But for one Melbourne mother recently, that happy routine came to a shocking end when her 12-year-old son copped a vile sledging. The insult, from a boy of about the same age, ended with the words, "when I f---ed your mother".

While sports fans reeled recently at tennis player Nick Kyrgios' misogynistic taunt, it seems the same kind of hate-filled sexism is being heard at junior sports competitions.

Anthea Conroy, whose son was the target of the sledging, says while she was appalled by the comment, her son and his peers were not shocked, telling her such taunts were widely used.

Anthea Conroy's son was the subject of a sexist sledge at a local footy game. Photo: JOE ARMAO

Ms Conroy complained to the opposition club, asking for an apology and counselling for the other player, but so far has seen little response.

She says the insult doesn't upset her personally but she is very worried for the boys involved, all of them.

"How can boys grow up to respect women when there's no consequence when these incidents happen? All I wanted was for that young boy to be clearly told that it's not OK to talk about women like that."

The South Metro Junior Football League said while that particular matter had not been investigated, being part of a several complaints about the match, it should act as a catalyst to all clubs to reaffirm what was acceptable match-day behaviour.

The league's general manager, Jake McCauley, said: "If you're verbally sledging another player then that's not within the spirit or the laws of the game."  He added that type of sledging was "extremely, extremely, rare".

It's happening at the elite level and it's happening on the local footy oval, but what effect does aggressive, sexist sledging have on children and young people, and is enough being done to tackle it?

Former AFL player Luke Ablett can clearly remember hearing crass insults about other players' mothers or sisters during his years in junior football, and is disappointed, although not surprised, to hear it's still happening.

Ablett, 32, who is an ambassador for The Line, which aims to encourage respectful relationships and address violence against women, says derogatory comments on the local sporting field can have a huge impact on kids.

"Comments about women or that kind of gendered language, saying you play like a girl or you're a fag, it absolutely diminishes the people who fall into those groups. For young boys it's teaching them that being a woman is bad and as a result they start to respect women less."

Former AFL footballer Luke Ablett is now an anti-violence ambassador. Photo: Jason South

Research, including from VicHealth, Deakin and Latrobe universities, has concluded that there is a clear, causal link between inequality and sexism, and violence against women. Environments where women are less visible, for example a sports club with few women officials or participants, or where derogatory comments are tolerated, are contributing factors towards violence against women in those communities.

Dr Debbie Ollis, a senior lecturer at Deakin University, said her research into young women and sport had found that one of the key reasons women and girls dropped out of sport was fear of violence.

Dr Ollis, whose research involves interviews with junior women cricketers, their parents and coaches, said there was still huge inequality in sport, including in the more revealing uniforms women and girls wore and the lack of attention given to female sport by the media.

"Attitudes by the (sports) associations is one thing, but it's very different out there in club land. When we hear comments like this (Kyrgios) we should be very, very concerned about the impact."

George Patton, professor of adolescent health research at Melbourne University, said sport and the media played a much greater role than in the past in forming children's identities and core attitudes.

Professor Patton said children in late primary and early secondary school were developing their identities, including what it means to be a boy or a girl, and were hugely influenced by role models such as sports players.

"Sport, in the lives of many young men, plays a really important role. They're learning firstly how to compete but also how to behave in relation to women."

He said the Kyrgios sledge could have a huge effect. "This attitude obviously devalues women, devalues intimacy and relationships with women. These are the kind of things that young men really need to learn."

VicHealth's research into community attitudes towards women, released recently, found that young people's attitudes were an area of concern. The survey, based on interviews with 17,500 people aged over 16, found that while young people's attitudes were gradually improving over time, this age group had more violence-supporting attitudes than others.

Irene Verins, VicHealth's manager of mental wellbeing, said young people and children were particularly affected by incidents at an elite sporting level that undermined women or condoned violence, because they admired sports stars and were avid watchers of sport.

Ms Verins said while there was a lot of work being done in sport around encouraging respect for women, it was an issue that needed constant attention and effort.

"It's not an issue that goes away, what we need to do is maintain constant vigilance, constant reminders. If you're addressing sexism in sport you need to have a culture of constancy and really maintain the same messages so that the same attitudes and behaviours don't return."

She said it was crucial that children saw that behaviour such as the Kyrgios sledge had consequences and was not accepted.

"We are constantly attempting to promote what should be the normal, that is respectful relationships, the fact that it isn't is really tough."

Ms Verins said VicHealth was also committed to improving the representation of women in sport, as an important tool in combating sexism.

"To make women more visible through their increased participation, to make sports environments more safe and inclusive with a view to women being greater contributors on a range of levels … that's good role modelling for children."

Ms Verins said while sport had a vital role to play in influencing young people's attitudes, so did other sectors such as education. "This is an important message that we should all be responsible for carrying, whether you're in a sports club, at a school, in the workplace."

Ablett said that with so many local sports clubs – around 1100 footy clubs alone – it was impossible to offer face-to-face support and training to every club, making the work at the elite AFL level a crucial example.

He said the most effective approach in his work had been to personalise the issue for young players.

"The things that you're saying about other people's mother or sister or daughter are the same things that other people are saying. Every time you use that language you're giving permission for someone to talk to your mother or sister like that."

Ablett said working with local clubs to get more women involved was another important strategy.

Jenny Walsh, education development manager with the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at Latrobe University, said the low profile of women in sport added to the impact of comments like those by Kyrgios.

Ms Walsh said the recent success and high profile of Australia's netball team was a great way to combat misogyny in sport.

She said the Kyrgios comments also highlighted a prevalent double-standard towards women and sexuality.

"The double standard hasn't changed that much since I was a teenager. There's this ugly idea that women don't have a sexuality except to be had by somebody else, and that sets the bar very low for boys and girls."