Wayne Siekman’s dismissal from the top job at Collingwood last week was hardly surprising. Siekman’s record left plenty to be desired with Collingwood winning only seven games out of a possible 21 across three seasons. The Magpies finished the 2019 season with just the one win from seven outings. After news that Siekman’s contract would not be renewed surfaced, speculation about his replacement began. Bec Goddard’s name was thrown up, and rightly so. And yet on Wednesday, Danny Frawley emerged as a potential replacement for Siekman. The response to the news was, for the most part, shock. Realistically, we shouldn’t have been surprised.
According to the Australian Institute of Sport, women make up fewer than 15% of high performance coaches in Australia. The situation in the AFLW is even starker. Across the 10 clubs in the 2019 season, not one was led by a woman. Of the four clubs joining the competition in 2020, only West Coast and the Suns have appointed coaches, both of whom are men. While Richmond and St Kilda are yet to appoint a head coach, Peta Searle looks likely to get the Saints’ job having led the club’s VFLW team in 2018. If she does, there’s a good chance she’ll be the only woman in a senior coaching role in the competition. An improvement no doubt, but hardly something for league bosses to hang their hat on.
Frawley played 240 games for St Kilda and coached Richmond from 2000 to 2004. Last year, he led the Old Haileybury women’s team to a premiership. There’s no disputing Frawley’s football experience. But there’s also no disputing the experience of someone like Goddard.
The inaugural AFLW premiership coach, Goddard led a team spread across two states to the flag in 2017 and was only one win away from defending the premiership in 2018. After Adelaide couldn’t, or wouldn’t, offer her a full-time role she was forced to leave the club. Back in Canberra, she took on the role of assistant coach with the University of Canberra Capitals who went on to win the Women’s National Basketball League title earlier this year. Goddard seems a good fit for the ailing Magpies, who appear desperate for a fresh start and it is understood she has the support of AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan and AFLW boss Nicole Livingston who are keen to see her return to the competition.
Of course, Collingwood have another option, one already in the building. Penny Cula-Reid, Collingwood’s VFLW head coach, led her team to a minor premiership in the 2018 season. Cula-Reid’s experience certainly cannot be disputed.
The point isn’t that Frawley shouldn’t be considered for the role (though his suggestion last year that AFLW grounds should be shortened and TAC Cup anti-density rules introduced should raise some eyebrows). Nor is it that only women should coach women. The question is: why are women too often excluded from these opportunities or overlooked in favour of men? This is not a problem exclusive to the AFLW. Three national women’s sports teams – cricket’s Southern Stars, rugby union’s Wallaroos and football’s Matildas – are coached by men.
The path to a senior coaching role in football is a well-established one – from the field to an assistant role to the top job – but it has historically been one that has failed to include women. Coaching is about more than knowledge of the game. An effective coach must be an effective communicator, they must be able to bring an often-disparate group of individuals together and be able to manage expectations within the dynamic of a team. It’s far from an straightforward role, especially under the glare of the spotlight shone on the AFLW. But nothing about the job of a coach suggests it should be the domain of any single gender.
The AFL are clearly aware of the situation faced by women in their code. So too the AFL Coaches Association who “identified a need to take action to not only support the ambitions and aid development of women coaching in football, but to grow the numbers of women getting into coaching”. The association launched the Women’s Coaching Crusade which will provide scholarships for two current players. It’s a start. But more could and should be done.
Regardless of who Collingwood appoint as their AFLW coach, the obstacles facing women in the industry – from the grassroots to the elite level – aren’t going anywhere. And it’s incumbent on the clubs and on the AFL to do more to bring women into the game and into the coach’s box.
