The Outer Sanctum

When times are tough, we often look to the past for comfort. And while the shine tends to come off and the cracks start to appear as most things age, sometimes nostalgia for the good old days blurs our vision and skews our memory. 

That’s because nostalgia makes you feel something – it moves you. It makes you feel warm and fuzzy. It makes you spend your money and it demands your attention. 

But, it can also be another type of gatekeeping. It can trigger you and when we canonise or idolise nostalgic moments it can hold us back from progress. 

Today, we lie down on the Sanctum’s therapy couch and revisit the nostalgic moments that informed the young football fan inside of us. It’s an attempt to leave things in the past – which is exactly where they belong – so we can cherish in its place the moment we are in right now. With special guests Nicole Hayes and Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC.

With thanks to the AFL Players Association.

In February 2016, the eight-team AFLW competition was announced to the media, with 240 players putting on the boots for season one. Today, heading into the eighth year of the competition with 540 players, we’re starting to gain a better understanding of what it is to be an AFLW player. 

But, the stories are as diverse as the players – both past and present – and in this episode, Emma, Lucy and Julia deep dive into the experiences of players of different eras. 

From game one, round one, to the growing competition we follow today, special guests Kirby Bentley, Daisy Pearce and Jenna Richardson sit down to share their experiences as AFLW players both on and off the ground.

As expected, the Olympics raised many discussion points around human rights in sport, but it isn’t just global sports where human rights are part of the discourse: footy has been having this very conversation, too.

So today, we ask what are the issues that are relevant to this provincial game of Australian Rules Football? And what kind of framework can help us work our way through them.

Emma, Lucy, and Julia are joined by special guests Professor Kate Seear and Rana Hussain – who are on the ground in Paris – to explore the complex history of human rights in sport and an athlete’s right to their own voice, mind and body.

With thanks to the AFL Players Association.

Can organisations change? In 2019 there was a fracture between the playing group and the organisation that represented them, the AFLPA. Today the relationship is in an entirely different place. So how did they get there? We handed over the mics to two of the key players in that dispute, Paul Marsh and Darcy Vescio, in a Sanctum version of You Can’t Ask That. 

With thanks to the AFL Players Association.

Olympics fever has hit the world and Paris has us enthralled. But beyond the dazzle of the Eiffel Tower, is a sporting competition that has subconsciously informed the way we understand why sport exists, and why athletes compete. So, are Olympians athletes or professionals? How should they be compensated for committing themselves to their crafts and representing their countries? How does the power of broadcast and storytelling intersect with the games? And is the gratitude and glory enough to substitute payment? 

Emma, Lucy and Julia question all of this and more with an expert panel in Tess Armstrong, Kylie Watson-Wheeler, Chloe Dalton and Paul Marsh.

With thanks to the AFL Players Association.