Peta Searle will lead St Kilda in VFLW ahead of AFLW entry

WOMEN’S football pioneer Peta Searle will coach St Kilda’s VFL Women’s side this season ahead of leading the Saints in the AFLW in 2020 and will have a Saints legend as her assistant.

Peta Searle will be St Kilda’s inaugural AFLW coach in 2020, with Saints legend Nathan Burke to be her assistant. Picture: Michael Klein

AFL groundbreaker Peta Searle will coach St Kilda’s VFL Women’s side this season ahead of leading the Saints in AFLW 2020.

Searle, a women’s football pioneer having had great success as a player and then as a coach helping to build powerhouse Darebin, made history when she was appointed as a development coach at St Kilda in 2014.

She had previously worked as an assistant coach at VFL club Port Melbourne.

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Searle said she was looking forward to shaping the women’s game at St Kilda and will have St Kilda legend Nathan Burke as an assistant.

“I’ve loved being involved in the men’s footy but when I moved into St Kilda there wasn’t a semi-professional league for women,” Searle said.

“The only space for me was to continue to grow in men's football, but now that that’s an option, it’s good to be able to be working with girls again.

“The Saints have invested a lot of resources in it. To run your own program with elite resourcing (is a great opportunity).”

Peta Searle will be St Kilda’s inaugural AFLW coach in 2020, with Saints legend Nathan Burke to be her assistant. Picture: Michael Klein

Searle, who had an initial chat with the Western Bulldogs ahead of AFLW01 but nothing further, will continue to have a role with the men’s program, but her main priority is building a strong base for women’s football at the Saints.

“For us, we’re not aligned to an AFLW club, it is basically a team made up of local girls,” Searle said.

“We’re playing both games to be honest. We’re playing the long game, so a few of those girls we see as three-year projects and we’re happy to commit to them ... but having said that, we want to be able to play the best footy we can next year to obviously give some players the chance to be drafted in 2019.”

Searle hoped the AFL would offer recruiting concessions ahead of 2020 to acknowledge the Saints’ development work.

“If we’ve developed players, there should be an opportunity for them to come back to us in 2020,” she said.

Searle is keen to see more female AFLW coaches — there are two at the moment, Bec Goddard (Crows) and Michelle Cowan (Dockers).

“It’s a great opportunity to develop players but also coaches, in particular female coaches so that there’s more available at AFLW standard,” she said.

“I’ve got quite a big coaching staff here. I’ve got three females, Nathan and two males. It’s fantastic resourcing at VFL level.

“I’m really mindful of upskilling the females so perhaps they can be AFLW coaches sooner rather than later.”