Grace and Paige Cardona set to premiere their new documentary about footy pioneer Peta Searle

A Bellarine-raised, filmmaking duo are set to preview their documentary about a footballing trailblazer at a major film festival next month. But it almost didn’t happen.

Grace Cardona. Picture: Contributed.

A Bellarine-raised, filmmaking duo’s unique story about a footballing pioneer they liken to the “Ron Barassi of the women’s game” will be featured at the Melbourne International Film Festival next month.

New doco Breaking The Line - The Peta Searle Story has been a 14-week passion project for producer Paige and director Grace Anna Cardona, who grew up in St Leonards in the 1990s.

It’s the story that almost wasn’t, with the pair only becoming aware of an available funding grant through Footy Shorts at their brother Ben’s 50th birthday back in April.

Celebrating the AFL’s first full time female coach, it’s been forged through a partnership with VicScreen and the league, combining archival footage, candid interviews and heartfelt tributes from players and peers.

Paige, a Belmont High School product, said she and her sister only became aware of the funding window closing about 48 hours before deadline.

“(Grace) initially didn’t think to apply because it required a football story, and that’s how we decided we’d do it together,” footy-mad Paige recalled.

“So, we accidentally hijacked his day to plot our pitch for the grant; less than 72 hours later, it was submitted.

“We just went full throttle into it together.”

Paige Cardona has made a documentary about footy pioneer Peta Searle. Picture: Contributed.

The pair hastily pulled together a funding submission, scoring the grant from about 100 applicants.

Relishing the “female-fronted energy” between the pair, they wanted to focus on a female-focused, sporting narrative.

Considering the worthy footballing tales of Debbie Lee and Shannon McFerrin, they decided on a woman who built a CV laden with footballing firsts: the inaugural senior women’s coach to guide a team to five consecutive VWFL flags at Darebin, and the first assistant at a VFL and AFL team, Port Melbourne in 2012 and St Kilda two years later.

“The Ron Barassi of the women’s game I think,” Cardona said of Searle’s impact.

Paige Cardona back in 2006 as a Belmont High School student.

“It was the first story I thought of ... she’s been this consistent embodiment of firsts.”

And Paige, who bleeds black and white for the mighty Magpies, discovered plenty of nuggets along the way, from Searle reportedly being over the line for the senior coaching job at Spotswood around 2011 before the committee reportedly got cold feet at the 11th hour.

An opportunity with the Western Jets then followed before a random encounter with former Hawthorn premiership champion and Port Melbourne mentor, Gary Ayres, at a level three coaching course before the 2012 season, opened another door.

The only woman in attendance, the two-time Norm Smith medallist almost instantly identified Searle’s footballing nous.

“He immediately thought, you really know what you’re talking about and I think you’ve got some great tools that would be helpful,” Cardona said.

Like Ayres, Searle never saw gender as a big issue during her remarkable footballing journey, culminating in an academy being established in her name in 2016.

“Everyone else saw the gender, but no one saw the ability,” Paige said.

“She never saw gender as a barrier, but others did.

Peta Searle with her children Tessa and Jackson in November, 2011.

“She referred to Gary Ayres as a father figure, he became this incredible person in her life that was probably the first person to see her as a coach, not as a female coach.

“He straight away noticed, you’ve got exactly what’s basically missing in my program.

“She wasn’t treated like this novelty.

“He was really interested in her philosophies in coaching.”

A mother of two, Searle ultimately stepped away from the Borough for financial reasons and went back to teaching at Brighton Secondary College, before another opportunity arose at St Kevin’s in the VAFA under Daniel Harford.

Then, St Kilda came calling in 2014 about a development role.

Cardona learned Ayres became something of a father figure for Searle over the years while Jack Billings was a huge advocate during her time at the Saints.

However, making the film came at a personal cost, with mum of one Cardona, inspired by the late Aussie Rules documentary maker Robert Dickson and ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, estimating she had to put in 50 hours a week when things really began to ramp up.

“My wife, god bless her, she literally said to me at one point: ‘I can’t wait until this is done because I haven’t seen you’,” she recalled.

“It’s been a real passion piece, and we’ve invested so much time into it so that it does (Searle) justice.

“It’s been a whirlwind 14 weeks making this film.

“Certainly the last month leading into the submission date ... that was chaos.”

Peta Searle before joining Port Melbourne in late 2011.

She said working with her sister – coming from a background in wedding and music video production – was a “beautiful process” and had made their relationship stronger.

But there were initial concerns.

“We thought, are we going to kill each other? (laughs). Grace is such a talented filmmaker in her own right,” Paige said, who is driven by shining a spotlight on grassroots footy and championing the underdog.

“We’ve both learned a lot from each other.

“She’s put in some massive hours and dealt with my ramblings, and probably vice versa, it’s been a great period of growth for the both of us.”

It’s also a story of determination, with Paige told by a Year 10 teacher she’d never make a career out of footy, informing her parents to stop allowing their daughter to bring a Sherrin to class.

Cardona, who regularly returns to the region with her father Peter in Torquay and mother Gayle in Geelong, said it was more than a footy story, but about fighting for your place, backing yourself and paving the way for others.

Originally published as Grace and Paige Cardona set to premiere their new documentary about footy pioneer Peta Searle