Diversity and Inclusion in the Australian Football League Report

This report analyzes the Australian Football League's (AFL) approach to diversity and inclusion. It highlights the AFL's commitment to multiculturalism and indigenous representation, emphasizing the league's efforts to promote participation and provide opportunities for diverse communities. The report discusses the AFL's diversity policies, community programs, and training initiatives, particularly those targeting Muslim and indigenous communities. It examines the historical context of diversity in the AFL, including the contributions of Aboriginal and multicultural players, and the challenges they faced. The report also explores the AFL's strategies for engaging diverse communities, fostering cultural awareness, and building strong connections. Finally, it presents recommendations for improving diversity practices within the AFL, ensuring a more inclusive environment for all. The report underscores the importance of diversity in the AFL, both from the perspective of employees and clients, and aims to provide insights into the AFL's efforts to create a more equitable and inclusive environment within the sport.

Running head: UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING DIVERSITY
Understanding and Managing Diversity
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Author Note:

1UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING DIVERSITY
Executive Summary
The report discusses about diversity and its inclusion in a group or say, organization. The
organization taken is Australian Football League, which is the first football club to introduce
diversity into their policies. The industry has a long tradition of multicultural players. The
major purpose of the club is to drive higher level participation in the well managed
community programs for all the people throughout the country. The community camps
organized by the industry have become a crucial part of the Australian Football League’s
commitment to directly connect with the local communities. The AFL program in the South
Africa has grown and about fifty clubs have been organized.
Their efforts are mainly to promote the game in to the international stage. In addition
to this, the organization has conducted various programs for providing young boys and girls
with opportunities to play the game. Moreover, the industry also emphasizes on the
importance of health, education, safety and wellbeing of the young players. All the seminars
and events are developed within the local communities by coordinating with the local
government and under the leadership of the administrative bodies. However, the purpose of
the report is to throw light on the diversity policies and programs undertaken by the industry
in order to showcase the talent of the backward classes into the society. Moreover, the report
also presents some recommendations, which can be undertaken by the industry to improve
their policies for further development.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Recommendations......................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

3UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING DIVERSITY
Introduction
The Australian Football League, often abbreviated as AFL, is a pre eminent and
professional competition in the sports of Australian football. The AFL serves as a sports’
governing body through the AFL commission. The league was actually founded as Victorian
Football League and the inaugural session commenced in the year 1897. Currently, the league
comprises eighteen teams spread all over the states of Australia, barring Tasmania. The AFL
commission is an official governing body of the Australian Football League and Australian
Rules football. Since the year 2017, Richard Goyder has been the chairman of the
organization after replacing Mike Fitzpatrick (Cobley et al., 2014).
The purpose of this report is to discuss the areas of diversity that are relevant to the
organizational business both from the employee’s and client’s viewpoints. In addition to this,
the report comprises the current approach taken by the Australian Football League in order to
manage diversity. It also includes the positive and negative actions taken by the organization,
in terms of diversity. Furthermore, the report throws light on certain strategies which will
help the business in improving their diversity practices. In addition to this, the report presents
few recommendations on how the organization can successfully deal with diversity and how
it can be improved.
Discussion
The Australian Football League has a higher percentage of the indigenous players and
employees as compared to other Australian workforce representation. The indigenous
representation in the Australian Football League is highly based on merit and prioritized on
the individual’s ability to play games at a higher level. The organization promotes diversity to
a huge extent. In addition to this, the company is offering ten positions on diversity trainings

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worth 34,000 dollars per year, exclusively for the Muslim players as the part of Federal
Government funded program. In order to be eligible for the position, the organization is also
including diversity in the administration, finance, marketing and social media team
(Choudhury, 2014).
The workplace participation plays a pivotal issue in impacting the Muslim community
of Australia, especially the youth. In order to assist the young people of the Muslim
community, the Federal Government has provided funding to the AFL organization. The
company is also investing on training them for gaining job skills and critical experiences at
work. In addition to this, the Turnbull government has also invested an additional amount of
625,000 dollars for the company’s leadership programs. The applicants belonging from the
Australian background are highly encouraged to fill in for this position. Moreover, the NSW
applicants should have a demonstrated knowledge regarding diversity and multicultural
communities (Corboz, Flood & Dyson, 2016).
Furthermore, the applicants are expected to have a detailed knowledge regarding
multicultural communities and also communicate effectively as well as sensitively with the
diverse communities. The fulltime workers receive National Training Wage Award along
with superannuation. This slightly comes around 34,000 dollars for one year. The Australian
Football League offers a number of opportunities and job positions for the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait islander school leavers (Coulter, Mallett & Singer, 2016). It is a part of their
diversity program of traineeship. This helps in providing the communities with a number of
opportunities related to employment as well as skill development opportunities are also being
provided among the young multicultural as well as the indigenous individuals from 15-19
(Frost, Lightbody & Halabi, 2013).

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In reference to this, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said that the diversity program
contributes a lot to a harmonious and resilient society which is united around with shared
values of freedom of speech, freedom of beliefs and mutual respect. The AFL industry uses
sports in a huge way to embrace the diversity policies. In addition to this, the company also
contributes a lot by providing opportunities to the students belonging to the Islamic
community. They learn football in a non competitive and fun environment. The program of
2016-17 includes funding for the AFL Islamic communities, for hosting events like Eid and
Iftar, which is held nationally during the time of Ramdan. It helps in engaging the Islamic
communities and in turn, fosters improved cultural awareness and education (Evans et al.,
2015).
In the history of Australian Football League, more than two hundred players of
Aboriginal descent have played football with their teams. The first player of the Aboriginal
descent was Fitzroy’s Joe Johnson, who has played around fifty five games. This includes
premierships between 1904 and 1905. The Australian Football League has always
encouraged diversity in their policies. However, it took great bravery for the Aboriginal
players to play games, as they had to rise above several racist comments, stereotypes and
prejudices. Along with innovations, undertaken by the AFL industry like Racial and
Religious Vilification Rule, it helped many players to overcome their fear of getting bullied.
In addition to this, under a great leadership, the company won the hearts of many people,
belonging to different cultural backgrounds (Gorman & Reeves, 2012).
According to some leaked information, the CEO of AFL, Andrew Demetriou
mentioned that the industry offers various programs for the culturally backward communities,
in order to embrace diversity into their policies. It is true that previously, the opportunities
were limited and many culturally backward communities considered themselves as in-
competent. In recent times, the things have changed. Organizations like AFL are promoting

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several opportunities for such groups in order to showcase their talents and skills. Australian
Football League has a very long tradition of the multicultural players. The first Chinese
footballer who played in the Australian Football League was Wally Koochew (Hallinan,
2015). He defied the policy of the White Australians and played for Carlton in the year of
1908.
Some great names from the past are mentioned in this part of the report. They are;
Ron Barassi, Carl Ditterich, Peter Daicos, Glen Jakovich, Robert DiPierdomenico, Tony
Liberatore and many more. In recent times, the names include; Scott Camporeale, Anthony
Koutoufidis, Matthew Pavlich, Peter Riccardi, Nick Riewoldt and many more who have
made significant contributions to the Australian Football League. In addition to this, it is
worth mentioning that the Chief Executive Officer of Australian Football League, Andrew
Demetriou belongs from an ethnic background. He is the son of Cypriot parents, who actually
migrated to the country of Australia more than fifty years ago (Tynan & Briggs,2012).
The aim of Australian Football League is to drive aggressively higher participation
levels in the well managed community events for all the individuals across Australia. The
industry, along with the support of the state government and other administrative bodies has
invested over 30 million dollars in order to develop the game. It has also introduced several
programs and strategies in order to introduce fresh talent in the game and improve the
community level. Since the past five years, the level has increased due to a huge amount of
investment made on to this business of accepting all the individuals, belonging from different
backgrounds and ethnic origin. Increased participation has helped the industry grow on a
huge level and gain huge acclamation from its employees as well as the media (Spaaij et al.,
2014).

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In addition to this, the Australian Football League’s community camps have also
become a major component of the industry’s commitment towards to local communities.
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that every year in the month of February, the clubs of
Australian Football League takes their players to camps, where they are given trainings on
diversity, matches, local promotions and more. Moreover, the industry has also introduced
programs like Kickstart, which is now conducted in many territories and states. This program
comprises five key elements which include; education, health, participation, community
capacity building and partnerships. The program provides opportunities to both girls and boys
to play football (Ruddock Hudson, O’Halloran & Murphy, 2012).
It also focuses on attendance and education at school. Besides, the program has
helped in organizing forums on social as well as health issues. In addition to this, several
initiatives like road safety forums are also organized by the members of the club. Moreover,
the company also encourages females to take part in such events. School participation is
highly encouraged by the organization, keeping in mind their education. Along with that,
benefits are also provided to those who participate and attend the programs. This include
distributing posters, backpacks themed as AFL, caps, footballs and many more goodies. All
the programs are being developed by collaborating with the local communities and
coordinated with the local as well as state governments, big and small businesses, institutions
and authorities (Hallinan & Judd, 2012).
Promotional activities are done by high profile Indigenous heroes like Michael Long,
Daryl White, Andrew McLeod and many others. The message which is being imparted is,
‘strong culture, strong community, strong spirit’. The industry is aiming to increase the
support for the Indigenous players and provide them with various opportunities, ranging from
education to work. The AFL association conducts various programs for the Indigenous
players in the month of November. This includes training sessions on diversity, personal

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development programs and many more. It also provides funding for the training groups in
order to increase the training and education for girls and boys. The Australian Football
League also provides opportunities for the Indigenous youth to organize trainings and
undertake traineeships (Rosengarten et al., 2014).
In addition to this, the industry has organized several rewards and recognition
programs for motivating their players and especially the Indigenous community. The Rising
Stars event of AFL has provided opportunities for the elite players and regional camps and
carnivals helped them showcase their talents. One of the major differences in modern day’s
environment is the diverse and varied choices, individuals have with their careers. It is not
just about Australian football, tennis or cricket; sports have much more into it. The Australian
Football League understands that more than 100,000 people have arrived to the country over
the last ten years and many of them have a knack towards sports (Kearney, 2012).
The Australian Football League also feels that football has the power to bring people
of various backgrounds, together. Along with the help of its multicultural programs, the AFL
is trying to build strong bonds and connections with the diversified communities. This also
helps them in developing their strategies in order to encourage their overall involvement in to
the game and also in the broader community. The key objectives of such programs are to
introduce the game as a part of integration and settlement, influence the community clubs and
leagues to embrace the multicultural diversity and lastly, to implement the community
capacity to build linguistically as well as culturally diversified communities. The Australian
Football League has managed to assemble a team which is filled with dedicated employees,
in order to encourage and assist refugee as well as migrant communities to get accessibility
towards Australian football (Hallinan & Heenan, 2013).

9UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING DIVERSITY
Recommendations
The Australian Football League must look for opportunities to expand their initiatives
and programs in order to reach further in to the Indigenous segment and should build on to
the existing results. The demand for the Australian football and their success has led to the
capacity of the developed network. The expansion of their Kickstart programs has helped in
enhancing their current resource levels and also helped them in developing new initiatives.
Furthermore, initiatives must be taken to engage the Indigenous children towards improving
truancy level as well as their learning opportunities. The AFL should also develop their
school curriculum resources for the key areas of learning themed around the Australian
football. In addition to this, introduction of new equipments will also help in engaging the
Indigenous communities directly in sports as well as physical activities. There is also a need
of distributing and developing role model videos and posters featuring messages related to
the codes of ethics, education, health and safety benefits.
Conclusion
To conclude, the Australian Football League has taken several initiatives in order to
introduce diversity in their policies. They have introduced various educational resources for
building up community capacities, provide trainings to the Indigenous groups, coaching to
the youth and accommodate literacy levels to develop the network. It is immensely important
to connect people belonging from different communities in order to make significant
contributions to the world of football. In addition to this, the report also presents some
recommendations which will help the industry to improve their training policies more.
Furthermore, the report provides information regarding the industry’s positive approach
towards the Indigenous people.

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References
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Corboz, J., Flood, M., & Dyson, S. (2016). Challenges of bystander intervention in male-
dominated professional sport: lessons from the Australian Football League. Violence
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Coulter, T. J., Mallett, C. J., & Singer, J. A. (2016). A subculture of mental toughness in an
Australian Football League club. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 22, 98-113.
Evans, J. R., Wilson, R., Dalton, B., & Georgakis, S. (2015). Indigenous participation in
Australian sport: The perils of the ‘panacea’proposition. Cosmopolitan Civil
Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 7(1), 53-77.
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