
  • Staff
  • Students
  • Library
Flinders University Logo Flinders University Logo
  • Study

    Study areas

    • Business
    • Computer science and information technology
    • Creative arts and media
    • Criminology
    • Defence and national security
    • Education
    • Engineering
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Humanities and social sciences
    • Innovation and enterprise
    • International relations and political science
    • Languages and culture
    • Law
    • Medicine
    • Nursing and midwifery
    • Psychology
    • Science
    • Social work
    • Sport

    I am...

    • a high school student
    • a non-school leaver
    • a future honours student
    • a future postgraduate student
    • a future research student
    • a future online student
    • a future Indigenous student
    • an international student
    • a parent
    • a school counsellor/teacher
    Explore
    Admission pathways
    Apply
    Contact us
  • Study

    Study areas

    • Business
    • Creative arts
    • Education
    • Engineering
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Health sciences
    • Humanities
    • Information technology
    • Law
    • Medicine
    • Nursing
    • Psychology
    • Public health
    • Science
    • Social sciences
    • Social work

    International websites

    • China
    • Vietnam
    Explore Flinders
    Apply
    Contact us
  • Research

    Research areas

    • Engineering and technology
    • Health and medical
    • People and society
    • Science, environment and natural resources
    • Emerging research - Defence

    Fearless Research

    • Research Changing Lives

    I am...

    • a potential collaborator
    • a researcher
    • a potential research student
    • a current research student
    Research impact
    Institutes and centres
    Partner with us
    Participate
  • Research

    Research areas

    • Engineering and technology
    • Health and medical
    • People and society
    • Science, environment and natural resources
    • Emerging research - Defence

    Fearless Research

    • Research Changing Lives

    I am...

    • a potential collaborator
    • a researcher
    • a potential research student
    • a current research student
    Research impact
    Institutes and centres
    Partner with us
    Participate
  • Engage

    I want to...

    • Engage with us
    • Connect with students
    • Locate a clinic
    • Book a campus venue
    • Find a tender
    • Give to Flinders
    • Work at Flinders
    • Participate in a research study
    • See what's on
    • Shop Flinders merchandise

    Related links

    • Flinders New Venture Institute
    • Alumni
    • Health2Go
    • Flinders University Museum of Art
    • Flinders One Sport and Fitness
    Business and government
    Community
    Culture
    International
  • Alumni

    I want to...

    • Join an alumni network
    • Establish an alumni network
    • Share a memory
    • Access career services
    • Order a transcript
    • Give to Flinders
    • Update my details
    • Find a classmate
    • Shop Flinders merchandise
    Our alumni
    Benefits and services
    Get involved
    Stay connected
  • Giving

    Donate today

    • Donate online
    • Donate by mail
    • Giving online FAQs (PDF)
    • Staff Workplace Giving Program
    • Contact us

    Ways to give

    • Give in celebration or in memory
    • Leave a gift in your Will
    • Giving from overseas
    • Give a cultural gift
    • Get involved

    Donate to
    Why give
    Our donors
  • About

    The 2025 agenda

    • Vision and mission
    • Our strategic plan
    • Our values and ethos
    • Flinders Village

    Governance and leadership

    • University Council
    • Chancellor
    • Vice-Chancellor

    Our organisation

    • Colleges
    • Library
    • Professional services
    • Staff directory

    Campus and locations

    • Sustainability at Flinders
    • Bedford Park
    • Tonsley
    • Victoria Square
    • Flinders in the NT
    • Flinders at Festival Plaza
    Fast facts
    History
    Structure
    Contact us
  • Staff
  • Students
  • Library
  • You have no saved courses.

    Continue to explore your course options.

     
    Explore our courses

    Your saved courses

    {{{courseName}}}
    mail_outline
    delete
    View all saved courses
  • Quick links 
    • Current students
    • Staff
    • Library
    • Flinders dashboard (Okta)
    • Ask Flinders
    • Flinders Learning Online (FLO)
    • Parking
    • Campus map: Bedford Park
    • Staff directory
    • Jobs at Flinders
    • Shop Flinders merchandise

 
  • Research 

    Research areas

    • Engineering and technology
    • Health and medical
    • People and society
    • Science, environment and natural resources
    • Emerging research - Defence

    Fearless Research

    • Research Changing Lives

    I am...

    • a potential collaborator
    • a researcher
    • a potential research student
    • a current research student
  • Research impact 
    • Research awards
  • Institutes & centres
  • Partner with us
  • Participate in research
  • Labs & facilities

The making of men.

Cultivating positive sporting club cultures for healthier men.

Fearless Research

Whether it be tussles on the footy field, the swing of a cricket bat or the strain of a triathlon, sport has always been front and centre of Professor Murray Drummond’s life.

Captain of the football and cricket teams as a teen in the late 1970s and early 80s, he “woke up thinking about sport and went to bed thinking about sport”.

“Sport was my life,” Professor Drummond says. “It offered me a way of expressing my identity.”

On the Mornington Peninsula south-east of Melbourne, scouts from an elite cricket training squad eventually spotted his swing and from there sprouted a promising future with the ‘gentleman’s game’.

But by the age of 19, the post-match changeroom shenanigans, a heavy drinking culture plus a badly broken nose eventually led him to walk away from the game he loved.

“I started to struggle with the (cricket) environment a little bit because I didn’t drink a lot, if anything,” he says.

“I was brought up to be respectful towards women and I was in an environment where the cricket subculture was quite masculinised.

“I moved away from it and became a triathlete. I became excited about triathlon because it was a new and emerging sport. I was heavily involved in that and competed in the Hawaii Ironman in my early 20s.”

Professor Murray Drummond

Professor Murray Drummond

(SHAPE) Research Centre

Email

Now in his early 50s, Professor Drummond is a father of two and has participated in several impressive sporting events over the years. It was these experiences that led to a fascination with gender and sport, and later pursuing a PhD in masculinity in men’s sport.

Educating others on the virtues of sport and exploring masculine sporting culture, gender, mental health and body image now forms the basis of Professor Drummond’s career as a research professor in sport, health and physical activity.

The Director of Flinders’ Sport, Health, Activity, Performance and Exercise (SHAPE) Research Centre is on a mission to challenge sporting environments to embrace difference.

“I’ve been arguing for the past 20 years that masculine sporting settings are not entirely healthy environments for young males,” he says.

“It (club culture) can certainly impact the way in which masculinity is socially constructed and it can impact mental health, the relationship men have with women, misogynist language, homophobic language, all those sorts of things.

“This notion of ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘whatever is said in the changerooms stays in the changerooms’ certainly needs to change.”

“This notion of ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘whatever is said in the changerooms stays in the changerooms’ certainly needs to change.”

While sporting culture in Australia has progressed over the last few decades with some codes including Australian rules football changing to reflect general shifts in social attitudes and standards, much is still to be done, Professor Drummond says.

One area that requires a shift in thinking by young men is mental illness – a silent and often deadly problem.

“Mental health is still perceived as a weakness by young males,” Professor Drummond says.

“If we can change the way we see mental health issues within sporting clubs, which can be heightened or intense places of masculinity, then we’re going a long way to change the way in which we see and perceive mental health in broader culture.”

“We (SHAPE) are working with clubs, presidents and boards to specifically identify people or champions of change with a club who can mentor young men around mental health.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for people aged 15-25 and the majority are male. Research also shows that while women are more likely to attempt suicide, men are far more likely to die by suicide.

The statistics for Indigenous males are worse. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Indigenous men have twice the suicide rate of non-Indigenous men.

In his latest research endeavour, Professor Drummond is exploring how masculinised sporting cultures influence young Indigenous men’s attitudes and behaviours towards mental health.

With funding from the Freemasons Centre for Male Health and Wellbeing Research Alliance, he will work with colleague Professor James Smith throughout communities in the Northern Territory to interview local boys and men aged 12-25 about sport, masculinity and their experiences with mental health as well as broader issues associated with growing up as a male.

“We want to find out how sport shapes who they are now, but also how sporting clubs can impact their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours,” Professor Drummond says.

“Our research thus far has identified that sporting clubs for a lot of young males can be their second home. Why wouldn’t we use that captive audience?

“We can’t just let that mentoring occur by chance.”

“We want to find out how sport shapes who they are now, but also how sporting clubs can impact their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours,”

(SHAPE) Research Centre

Professor Murray Drummond

Professor Murray Drummond

PREVIOUS

New Health and Medical Research Building opening 2024

Previous

NEXT 

When brain matter affects money matters

next

Download your free copy of Fearless Research

Download Magazine

Flinders University Logo

Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042

South Australia | Northern Territory
Global | Online

Information for

  • Future students
  • Alumni
  • Media
  • Business and community
  • Current students
  • Staff
  • External contractors

Directories

  • Contact us
  • Campus and locations
  • Staff directory
  • Colleges
  • Library
  • Research Institutes and Centres

Follow Flinders

Facebook - Flinders University Twitter - Flinders University YouTube - Flinders University Instagram - Flinders University LinkedIn - Flinders University

Brand SA logo Innovative Research University logo Indigenous communities

Website feedback

Disclaimer

Accessibility

Privacy

CRICOS Provider: 00114A      TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12097      TEQSA category: Australian University

Last Updated: 18 Oct 2022
Fearless Logo

This website uses cookies

Flinders University uses cookies to ensure website functionality, personalisation, and for a variety of purposes described in the website privacy statement. For details about these cookies and how to set your cookie preferences, refer to our website privacy statement.

You consent to the use of our cookies if you proceed.

Accept and continue