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The AFL will move quickly to develop a transgender policy, in light of this week's hearing into the nomination of Hannah Mouncey for the AFLW. "It will become a priority," one AFL insider told ESPN. "We'll move as quickly as we can to formulate a policy." This will mean the AFL will become the first mainstream sport in the country to draw up a set of guidelines -- with Mouncey's input -- that address the issue of transgender athletes. The AFL's ruling this week was made more difficult by the lack of material, and precedents, in other Australian sports; it was an issue that had largely been ignored. "We did a lot of research but there's just not much material about, so our transgender policy will be one of the first written," ESPN was told. Mouncey, who played for the Australian men's handball team, and who stands at 190cm and weighs 100kg, began a gender transition in 2015. She played eight games for Ainslie in Canberra's women's competition this season, and kicked 17 goals. A subcommittee comprising AFL Commissioners Jason Ball, Gabrielle Trainor and Major General Simone Wilkie, AFL General Manager Inclusion and Social Policy Tanya Hosch and AFL General Counsel and General Manager Game Development Andrew Dillon was set up to review her nomination for the AFLW Draft. Mouncey was considered ineligible -- for the 2018 season, at least -- because her physical strength was deemed to be significant and would give her an unreasonable advantage when competing in the AFLW, a fledgling competition featuring many novice women players. The subcommittee left the way open for Mouncey and other transgender athletes to nominate to play in the AFLW in 2019. The AFL's decision was based in part on the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act, which states that athletes can be discriminated against "if strength, stamina or physique is relevant". The AFL Players Association urged the AFL, in the wake of the ruling, to create its own set of guideline for transgender athletes as a first priority. Which is exactly what it will now start to do, led by Hosch and her subcommittee with much input from Mouncey.
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