The new season of Ted Lasso plays the indignities of women\u2019s sport for laughs, but they\u2019re grounded in reality.<\/p>\n
Before I unleash, I should probably clarify: I love Ted Lasso.<\/p>\n
After three years, the beloved comedy about an American football coach taking charge of an English football team has returned to Apple TV. Only this time, AFC Richmond is building a women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s joyous, hilarious, gloriously ridiculous and absolutely infuriating, because so many of the \u201cjokes\u201d about women\u2019s sport are true.<\/p>\n
The first time I threw something was at the TV was when Ted, the newly appointed women\u2019s coach, was shown the team\u2019s new changing room. It\u2019s a cramped youth academy space, with \u201cwomen\u2019s locker room\u201d taped over the sign. There are cleaning supplies in the corner. One shower. One toilet. And, of course, a urinal.<\/p>\n
But the changing room is more than somewhere to exercise the fundamental human right to pee. It\u2019s the beating heart of a team, where culture, trust and belonging are built. And what does that space tell these women? Be grateful for what you\u2019ve got. Don\u2019t rock the boat. Don\u2019t ask for more. Don\u2019t push. Don\u2019t take up space. Don\u2019t be difficult. \u201cWe\u2019re just happy to be here.\u201d Fuck that.<\/p>\n
The writers have done their homework. The indignities may be played for laughs, but they\u2019re grounded in the reality of women\u2019s sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second time I threw something was during a press conference. Instead of asking about the women, journalists fire question after question at Ted about the men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s funny because it\u2019s painfully familiar. In Aotearoa, just 26% of sports news coverage<\/a> in 2025 was about women\u2019s sport. Without the women\u2019s rugby and cricket World Cups, it would have been 23%. During last year\u2019s Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup, 56% of rugby coverage was about\u2026 men.<\/p>\n The fictional journalists can\u2019t stop talking about the men. Neither, apparently, can we.<\/p>\n Then there are the uniforms. When the Richmond women\u2019s kit fails to arrive for the first match, a team of girls take the men\u2019s shirts and bedazzle them. The women run onto the pitch wearing Richmond hand-me-downs covered in sparkles.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s ridiculous. It\u2019s joyful. And the metaphor is almost too perfect. Women adapting something designed for men and making it work? Where have I seen that before? Oh yes, I remember. The White Ferns were once tasked with sewing their own uniforms<\/a>, and the Black Ferns didn\u2019t get a bespoke women\u2019s-fit jersey<\/a> until 2021, 30 years after the team first took to the field.<\/p>\n Women\u2019s sport has become very skilled at finding another way, following generations of \u201cno\u201d. No to equal pay. No to equal representation in boardrooms<\/a>, leadership and coaching. In some cases, no to taking to the pitch for 50 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s commercial investment. No proven results? No money. And good luck getting those results without investment. Men\u2019s sport is allowed time to build audiences, lose money and have bad seasons. Women\u2019s sport is too often expected to prove its commercial value before anyone is prepared to invest in it. Meanwhile, more people are engaging with women\u2019s sport<\/a> than ever before, and women\u2019s elite sport is forecast to generate US$3bn<\/a> globally this year.<\/p>\n As Richmond marketing boss Keeley Jones puts it: \u201cEvery time you tell me no, it forces me to think of a different way to get things done.\u201d That resilience is admirable. But \u201cwe\u2019ll do it anyway\u201d shouldn\u2019t have to be the business model for women\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n And when women stop being grateful and start demanding more, there\u2019s another label waiting: difficult.<\/p>\n This season gives us several \u201cdifficult\u201d women. My favourite is Zelda Southport, a billionaire investor in women\u2019s sport and former punk rocker, who challenges a room of wealthy pale men on whether they even know the players\u2019 names: \u201cPut your fucking hearts where your fake allyship currently is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNever underestimate the power of anger as fuel,\u201d she says. I know. I spent years being a difficult woman in sport. Anger gets things done. But fuel burns.<\/p>\n By episode four, though, I wasn\u2019t throwing things, I was crying. Underneath all that rage, Ted Lasso understands something else about women\u2019s sport: the joy is the point. It\u2019s why we care. Why we fight for fair. Why we\u2019re \u201cdifficult\u201d. Why we believe.<\/p>\n And there is so much joy here: strong women backing each other, male allies who listen rather than lead, musical theatre geekery, Roy Kent\u2019s chest hair and sparkly socks, Beard being wonderfully weird, a trained rat named Jonathan and one magnificent bar fight.<\/p>\n But my favourite moment came earlier in the season. Men\u2019s coach Roy Kent tells his niece Phoebe that when people say \u201cRichmond\u201d, they usually mean the century-old men\u2019s team. Phoebe, a pre-teen who confesses to kicking three boys in the balls at primary school, promptly puts Roy in the doghouse.<\/p>\n By the end of episode four, there\u2019s no confusion about who Richmond is. The women have built their own team, found their people and taken up their space. They walk out together chanting: \u201cWe\u2019re Richmond till we die.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re not grateful guests anymore. We\u2019re not just happy to be here. 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