By Grace Frost
Whittlesea Football Netball Club last week announced Aimee McDougall as its senior women’s coach for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
The club expect McDougall will bring ‘a wealth of experience’ to the side, having coached numerous teams in the Northern Football Netball League, NFNL, at junior representative level for both males and females.
McDougall was a senior assistant coach at Diamond Creek Women’s Football Club this year.
McDougall has also held positions in the NAB League with the Northern Knights and has been an assistant coach for Carlton Football Club in the Victorian Football League, VFL, and VFL Women’s, VFLW.
With women’s teams beginning to grow in numbers at Whittlesea Football Netball Club, Eagles president Adrian Stewart said it was time to take a ‘more professional approach’.
“We’ve got the girls coming through from our juniors in higher numbers now. I think there was five that graduated from the 18s to the senior group, but the year after there’s about 15 or 16 of them,” he said.
“The numbers have built now and it’s been going long enough that it’s entrenched now and it’s becoming the norm. I think we needed to give it a bit more of a professional approach.
“With the girls coming through from the juniors, [coach recruitment] just means that we’re investing in them.”
Stewart said the club had sourced McDougall wanting to find ‘the best person for the role’.
“Part of that was not only advertising and having people apply but was also going out and looking for who we think might be the best candidate, and that’s how this came up,” he said.
Whittlesea Football Netball Club is also organising a development academy catered for junior players who want to ‘take football seriously’ and refine their skills, with McDougall’s expertise expected to benefit the program.
“Part of the reason Aimee took on the role was to be a part of that as well, so that’s something she’s really keen on,” Stewart said.
The Eagles’ women’s team started back in 2020, properly kicking off post-pandemic in 2021.
The team finished sixth on the ladder this season with four wins in division two of the Northern Football Netball League.
Stewart said the club now had a ‘good pathway’ for female players to track, with girls’ teams spanning under 10s through to under 18s.
This season, the club had six under 18s players take on senior women’s football.
“They’re coming in young, enthusiastic and also showing that they’re capable at that level,” Stewart said.
Stewart said the club was in ‘a really good position’ in preparation for next season, with an estimated 90 to 95 per cent of senior players having already re-signed with the club.
“We’ve got a really good base now of coaches for all of our senior teams,” he said.
“We’re probably pretty far down the road in terms of recruitment, whereas this time last year, we didn’t even have a coach yet.
“Finding our own players was difficult without a lot of time to recruit. We’ve sort of had to learn from that.
“We had a big review last year, and even the year before, and a lot of those learnings have been put into what we’ve done for this year and it’s been proven to be successful.”
Former senior women’s coaches Jarrod Kendall and Brad Lang, who helped start the senior women’s team, will remain at the club within the new football operations department.
The Eagles will advise on when players can expect to meet McDougall soon.
