Former Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander quits AFL dream

Lisa Alexander has launched a scathing attack on the AFL, saying she never stood a chance of landing a coaching job due to it being a “closed shop” for women.

High-profile coach Lisa Alexander sees the AFL as a closed shop for women like herself.

The former Australian Diamonds coach is excited about her new job as the high performance director of the London Pulse netball team, but the move is also an acknowledgment that her dream of working in the AFL appears over.

“The AFL industry has never given a chance for someone like me to be employed because basically they are a closed shop,” Alexander says.

“I had been very keen on getting something in the AFL, that was the next challenge to me but I just started to realise it wasn’t going to come about. The AFL is too constrained by its own form. It’s a sport that I think really holds itself back and only appoints from within.”

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“I will go over to London and we’re planning on having a great time.”

Alexander, who was in charge of the Diamonds for 102 Tests with an 81 per cent success rate, has taken up a two-year contract with the Pulse.

Alexander leaves Australia having rankled many in the AFL sphere with her unwavering self-belief she could cut it in the code as a senior coach.

She thought she could be the next Collingwood coach following Nathan Buckley. She also applied for the North Melbourne coach’s role last year and was told to “get more experience”.

As Alexander has fiercely pursued a job in the AFL – greats of the game such as four-time premiership winning coach Leigh Mathews said she couldn’t transfer her coaching nous to a different sport.

But Alexander, who also works for high performance training company Leading Teams, believes that good coaches can transcend sports.

Lisa Alexander says she’s given up on her dream of coaching in the AFL. s

“Leigh Matthews will say I don’t have an intimate understanding of what goes on in a pack and my counter to that is, do I have to know that to be able to coach it?” Alexander says.

“That’s my challenge to the AFL coaching world. It’s more similar to netball than different. “Then they get worried about how I will go standing in front of a group of 40 men. Well, I’m not concerned. I used to do that at school. It’s not an issue.”

“I won’t coach like Ron Barassi did, or like Craig McRae or Ross Lyon. I’ll be different. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It just means it’s different.”

“And nobody‘s actually got the guts to go; ‘yes, we need you.’”

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It’s not only in the men’s game where women have struggled to secure leadership positions. Only one of the 15 coaches in the AFLW is a woman – Bec Goddard at Hawthorn.

Alexander currently serves on the Victorian Institute of Sport board. She also sounded out what it would take to be part of the Hawthorn Football Club board. She was told, now wasn’t the time and she didn’t have the right “skills”.

Bec Goddard is set to be Hawthorn’s first AFLW coach.

“They just want me in my little box, which is barracking for Hawthorn and not being too noisy and questioning too much,” Alexander says.

Alexander coached the Diamonds from 2011 until March last year.

On her watch Caitlin Bassett captained the Diamonds team and she said she would like the currently injured shooter to play for the London Pulse. Bassett, who is no longer Australian captain, is currently at home in Perth deciding on her next move.

“I think she’s still good for 40 goals a game at least at the Super Netball level,” Alexander said. “I’m scratching my head about why she hasn’t been snapped up … if we put our offer into her for London Pulse, I hope she considers it. But I don’t know whether she wants to travel, she has just been in New Zealand and didn’t work out as well as she might have wanted. I know she loved the club (Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic) but she’s got things that are happening in her personal life that you have to consider these days.”

When asked for her views on netball in Australia she said the game is at a “sliding doors moment” in Australia.

“They have to be mindful that it is a really important time for them,” Alexander said. There’s the threat of the rising football codes for women, particularly AFLW which will expand to an 18 team competition shortly, and the game’s grassroots need attention.

She pointed out that Covid-19 has cruelled the pathways to the elite levels particularly around academies. The Diamonds have also been hit, not being able to play a test on home soil since March last year.

Alexander also thinks that netball should be pushing hard to become an Olympic sport.

“The game is on the precipice and I think they know that,” Alexander says.

For now, her focus is on London Pulse where she has a two-year contract.

She is delighted to be working with Sam Bird – who is both the coach and the chief executive.

“I said to her the other day, she is like Vince Lombardi, who ran the Green Bay Packers, and I said it worked for him; he won five championships,” Alexander said. “She’s a dynamo. She’s got so much energy.”

Alexander is looking forward to the change of scene and the opportunity to catch up with old friends such as Eddie Jones, who now coaches the England Rugby Union team.

“Well you never know I could end up being an assistant to Eddie by the end of my contract,” Alexander said, laughing. “Wouldn’t that put that cat amongst the pigeons?”

Originally published as Former Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander quits AFL dream