Adelaide Crows great Andrew McLeod is refreshed from coaching in the AFLW competition

CROWS great Andrew McLeod is relishing his assistant coaching role with Adelaide’s AFLW team as it brings back memories of football at its purest.

Adelaide women's players Jasmyn Hewett and Ruth Wallace with Andrew McLeod.

CROWS great Andrew McLeod is relishing his assistant coaching role with Adelaide’s AFLW team as it brings back memories of football at its purest.

The dual Norm Smith medallist and former premiership teammate Peter Caven has joined Bec Goddard’s coaching staff for the second AFLW season and McLeod had been blown away but the enthusiasm and the purity of the custodians of the women’s game.

It had taken him back to when he first began playing senior football, when blokes rocked up to training after work or studying and the game was not necessarily a lucrative career.

The women, McLeod realised quickly, play the game for the right reasons.

“They want to get better and they appreciate all the work and effort you put into it,” McLeod said. “And they love the game for what it is, in its purest form.

“It’s certainly what’s drawn me to it; I’ve loved that.

“Like normal footy, every day is different and it’s exciting.

Adelaide women's players Jasmyn Hewett and Ruth Wallace with Andrew McLeod.

“We’ve got a really good bunch of girls that are all in it for the same reason; they’ve got a common goal and they want to be successful.”

McLeod said it had been a sharp learning curve.

Not just for the new players that has been taken through their first pre-season, but also to him and Caven.

“Every one of our girls have their own uniqueness and they bring that to the team,” McLeod said. “For them it’s understanding how that works in a team structure.

“We’ve got a lot of new girls who have come into the system this year, some new coaches — including myself — so there are some different ideas that we are trying to implement, working with Bec and her philosophies.

“It’s great to be involved. We love it.”

McLeod joined the coaching staff after expressing his interest in helping out to football manager Phil Harper.

He already runs the club’s indigenous programs and was keen to return to spend some time in elite sport.

But the circumstances in which the women play were more similar to those at the beginning of his career than those at the end.

“It’s a bit like old-school footy, like when I first started,” McLeod said. “All the girls have got jobs or study and after working eight to 12 hours they come down here.

“That’s what I love about it too.

“That’s how I started and we all loved it that way and these girls are exactly the same.

“I think because of that fact they appreciate the opportunity that’s in front of them.

“The other thing you see is the access to them; they’re inspiring the next generation and you see them with all the young girls that come down to the games.

“I went down here with my daughter and a friend last year and it’s great for them to have somebody to look up to and aspire to play footy.

“They’ve all grown up with it and to be able to play like Erin (Phillips) or Chelsea (Randall) or Ebs (Ebony Marinoff) or Sarah (Perkins).

“I’m just grateful to be a part of it.”