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Who’d want to be a woman and an AFLW coach?
Not many people, judging by the events of the past year.
There are now just three women left in the senior roles across the competition: Daisy Pearce at West Coast, Lisa Webb at Fremantle and Tam Hyett at the Bulldogs.
The numbers were higher earlier this year, before Natalie Wood parted ways with Essendon after five seasons , and Lauren Arnell quit as senior coach of Port Adelaide before the season began.
Assistants are dropping off too. Take Power assistant Sam Virgo, a former Brisbane Lion who was an All-Australian defender. She quit this week.
Those three women all have one thing in common – workload.
At Essendon, Wood worked up to 70 hours per week. Arnell, who has a young family, said when she announced her resignation that she wanted to spend more time with them. She would have had no full-time assistant coach to share the load for the 2026 season. And Virgo said she was burnt out after four seasons – juggling a full-time job and the part-time footy role.
Contrast that to the men’s game, where at Carlton, Josh Fraser now has the luxury of a full-time mentor with unmatched experience in Chris Fagan.
By contrast, a senior women’s coach is surrounded by part-time staff. In fact, they often assume the role of coaching director, analyst, development coach and more – because they have to.
The gender of an AFLW team’s coach doesn’t define the resources they are allocated. But it is clear the job is harder for women.
The most successful coaches in the first decade of the AFLW competition have been Darren Crocker (North Melbourne), Craig Starcevich (Lions) and Matthew Clarke (ex-Adelaide).
They’re former AFL players, and are experienced in the game. They don’t have to prove themselves to anyone.
In contrast, most women have no prior experience in coaching in the AFL system. Some have come straight out of playing. Do many feel like they have to try harder to prove themselves and therefore work themselves into the ground?
Research continues to show that women carry the bulk of the parenting and domestic workload, and while things are changing, the pressure is still far more likely to fall on women to balance work and home life, especially with young children.
Then there is the culture of the actual club. Who is in charge? Who is making the decisions at executive and board level?
Two women who have the credentials to coach told me this week that they wouldn’t apply for the vacant Collingwood job, because of the club’s poor record with its women’s programs – football and netball.
Since chief executive officer Craig Kelly cut ties with the netball team and declared the club remains “absolutely committed to growing, investing and developing women in the AFL program” the Pies have finished 11th, 18th, 15th and 17th.
Players have become frustrated with the mixed messaging from the leaders at the club. Kelly quietly re-signed coach Sam Wright before the start of the season, but then parted ways with him with one game remaining in the season, and with one win to their name.
Kelly also declared publicly there would be no external review. But the club backflipped days later , announcing an independent and external review into its struggling program.
There are four senior jobs up for grabs at the moment, and plenty of talent waiting in the wings.
Candidates in line for a senior coaching role include Sydney assistant Tanya Hetherington and Giants assistant Emma Zielke.
Recently retired Giants player Alicia Eva has made no secret of the fact she wants to coach, but is she ready to step out of playing straight into coaching? It was a tough gig for Arnell and Pearce.
Kangaroos champion Emma Kearney will also step straight into coaching when she retires, but her preference is in an assistant role.
One to watch is former Crows captain Chelsea Randall, who appears the front-runner for the Tasmania job. Randall would have a year to prepare a team in the VFLW before the club enters the competition in 2028.
Adelaide assistant Courtney Cramey is also seen as a potential coach in waiting.
(As a sidebar, contract talks between Adelaide and Randall’s former teammate, current Crows skipper Ebony Marinoff, are on hold until next season, and Marinoff is out of contract at the end of next year. Clubs without a coach would be well advised to keep those Adelaide connections in mind.)
There is another thing that Crocker, Starcevich and Clarke have in common, by the way. They have been fabulous advocates of women’s sport and brilliant leaders at their clubs.
They have links to some of the top coaching candidates as well, who have learnt under these successful coaches over the past decade.
Kearney under Crocker. Arnell and Zielke under Starcevich. Randall and Cramey at Adelaide with Clarke.
Meanwhile, Eva previously coached in the VFL and alongside Mark McVeigh in the Giants men’s program. And let’s not forget Mick Stinear, who formed a premiership-winning combination with Pearce at Melbourne and has taken the Cats from 13th on the ladder to second in his first year at Geelong.
That experience bodes well, and will be key to success. But let’s hope women who choose the coaching route in the future are afforded more respect and resources than in the past.
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