FOOTY is regularly lauded as the game that accommodates all shapes and sizes.

Yet what an athlete should look like continues to be up for debate.

Gold Coast forward Sarah Perkins knows this more than most. She’s a lightning rod for criticism from faceless social media trolls. And, at times, that stream of derision and mockery can be unrelenting.

“The comments, they never get old,” Perkins said.

The latest personal attack came after the Suns forward issued an apology on Twitter, after missing two set shots that would have gifted her side the four points against St Kilda.

“When you put yourself out there and apologise for your performance, you are a bit nervous of the response. I took it upon myself to apologise for my own performance,” Perkins said.

“I’m a full forward and I should be kicking goals. I hold myself to a pretty high account.”

That’s the hallmark of an athlete, those high standards.

Despite her own misgivings, the general consensus from players in the AFLW is that Perkins is having a wonderful season. What’s more, she does things most players dare only dream about.

“Sarah Perkins is elite in the sense that she bombs goals from 50,” Collingwood forward Chloe Molloy said at the Fox Footy launch.

“No other AFLW player is doing that.”

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You only need to look at Perkins’ opening goal against the Western Bulldogs this season to see what Molloy is referring to.

Why, then, do people feel the need to comment on the way Perkins looks as opposed to the way she performs?

And if the former premiership Crow is meeting club standards and performing her role, is the way she looks even relevant?

BODY IMAGE AND BODY SHAMING

This discussion is pertinent in the AFL, too.

And from the viewpoint of punters and experts alike, more appropriate because of the full-time nature of the league.

The flip side to that argument is that criticism of AFLW players must be tempered to align with the semi-professional nature of the competition.

But even when the AFLW becomes fully professional, should we hold female athletes to the same lofty standards as their male counterparts?

“Even if we were full time we wouldn’t look the same,” St Kilda forward Kate McCarthy said.

 “We’re women, not men.

“We don’t know really know what an ideal female footballer should look like.”

Perkins agrees.

“I don’t think I have a definite answer and I don’t think there ever should be a definite answer of what an athlete looks like either,” she says.

“I’ve obviously been a bigger person most of my life. For me, an athlete is someone I can relate to. It’s someone who’s hard working, who I see putting in the hard yards.

“Back in my day there was no social media so you only saw them on the TV when they were playing games or went to watch them live.

“So for me any chance I got to see someone who I could see a representation of myself in, they were an athlete to me.” 

There’s an added complexity when it comes to discussing body image with young females, and one that transcends the AFLW.

Too often girls are validated by the way they look.

They’re complimented on their appearance, while young boys are empowered through other less superficial means.

As one coach noted, the use of language has never been more important because you’re catering to a variety of girls, some who are confident in their skin, and others who are struggling with how they look.

“That’s just women,” McCarthy said.

“We’re told how to look, what an ideal body looks like. That’s society and being a woman.

“Even talk to girls who aren’t athletes and who hold more weight through their hips. They’re probably self conscious, too.”

SELF ESTEEM AND SELF WORTH

The insecurities many young women navigate when it comes to their bodies, self esteem and self worth are why skin fold tests are largely opt-in for AFLW players.

Even then, the results are used more as data. They might track a players’ progress as opposed to operating as a measuring stick for selection.

For Western Bulldogs premiership player Bonnie Toogood, her quest to slim down actually had a detrimental effect when it came to her forward craft.

“I dropped my 2km time trial which was all well and good but in turn I lost my speed and explosiveness, which as a full forward I needed,” she said.

“What size you are doesn’t necessarily correlate into better performance because your strengths are your strengths.”

While it’s widely accepted skin-fold tests are part and parcel of being an elite athlete, they can and do cause anxiety among players in the AFL.

Former premiership Magpie Dale Thomas can testify as much.

“The issues around body image and body shaming has become an important discussion,” he said.

“The anxiety around skin folds and scans, from my own experience, was in no way a good thing for my performance, which at the end of the day is what you’re getting paid to do.

“Performance should be the biggest box any athlete has to tick.

“How you get to ticking that box will look different for everyone, and unless you have walked a mile in a professional athlete’s shoes – have eaten nothing but almonds and watermelon for a week to pass a DEXA scan – maybe just keep your opinions to yourself and be kind.”

While skin fold tests are still very much a part of AFL landscape, it’s worth noting potential draftees are no longer required to do them for mental health reasons.

WHAT IS AND ISN’T FAIR GAME WHEN IT COMES TO ATHLETE’S BODIES?

Largely, it depends on who you ask.

Essendon forward Jake Stringer is in the negative camp.

The explosive 27-year-old, who’s coming off a season where he booted 41 goals, has regularly attracted criticism for his appearance, both from commentators and on social media.

And it’s the latter that continues to irk him, particularly when it comes to Perkins.

“I’ve been playing for 10 years so I’ve had numerous things written about me,” Stringer said at the Fox Footy launch.

“For her, being semi-professional, it would be a hard time for her and I know that because I’ve gone through it.

“Men, women, whatever. For me it’s not acceptable that people have a platform to bully and put people down and make people feel worse about themselves.

“Unfortunately there are people out in the world who enjoy doing this stuff and it’s just a shame it’s still happening.”

Those sentiments around keyboard cowards are echoed by Melbourne champion Garry Lyon who says he had “zero tolerance” for those “pigs”.

But Lyon also welcomes a level of scrutiny when it came to the AFLW.

“I think there’s a justifiable explanation that if you’re playing sport at a very high level – which AFLW footy is – that it comes with some expectations in terms of fitness,” Lyon said.

“The expectation is tempered somewhat by the fact it is not full time.

“I totally get and understand the challenges for people such as Sarah and others, and I’m really cognisant of the fact we don’t want to be running people out of the game.

“At the same time, I think the girls themselves would have expectations as to where they need to be, to be the very best version of themselves if they want to be professional athletes.”

And to that end, he’s right.

AFLW players work tirelessly to get the best out of themselves. They want to put on a good show, they want to get better and they want a full-time professional league.

But until then, they’ve got other priorities, too.

“There are all of these factors as to why we can’t always be elite and at our peak performance,” Molloy said.

“We’re not training full time, we’re not at the gym full time.

“We are doing our best to work, live, study and try to play elite level football. It’s hard to do.”

As for Perkins, she’s navigating her own off field issues, in the recent death of her father.

“I lost my dad at the start of December,” she said.

“He passed away and lost his battle with lymphoma so when I was back in Melbourne I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I decided to quit my job up here, focus on my footy and my mental health and my family.

“I know that he’d be proud of the way I’m going about things at the moment and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss having him around last week when things were pretty crap, to just pick up the phone and have a chat to him about life.”

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