Australian Football League Permits 6’3″ Male To Play In Women’s League Despite Complaints

The Australian Football League (AFL) has cleared a 6’3″ man to play in women’s competitions despite a number of concerns being raised about the risk he poses to female players. Anthony “Freya” Golding plays for the Westminster Old Scholars in the Adelaide Footy League after previously having competed in the senior men’s division.

Golding’s involvement in women’s sport came under fire earlier this year after formal complaints were submitted by three different clubs within the Adelaide Footy League asserting that he placed female players at an unacceptable risk, and that the AFL had a “duty of care” to bar his continued participation. Concerns were in part motivated by viral footage circulated earlier this year showing Golding casually knocking a woman to the ground during a game.

The Australian Football League’s Gender Diversity Policy Committee was prompted to investigate Golding’s participation, but has now determined he should be allowed to continue competing with women.

In a confidential email seen by Nine News, the committee confirmed it had decided against excluding Golding from women’s competitions, noting that it was “not satisfied that the Player’s participation in the Competition gives rise to unacceptable safety risks.”

However, Adelaide Footy League chief executive John Kernahan condemned the decision, noting that the League had not changed its position on the potential danger posed to other players.

“We to this day maintain that it is a safety risk,” Kernahan said to Nine News. “This particular player is 6’2″ or 6’3″, 92kg. I appreciate the notion that there might be other naturally born women that are 6’3″ and 92kg. But they are few and far between.”

The Australian Football League’s ruling was made under its Gender Diversity Policy, a framework that is distinct from the eligibility requirements governing elite and semi-professional competitions.

At the community level, the policy generally allows players to participate in the competition corresponding with their self-declared gender identity. Males are therefore permitted to compete with women without being required to lower their testosterone.

The policy also makes clear that a male player cannot be barred from a women’s league “solely” on the grounds that they are believed to have a physical or competitive advantage over female players.

Speaking to Nine News, Golding celebrated the AFL’s verdict, and rejected claims that he had a physical advantage over his female opponents.

“Freya” Golding before he began identifying as a woman.

“I’m not the biggest and tallest player getting around,” Golding said, “and by no means am I a dominant player. I’ve had some good moments, but it’s rare I get in the best players. I just want to play the sport I love with a great group of people and I’ve been so lucky to do that this year.”

Australian women’s rights advocates have faced a number of setbacks this year in their fight to secure single-sex spaces and sport.

Earlier this year, the Federal Court of Australia dismissed an appeal by Sall Grover, founder of female-only social networking app Giggle. The court upheld and strengthened a prior ruling that Grover and her company unlawfully discriminated against a trans-identified male named Roxanne Tickle by removing him from the platform on the basis of his biological sex.

The ruling came after more than four years of litigation, with Tickle having first filed a discrimination complaint through the Australian Human Rights Commission in December of 2021. The latest and final ruling, handed down in the Federal Court on May 15, was a response to an appeal lodged by Tickle in August 2024 to a decision made by Justice Bromwich stating that Grover was guilty of “indirect discrimination.”

At the time, Grover was ordered to pay $10,000 in compensation to Tickle and to pay his court costs up to $50,000. Dissatisfied with the outcome, Tickle further pursued litigation seeking a verdict of direct discrimination and was successful.

An Australian entrepreneur has been found guilty of "direct discrimination" after correctly identifying a man as a man.@salltweets has been ordered to pay up to $120,000 for not allowing a trans-identified male to join her female-only social media app.https://t.co/N3hjVOE5kk

Then, in July, the Supreme Court of New South Wales sided with two trans-identified male athletes against a women’s rights campaigner after they complained that she had referred to them as “men.” Kirralie Smith and her organization Binary Australia was ordered to pay a collective $95,000 to Justin “Riley” Dennis and Nicholas “Stephanie” Blanch after being found guilty of “vilifying” them by making reference to their biological sex.

Dennis and Blanch both participate on women’s football teams, and Dennis had previously been documented as injuring a female opponent on the pitch.

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