginning to communicate their minds, Morris-Dalton fashion.
“The youthful the competitors will get, the extra unapologetic individuals coming by means of get,” she says.
“Once I first acquired to the membership I used to be a bit shocked that there was a divide between among the gamers who needed to be thankful for what we had, and others who needed to talk up.
“I believe that has completely modified now. The gamers are spurred on by seeing the modifications which have occurred. Individuals have realised that by means of talking up, and being feminists, that is whenever you see change.”