STAKES are high in a touted shake-up in tradition for one of the region's most iconic sporting days. If successful, the reward will be huge.
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You can almost hear the naysayers bleating louder than the bagpipes now questioning limit marks and emphasising the larger male contingent fighting for the equivalent sash.
It is not about that. It is about the money.
Maryborough Highland Society has laid bare its plans to have women running for a purse equal to their male counterparts for the beloved Maryborough Gift.
As it stands, that means increasing the women's prize money by far more than double - after two years hiatus due to pandemic restrictions and all the jostling to regain sponsorship and supporters to revive the New Year's Day gathering that is more than 160 years old.
Organisers are hoping to set the record equal by New Year's Day 2024 but have made clear they are open to upping the stakes, with a welcome sponsored boost, in the upcoming holiday season.
This is gutsy for a sporting contest that, like most others, will be trying to find its way back on course after the pandemic curve balls.
But it is also about survival.
Tradition is a huge part of the Maryborough Highland Gathering's charm with Victorian Athletic League events run alongside robust pipe and brass bands on Princes Park. There is also the longstanding strongman events and the girl on the drum.
Nothing quite comes close in other Gift fixtures.
The changing landscape in women's sport demands more attention in professional running.
Stawell Gift made a big splash in adopting parity for the women with the marquee Gift at Easter in 2015, trumping Ballarat Gift where organisers had already put in motion to level their purses the next summer.
Stawell was not the first - Stonnington Gift, an event won multiple times by Ballarat's Tara Domaschenz, had been Australian's richest female footrace and on equal footing with the men.
Stawell was crucial in thrusting the play for parity into the national spotlight clear before competitions like AFLW and Women's Big Bash League cricket became a brand.
If we are to play into trying to boost numbers or shape the women's game into a replica of the men first before boosting money we are fighting a losing battle. A little like a backmarker off scratch who is never truly in the hunt, always left to chase.
This will recognise and create opportunities for the hard work female sprinters put into their season.
The VAL catch cry is that all roads lead to Stawell. While plenty of runners, Ballarat included, venture to Bay Sheffield in Adelaide or Devonport and Burnie in Tasmania after Christmas, Maryborough very much remains a key stop in the build up to Easter.
In Victoria, Maryborough marks the turning point in the season - this is the start of the run home to the biggest footrace in Australia.
Maryborough will always have its New Year's charm, but a prize pool bigger than any necklace the women's event previously offered, is an important transformational goal to aim for.
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