Who started this is unknown, but Bob Murphy did it in this column:
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/say ... 5181v.html
Then came this:
What's the big deal with the term 'AFLM'?
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/wha ... 518ga.html
...
It was even brought up on SEN radio on Thursday morning, with the hosts of the breakfast program, Garry Lyon and Tim Watson, speculating that it was an Age directive to use the term AFLM, rather than Murphy's own choice.
Incidentally, the man himself says he used the term for a couple of reasons, none of them related to a non-existent mandate from AgeHQ. Firstly, he was conscious that it's AFLW grand final week, with lots of coverage of women's football, and he was specifically talking about the culture in the men's game. And secondly, it's just good writing to avoid repetition - in this case, of the phrase "the men's game".
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"If the AFL women’s league is to be known as AFLW, the men’s league should be recast as AFLM," she wrote. "Until it does so, the AFL is positioning the men’s competition as 'the default' or norm, and the women’s as the negative. Even if unintentional, this devalues the women’s game, and women."
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One of the main issues readers seemed to have with Murphy's use of "AFLM" was that no other league around the world does it. But aren't we proud of our game as something special, individual, unique? Are those same people who argue that we shouldn't use AFLM because it's not NBAM or FIFA World CupM also the ones who despair that the game is becoming more like rugby/basketball/netball?
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The most recent thing I've seen:
"Seriously, Tweeps, how the f**k have we got to 2019 and found ourselves willing to engage about the appropriateness of using AFLM and AFLW to distinguish two codes of football?"
Hmm...
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