Despite being the lone woman on the SA Football Commission, netball champion Louise Small is certain to make her presence felt

Netball champion Louise Small is the third woman to sit on the SA Football Commission, but she will be the lone female voice this year. She is certain to leave a mark.

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AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan will be known as the man who changed Australian football with the AFLW (national women’s league) - and his eagerness to advance the competition from a 2020 launch date to 2017.

But it was his predecessor, Andrew Demetriou, who was the first AFL chief executive to push for diversity in the all-male bastion of Australian football by advocating every AFL club have a woman on its board.

And the current AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder took note that one woman on any male-dominated forum runs the risk of being isolated - hence the presence of at least two women on AFL boards today.

The SA Football Commission thought it was to maintain two women - former Lotteries Commission boss June Roache and new appointee Louise Small - this year. That was until the SANFL league delegates used their votes to remind the commission where the power stands in SA football by electing lawyer and former Norwood Football Club director Bill Moody to the commission in place of Roache last week.

Small is not only a new commissioner - she is the lone female commissioner. She is in a position some women would find quite confronting, particularly when the tone between the SANFL clubs and the league executive and commission is becoming edgy.

But the former chair of socsa - and SA netball champion - is hardly likely to feel isolated or out of place in a board room filled with men.

In an impressive introduction to SA football fans with her media interviews in The Advertiser and on radio SEN1629, Small has come across as strong, understanding of SANFL football and far from the “commissioner with the woman’s perspective”.

“I have no concern at all because I know there is total commitment from the commission and the SANFL towards diversity,” Small told The Advertiser.

“In my meetings with the chairs of SANFL clubs in the past couple of weeks, I know there is the same passion to bring new energy and new desire to the game with growth (from women’s football).

“I’ve been in other forums where there is a gender imbalance. I have no reason to be concerned with that on the commission.”

Small’s most-telling note is her appreciation of where the SANFL fits in the football landscape - and how it has an advantage on the big-business AFL by allowing fans to still feel part of the running of their local, suburban club. A Glenelg fan (after a Sturt upbringing), Small takes delight in being able to take her family to an SANFL game - and onto the ground.

Small replaces her netball colleague Jane Woodlands-Thompson on the commission after JWT’s appointment as head of women’s sport at Collingwood in Melbourne.

Small has a one-year term on the commission. It is most likely to become a much longer stay ... with many to watch if she remains the lone female commissioner.

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