Indigenous player inclusion in the Australian Football League

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-03-2017-0063
• Pages: 519-532
• Published date: 21 August 2017
• Date: 21 August 2017
• Author: Justine Ferrer,Paul Turner

Indigenous player inclusion in the

Australian Football League

Justine Ferrer and Paul Turner

Department of Management, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to audit the efforts made around the support of indigenous players

within the Australian Football League (AFL).

Design/methodology/approach –Content analysis of the publicly available information on websites of

organizations associated with the AFL was undertaken to identify the extent of programs and policies around

indigenous representation, inclusion, and development.

Findings –The AFL, as an organization, has a high percentage of indigenous players (employees) in

comparison to the wider Australian workforce representation. Largely, indigenous representation within the

AFL is merit based, prioritized on an individual’s ability to play football at an elite level. The website audit

identifieda number of inconsistenciesin the public personasportrayed by the AFL and organizations alignedto

it such as the AFL PlayersAssociation and clubs. The findingsraise a number of questions for future research.

Research limitations/implications –The main limitation is that the website audit represents a very small

insight into the current situation and does not provide a depth of analysis into the circumstances around

indigenous inclusion within the AFL. The audit also is very focused on one sporting organization which may

or may not be representative of the sport industry.

Originality/value –The research introduces a number of questions for future discovery.

Keywords Diversity, Inclusion, Indigenous, Australian Football League, Website audit

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The acknowledgment that diversity in a workplace can drive creativity and potentially

competitiveness is a growing area of research (Davis et al., 2016), highlighting how diversity

management can address inequality or discrimination at work (Knights and Omanović, 2016).

Human resource management (HRM) has long held the idea that diversity within the

workplace will drive greater overall organizational performance if managed effectively

(Qin et al., 2014). Human resource managers are recognizing the importance of diversity for

their own workplaces, and as such businesses now promote through diversity and inclusion

policies, the need for diverse workplaces. While some businesses are beginning to specify exact

numbers associated with indigenous ratios in the w orkplace (Australia Post –Hopkins, 2016),

others are developing ways in which to attract a greater number of indigenous applicants

(Brereton and Parmenter, 2008).

Sport is one industry that has a high level of minority representation, particularly within

its playing ranks. Bimper and Harrison (2011) identified that African-American athletes

participating in the major football and basketball competitions in the USA represent nearly

47-77 percent of all participating athletes. While people from different ethnic, cultural, and

religious minorities are highly represented in the playing ranks, there are significant

inconsistencies and under-representation of all minorities as coaches and in leadership

positions within sport (Bradbury, 2013). Within the Australian sporting landscape there has

been a strong indigenous representation across many sports, and in particular within the

Australian Football League (AFL). Investigating this strong player representation,

alongside more contemporary notions of inclusion, will hopefully provide a first step in

developing a picture of indigenous representation within elite sporting organizations.

The AFL has a high percentage of indigenous player s (employees), identifying as an

example of an organization that employs and offers participation opportunities to football

players based purely on their abilities and merits. Player representation within the AFL has

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 36 No. 6, 2017

pp. 519-532

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-03-2017-0063

Received 23 March 2017

Revised 14 July 2017

Accepted 29 July 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

519

Australian

Football

League