Expansion club wants official new recording to be inclusive.
Selection panel will deliberate before choosing song by end of year.
Kylie Minogue will dazzle 100,000 fans at the MCG this weekend, but the Tasmania Devils hope there will soon be another female vocal heard on grand final day.
The Devils’ song selection panel also wants the melody to sound just as good whether it is sung by an AFL player, one from the AFLW or any supporter in the stands, and that the lyrics are inclusive of all Tasmanians.
Chief executive from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Caroline Sharpen, is part of the eight-person panel which has met three times to begin developing criteria, due to be released next month.
The introduction of the AFLW a decade ago highlighted how the male experience pervades football. The Western Bulldogs recorded an adaption of their song “Sons of the West” replacing “sons” with daughters. Essendon recorded a new version of theirs sung by women with adapted lyrics, and several clubs made adaptations to remove or tweak gendered language.
Starting with a blank slate, the Devils’ song selection panel hopes to foreground women’s experiences. The club’s VFLW captain Meghan Gaffney spent four years at GWS in the AFLW.
“When the song’s played, when you run out or when you end the game, it’s males that are singing that song,” she said.
Gaffney said the Devils’ song will need to work in acoustically-challenged stadiums, as well as be “singable” by men and women.
Sharpen said the panel, which also includes musical theatre performer John X and former Richmond player Matthew Richardson, found Gaffney’s perspective persuasive.