It took twelve years as a highly successful assistant for Brendan McCartney to be seriously considered for the position of senior AFL coach. What hope then does a woman have?
McCartney had been heavily involved with premiership victories but he had two problems.
Firstly, he hadn’t played at the elite level, and secondly, he admitted to being a “developer of people” and felt a need “to get to know them”, an attitude deemed too maternal and tender for the ultimate leadership role.
It’s fair to say a woman will never play at the elite men’s level. Also, a dearth of female coaches in the expanding women’s football leagues will mean few will ever be directly involved in orchestrating a premiership.
Then there is the attitude to women involved in the game.
When Sam Mostyn became the first female AFL commissioner in 2005 she received reams of hate mail. One of the more polite and articulate read: “this game doesn’t need women, it doesn’t need you, this is the domain of men”.
The chances, then, of a woman becoming an AFL coach in the foreseeable future?
Zero.
All is not lost, however. Women make up half of AFL supporters. Most have followed the game their entire lives and understand the game intimately. Some of them, like Mostyn, hold eminent positions in business, the professions, politics and sporting organisations and would be quite capable of coaching at the top-level.
Women have been in and around the men’s change rooms for a long time now, and not just for a perv. They have been prominent as club doctors, physios, and water “boys”.
The game is the largest growing sport for female participation.
The Victorian Women’s Football League which began in 1981 with four teams now boasts twenty-seven clubs and the AFL has targeted 2020 for the launch of a televised national competition, the Women’s Australian Football League.
This will draw high quality female personnel into the coaching and playing ranks and one or two may eventually find their way into a senior AFL coaching position.
Watching Nathan Buckley smash his phone to bits in the coaches box and then seeing his counterpart Brad Scott produce steam from out of his ears at the post match interview made one question whether testosterone and leadership are such great bedfellows.
Only a handful of the 630 candidates voted into the British Parliament at the 1959 election were women.
One of them – looking like Dame Edna Everage’s frumpish sister – was a young Margaret Thatcher who would later become the longest continuous serving British Prime Minister of the twentieth century. After Thatcher, women and strong leadership didn’t seem such a strange pairing.
Some argue Thatcher wasn’t a woman at all. Well, not a normal one anyway.
There’s no doubt she was a freak, so to speak.
Called the Iron Lady (by the Soviets, mind you) and endowed with ovaries of steel she shrugged off the sort of descriptions (“the daughter of a grocer”, “the mother of twins”) that usually destroy the ambitions of a woman in the male dominated world of politics, to become a powerful leader.
Most coaches are alpha male authoritarian types but I think a more feminine approach to leadership, even in the brutal sport of AFL, can be just as effective.
I had the privilege of having several excellent coaches who operated at different ends of the personality spectrum. There was Paul Callery (‘feminine’), Leigh Matthews (masculine), Bryan Quirk (‘feminine’) and the late Terry Smith (masculine).
I hope it won’t be too long before we see a woman – preferably one in a Margaret Thatcher skirt suit with matching Asprey handbag, but a club polo shirt would be fine also – giving an AFL team a good dressing down.
Barney
Guest
Is that the Kristen Tona who writes for the Roar? Yeah, good luck to Peta Credlin. My kids are in auskick, girls too, and I don't see why a woman can't coach. Peta Searl did great at Port. Saints wouldn't take her on if she wasn't any good.
Jake BlueBoy
Guest
Not true, the first Aussie woman to coach did really well. Watched a video of her and the guys were just like, you don't even notice after a the first couple weeks. Read this http://www.guernseys.com.au/guernseys-articles/1995/3/29/football-pedigree-famous-friends-give-the-coach-a-boost/
Jake BlueBoy
Guest
Well you sure got that wrong, Peta Searle is now on the coaching staff at St Kilda! I've been interested in this since I saw a woman coaching in the SFL in the mid-nineties, the first woman in Australia to coach senior mens, they did a whole program on her I think it was Wide World of Sports, and she was very impressive. Knew as much about footy as anyone else did, more than most. Good-looking chick too, not the sort you'd think wld go in for it.. Actually, just googled, her name was Kirsten Tona and she was the sister of Ben Buckley, from the Kangaroos...the same Buckley that then went on the head up FFA. My sister saw the program with me and she got really excited; now she's been coaching Under-15s for a few years. And my little girl who's 8 wants to be like her Auntie Jackie, so once someone breaks the barrier, a lot of girls will come after them and follow in their footsteps. And I dont see why onot. I'm not going to tell my daughter she can't be involved in footy. You don't need big muscles to coach, just big brains and guts.
Mike
Guest
It will happen. Your a joke if you think it wont. AFL clubs are shit crazy not to appoint one now and from all reports Michelle Cowan is the lady. A business lady who can coach.
Lroy
Guest
Its never going to happen. 19 year old men do not respect anyone who cannot do what they can... if one day a girl plays 100 or so AFL games, well she'll get the gig... until then.. your living in dreamtime. Having said that, the Demons might try drafting a few of our world champ netballers... the girls couldnt do any worse than the current mob they have.. ROFL.....
tom
Guest
Michelle Cowan is currently an assistant coach under Paul Haselby at South Freo in the WAFL. Was previously at West Perth in about 2005 but left to start a family. Michelle represented WA in 4 or 5 different sports but obviously has no AFL experience to speak of. Haselby speaks very highly of her and the players dont seem to have any problem with the situation. Big step up to be a senior WAFL coach, let alone to an AFL assistant, then senior AFL coach but the more women holding the door ajar, the more likely - eventually - a woman will push right on through. http://www.michellecowan.com/main/page_about_michelle.html
Neil
Guest
I believe that the best chance of a woman coaching one of the AFL teams in the future would be where a woman has played a couple of hundred games as a male. That is, a man who has proved himself a great player, but then later in life decides to have a sex change operation and now lives as a woman. I know that there are people who later in life, perhaps in the 40s or 50s, start to think about who they are and sometimes decide to crossover. If this person was to be open about their sex change, then as a woman she would gain the respect of all the players whom she would be coaching.
Floyd Calhoun
Guest
Thanks Sean. I'd managed to forget about that. Until now.
Holbrook
Guest
Ian Thorpe
Bill
Guest
I would be very surprised to see it happen, not just in the AFL, but at the elite level of any male team sport. Very slight possibility that it could happen in the lower grades, not SANFL, VFL, WAFL, etc, but small regional competitions.
Football United
Guest
And those arguing that thatcher wasn't a woman were wrong, she was actually the devil.
Football United
Guest
No chance in SENIOR sport as i cant see a woman no matter how talented beig able to handle the man management and motivational side of coaching/management for a male side.but I have seen great success with girls coaching up to u18 Football and AFL. My old Aussie rules club assistant coach at u18 level was a girl and she was one of the best coaches I had because she had an excellent way of taking more complicated tactics and game plans and being able to simply communicate each players specific role so everyone knew not only what exactly was required Of themselves but also what everyone else needed to do.
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Sean, she may have had a chance if she'd dressed like Thatcher - or John Kennedy snr.
Matt F
Roar Guru
I agree. There certainly is that belief though like you, I disagree with it. There are plenty of examples (in all sports) of excellent players who have made awful coaches and likewise plenty of average players (or people who never made the highest level) who have made excellent coaches. Playing ability and coaching ability do seem to be completely unrelated. Obviously some people can be both but there's no correlation between one and the other.
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
That's an interesting one Alfred. Perhaps Sportsbet will take it up!
Ash of Geelong
Guest
Ummm Never , Why would you.
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
"There does seem to generally be [a belief] , and yes there are exceptions, that in order to understand what the players go through you need to have played at that level" Excellent point Timmuh..
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
I've just been advised that Peta Searle, a multiple premiership winning coach with the Darebin Falcons in the VWFL, is now an assistant at Port Melbourne.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
It is rare for someone not to have played at AFL level to get an AFL coaching gig though. There does seem to generally be, and yes there are exceptions, that in order to understand what the players go through you need to have played at that level. Personally, I think playing and coaching are entirely different disciplines, but there is no doubt that a succesful player has a leg-up before on everyone else. With some of the stronger on-field leaders who give advice to younger players, that is fair enough; they have shown some of the ability required already. I think a lot of good coaches have en missed over the years because they took senior roles in state leagues and being out of the AFL system never got looked at (Steve Wright is the classic here, multiple premiership coach in Tas, SA and Vic leagues but never even looked at seriously), or never played at the top level. No doubt some of the in the second group would be women could have been good coaches. Clubs go to the ends of the Earth to find potential players now, but are still blind to potential off-field staff.
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Anthony, Mostyn described the reaction to her appointment a couple of years ago: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/footys-first-female-still-making-her-mark/story-e6frg8zx-1226032270155. Not all were happy about it. Hopefully since the second woman Linda Dessau was appointed in 2007 some of the mail senders have changed their mind.