Transgender footballer Hannah Mouncey remains baffled by the AFL decision to ban her from entering this year's AFLW draft because of concerns over her size, saying the nature of the game itself is built around different body shapes.
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Mouncey also believes the AFL were scared she'd get stronger if recruited to play in the women's competition.
She believes the issue that prevented her recruitment was she would put an extra 15 kilograms on to her 190-centimetre, 100-kilogram frame if she started training with a team.
"I think the biggest issue is not necessarily that I'm too big or too strong now," she told 60 Minutes in an interview aired on Sunday night.
"It's more, 'OK, you're already big, you're already strong, whatever. But what if you were to get into that elite training environment and they were to build you up, put on an extra 15 kilos and you just push everyone aside.'
"But physiologically, that's just not going to happen."
Mouncey, 28, will continue to play with Ainslie in the AFL Canberra competition next year and could nominate for the AFLW draft then.
While having ruled her ineligible for the AFLW draft in October, the AFL cleared Mouncey to compete in community level competitions because football at that level is based around participation, inclusion, and involvement.
The AFL based its decision on the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act, which states that athletes can be discriminated against based on their sex or gender "if strength, stamina or physique is relevant".
Mouncey, a former Australian representative in men's handball, played eight matches and kicked 17 goals for Ainslie last season..
"Of course I'm going to have a size advantage over some of the girls," she said.
"But I feel the game prides itself on being able to be played by anyone - whether it be little rovers, or your ruckman, or your full-forward and forward pocket.
"So, yes, some of them, I'm going to be bigger than. But some, not really.
"I obviously don't agree with what the AFL has done. There's a dozen girls of my height. I was the tallest within a couple of centimetres."
The decision to ban Mouncey on the eve of the AFLW draft created a storm of controversy. She says she has fully transitioned.
"I didn't realise until I was a lot older. I was seeing a psychologist for different things and that's how it sort of came out ... it's not a decision, it's just not," she said.
"I take four pills a day. Oestrogen and an anti-androgen. That's pretty much it.
"I am transitioned. Some people will get cosmetic surgery, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars reshape their jaw or their voice box and have surgery and all sorts of stuff. I'm definitely not going down that path."
Fairfax Media, AAP
