Discover the story behind Jen Revell’s coaching rise ahead of her first AFLW final
Mackay’s Jen Revell has opened up on her rapid rise to an AFLW final, explaining how she never had any intentions to coach locally, let alone at the elite level. Discover her remarkable story.
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Lauren Bella, Wallis Randell, Alana Gee, and Kaylee Kimber are well known names in Mackay given the quartet form the region’s Gold Coast Suns AFLW contingent.
But what many may not know is there’s a fifth Mackay product on the books at the Suns.
Enter Jen Revell.
Revell didn’t trade cane fields or coal terminals of the Mackay region for the lavish high-rises of the Gold Coast to pull on a Suns jersey, but rather a polo.
A coaching career that began unintentionally has now spanned a decade, culminating in an assistant coaching role with Gold Coast’s senior women’s side, who will be lining up in the AFLW finals on Saturday night.
But to understand the significance of where Revell is now, you have to first understand her journey, which began as a newcomer to Moranbah in 2012 with a simple passion for Aussie rules.
“There was no league in Mackay at the time for women to play … I was struggling to find a community and just friends,” Revell said.
“Mackay was putting on some training sessions just on Sundays, so I was travelling two and a bit hours each way to Mackay on a Sunday just to have an hour training session.”
It was then the idea dawned on Revell to organise an exhibition match between Moranbah and Mackay in 2013, and by 2014 a 12-a-side, five-team women’s league had spawned.
“I was hoping not to coach and just play as I’d never really coached before, I just kind of loved the game,” Revell said.
Revell fell in love with coaching and would soon find herself in Mackay helping get a Mackay City Hawks women’s team off the ground, who she would inevitably coach.
Over the years since, Revell has also coached North Queensland and Central Queensland representative sides, as well as the Suns male and female Mackay academies.
She also played in two AFL Mackay women’s premierships with the Hawks, captaining one.
“I just had this urge to want to get better and I had a lot of great mentors,” Revell said.
In the past year, as part of programs encouraging the development of female coaches, Revell was afforded opportunities to immerse herself in AFLW trainings and meetings.
“I thought I was just going to be watching to see how it went but they had me coaching the forward line and it was a bit of a trial which I loved and enjoyed,” she said.
“I was lucky enough to get offered the position as assistant coach with them for the AFLW season.”
Now, Revell hopes to have a hand in replicating her premiership success with the Mackay City Hawks at the Gold Coast.
The Suns secured a finals berth on the sublime turf of Great Barrier Reef Arena in their round 10 victory over Essendon, with the Hawks faithful watching on as Revell pulled the strings from the coaching box.
She’ll be doing the same on Saturday night as Gold Coast do battle with the Swans in a cutthroat elimination final at Heritage Bank Stadium.
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