Tremendous progress has been made in recent years by the Australian Football League (AFL) in partnership with VicHealth, with support from the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) with the implementation of the AFL Respect and Responsibility Program aimed at creating safe and inclusive environments for women involved in Australian Football, particularly at the elite level involving the 16 AFL Clubs and selected State League Clubs.

To build on the AFL work, AFL Victoria (AFLV), the controlling body for football at all levels in Victoria, has developed a partnership with VicHealth and  ARCSHS to implement the ‘Respect and Responsibility: Creating Quality Environments in Community Football Clubs’ to be branded ‘Fair Game - Respect Matters Program’ over  the next two years.

VicHealth’s Respect and Responsibility, Preventing Violence Against Women Program has a strong focus on primary prevention, particularly interventions to change behaviour and environments to ensure women’s safety. Interventions that do not have a particular focus on violence, but address its underlying causes (such as gender inequality), are also primary prevention interventions (VicHealth, 2007).