Collingwood Football club jumps when Meg Hutchins comes knocking at the door

MEG Hutchins has carved out a successful career on field and is now doing the same off it, as the first female football operations manager of an AFL club.

Meg Hutchins is one of the most accomplished defenders in Victorian women’s football. Picture: Paul Loughnan.

Meet Meg Hutchins. She works in a position that didn’t exist until she took it.

The Eastern Devils’ stalwart made history in April, when she became the first female football operations manager of an AFL club.

And not just any AFL club – Collingwood – the biggest, most powerful and most famous of them all.

In early March, Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert sat at his computer, hellbent on securing one of the four Victorian nominations for a side in the inaugural 2017 national women’s competition.

With two, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, near certainties, Pert needed a winning edge to secure his club’s nomination.

Unexpectedly and happily, Pert received an email – detailed and drafted over several weeks – from Hutchins, offering her extensive experience, as well as her inside knowledge of, and passion for, women’s footy.

“I identified the need for a large club, like Collingwood, to be part of the national women’s competition,” Hutchins, who is in her 14th season at the highest level of Victorian women’s football, said.

“I initially just wanted to help them with their submission.”

Collingwood was so taken by the idea that, over the next month, Hutchins liaised with a “who’s who” at the club including Pert, Graeme “Gubby” Allen, Neil Balme and, finally, Nathan Buckley.

“My life changed at the click of a send button,” Hutchins laughed.

“I’m pretty thankful that I was a bit bullish and approached them.”

For just over two months, Hutchins’s role has been as adviser to the Collingwood board, as well as supervising the recruitment and development of players, coaches and staff, should a licence fall the Magpies’ way.

“I’m seeing from a larger perspective what’s really important,” Hutchins said.

Her community work has focused on increasing participation, and then the retention of girls playing footy at a high level.

And, it’s about strengthening standard and depth, not about Collingwood gobbling the talent.

“I don’t really care as to getting players to Collingwood. It’s more just getting them playing at a really high participation rate, so that then the draft pool will become large and every club will benefit,” she said.

“We’re in it for the longevity of the competition, so you want it as even as possible.”

Hutchins has been the Devils’ key defender for the past eight seasons.

She’s become so comfortable on the last line of defence, she laughs at the recollection that she was the Devils’ leading goalkicker between 2005 and 2008.

By Wednesday afternoon, the AFL will have, publicly, granted licences to the eight clubs that will make up next season’s competition.

Hutchins has pulled on the Western Bulldogs’ jumper in their past four women’s exhibition matches, most recently on June 5 against Western Australia, but said it was no secret she would play for Collingwood, if the Magpies received a licence.

“I’ve absolutely loved every minute at the Bulldogs, and the people I’ve met,” she said.

“I’m in this position now, because of the football I’ve played, and they’ve given me the opportunity to play that football. I don’t want to do the wrong thing by them, but they understand that if I’m putting in all this work to put together a football program at Collingwood, then it would be a bit of a conflict of interest.

“The future’s really exciting, because we’re going to have a national women’s comp and the pathway is going to be complete. We can get all these female footballers out to promote the game at Auskick centres and school clinics, and that might translate to a higher transition from school football to club football.”