When it comes to off-field moments that changed Australian sport forever, there are few as great as the iconic photo of Tayla Harris kicking a football back in 2019.
Her response to the online abuse was courageous from the outset, and she’s continued to use her voice to fight online abuse and violence against women.
The photo captured a focused Harris doing the best of her work.
But it became all too much for a certain cohort of the internet, that used the image to share sexualised and gendered online trolling.
Harris hit back. Her response to the trolls was bold and courageous, and she has continued to use her voice to fight online abuse and violence against women ever since.
Harris started playing football at the age of just five. At just 19, she was the marquee player at Brisbane, then was selected to play for Carlton for the inaugural AFLW competition. In 2021, she was named Victoria’s Young Australia of the Year, in recognition of her off-field advocacy for preventing violence against women.
Now she’s the subject of a documentary coming out next week on Prime, Kick Like Tayla. The film shares how Harris successfully manages an elite boxing career alongside playing in the AFLW competition — all the while still tackling the impacts of social media, cyber-bullying, and sexism.
Harris joined Shivani Gopal for the final episode of our Moments That Make Us podcast series, made possible thanks to the support of Stella Insurance.
During the conversation she explained the fallout from the photo incident, noting she was just 21 when story went viral, sparking a national debate about online trolling and the expectations placed on women and girls to act, play and even kick a certain way.
“I was hell-bent on making an impact and trying to steal this conversation back to make it a productive one,” she says.
“Of course, it was about raising awareness and spreading the message that it’s not okay to be sexualised in sport. That’s how it started. Then it obviously just ballooned into this massive thing which, at the time, I felt incredibly empowered by.”
Harris says she received amazing support for her work speaking out against sexism.
“I knew that I had a responsibility and I took it on board, and I wanted to make sure that I was incredibly articulate. That’s why I did only minimal media commitments because I wanted to make sure the messaging wasn’t diluted. I wanted to make sure that what I was saying was accurate and appropriate in terms of who I was speaking on behalf of, so to speak. That’s how it all went down and none of it was by design. It all just happened, the way it happened.”
Later, Harris found herself at the centre of another sexism storm, when media reports emerged that Harris had asked to be paid a much higher salary for her work at Carlton — work that covered a lot more than playing football. Fox Sports described her “asking price” as “staggering” despite the figure they reported as being nowhere near what the top men are being paid.
“For the record, the answer is no. It was not true. I never asked for that money but it makes me laugh now,” Harris says on the story.
“To be honest, I kind of wish I did because then it would almost be worth it. Then I could actually speak to it and with conviction, I guess. But hypothetically had I spoken, then you’re right. It should not have been an issue and it would not have been an issue.
“But yes, it does baffle me that people, particularly men, are so obsessed with the fact that a woman would dare to even consider earning more.”
Harris has taken on a lot of criticism in the course of her work and elite sporting careers, but she hopes such moments have helped move the development of women’s sport forward.
She says she’s been coping a lot of hit, “but thankfully, I’m a boxer and I can handle it.”
“The door will finally get knocked down. And if it means that I have to deal with it, then that’s fine. I will just go about it the way I do. But at some point down the line, somebody is going to get paid more who deserves it sooner rather than later because this conversation has happened.”
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