A total of 12 female coaches from various community football clubs were given an insight into what an AFLW pre-season program looks like, as Eagles coaches and staff ran them through the morning session.

AFLW Head Coach Daisy Pearce addressed the group of coaches, taking them through the pre-season training structure before Head of AFLW Michelle Cowan and Player Development Manager Janelle Marangon took them through their own roles at the Club.

AFLW Head Coach Daisy Pearce

The 'Women in Coaching' session was a collaborative effort alongside the WAFC and aimed to provide further education to local coaches looking to upskill themselves and their own football programs.

The community coaches were given exclusive on-field access at training, with Academies Coordinator Chad Morrison taking them through the individual drills and providing some deeper insights into the AFLW pre-season.

“It was a great opportunity for these female coaches to get involved and see an AFLW program running in full swing in pre-season. Hopefully these coaches can take some things away from the session and implement them into their own programs to help further grow female football from a grassroots and community level,” Morrison said.

“Programs and sessions like this aren’t just seeking to develop the coaches themselves but also their players. Coaching is all about empowering players within their teams to speak up and help deliver the messages they’re trying to get across which will improve their program overall.”

WAFC Female and Diversity Coach Coordinator Beatrice Devlyn reinforced how important the development of female coaches is from grassroots to high-performance levels.

Academies Coordinator Chad Morrison

“Daisy and her team were great at letting the coaches out onto the field and letting them into the training plan, then to have Michelle, Janelle and Chad go through the operational aspects of setting up a high-performance program made for a really great day and all the feedback we got was super positive,” she said.

The opportunity to meet, mingle and communicate with coaches at the highest level was the biggest takeaway for our coaches. It helped to inform these coaches to stick to their philosophies and reinforced that they are in fact doing a lot right as they continue their development.

- Beatrice Devlyn

“It’s so important that we continue to foster and develop our community coaches so that we can have more people like Daisy Pearce in the future. For all these AFLW coaches to link back to their community coaching experience to our group of coaches just highlights that it’s a very real possibility for them and they can take it as far as they want to.”

Morrison highlighted the importance of the existing partnership the Club has with the WAFC, with many collaborative sessions and programs continuing to develop female football.

“It’s excellent to have this existing partnership with the WAFC, and with one of our inaugural players in Beatrice Devlyn being involved in developing community coaches this partnership will continue to flourish and grow the female coaching pathway,” Morrison said.