Inside story behind North Melbourne’s incredible path to becoming an AFLW powerhouse
Eight clubs established the AFLW competition and despite its deep connection to women’s football, North Melbourne was not one of them. They had every right to be miffed, but they refused to let it stop their dream.
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The phone rang with an offer of an exchange.
Use of Arden Street Oval for training, with the trade-off being manpower.
Actually, woman-power.
A few drop punts from the historic ground sits Melbourne University, its amateur women’s team - the MUGARs - were established in 1996, partnering with the Kangaroos from 2009 under former CEO Eugene Arocca.
It proved to be “extraordinary”, current North Melbourne president Dr Sonja Hood explains.
“(North Melbourne) knew a women’s competition was coming at some point, and they wanted to do something with women’s footy,” she said.
“We used to get these phone calls all the time (from the men’s teams), and they would open with ‘Gill suggested we call you … we’re looking for a training session, or a game’.
“So it was a name drop and then ‘can we use your oval?’.
“Then we got this call from Melbourne Uni women, and the call was - ‘we’ve got nowhere to train, we can’t get onto the oval at Melbourne Uni’.
“The City of Melbourne had given them an oval in Royal Park that didn’t have lighting on it.
“(They said) ‘We’d really like to train on Arden Street - in exchange we could help out with Auskick clinics, or with whatever’.
“So we started this relationship with them - it was just extraordinary.
“They came and trained one or two nights a week, and sent people to North Melbourne Auskick, and they ran footy programs in The Huddle.”
It took off.
“It was just this real connection, I suppose,” Dr Hood said.
“But it was all about creating community and creating local opportunities about women’s footy.
“They had no one in power to speak to. And they couldn’t get anyone. And we returned their call.”
Laura Kane had a front seat.
The now-AFL head of football, Kane had joined the MUGARs as a teenager, played, and later became the club’s president before juggling the role with a football operations gig at North Melbourne.
“Sonja was the CEO of The Huddle (North Melbourne’s community arm) at the time, and formed the connection with the local football club which allowed us to have access to Arden Street to train,” Kane recalled this week.
“And in return, we volunteered our time at The Huddle. The players would volunteer after work and after university. It is quite fitting now that she is the president to see North Melbourne into a grand final.”
By 2017, AFLW was a reality.
Kane was appointed to lead the Roos’ push for a licence, which was knocked back.
Eight clubs established the AFLW competition. Despite its deep connection to women’s football, North Melbourne was not one of them.
They had every right to be miffed, but there was little time for that.
“The club doubled down at that point, and I’m really proud of them for this,” Dr Hood said.
“They brought Laura into a role to head up our push into women’s football before we had a licence. It wasn’t just about paying for something that we already had - it was about paying for something we knew we needed to get.
“They went about it in a way where they were determined to get the licence - not just tick the box on women’s footy. And then she went about, along with (now Gold Coast AFLW coach) Cam Joyce and others … seeking out intel from the women who came to our club from every other club, tell us what works, tell us what doesn’t.
“Tell us what’s good about your environment, tell us what’s bad.”
One player who had come to North Melbourne had never had any contact with any men’s player in their time at another club.
Roger that - integration.
Another said clarity on scheduling amid the juggle with work.
Roger that - communication.
The result, when North Melbourne was granted a licence for the 2019 season, was the benefit of having had that time to sit back and see what didn’t work for others - and, most importantly, what did.
Then came the little matter of a global pandemic.
Positioned strongly in their second season, North Melbourne’s finals push was brought to an abrupt halt when the competition was ended prematurely and no premier awarded in 2020, a Sunday afternoon press conference in the bowels of Marvel Stadium seeing an ashen then-CEO Gillon McLachlan declare the season over immediately.
It’s a regret of outgoing AFL women’s football boss Nicole Livingstone - not to have a premier that year. It may well have been the Kangaroos, one of just four teams remaining.
The next day, work from home orders began and Melbourne was eventually plunged into months of lockdown as football, like every industry, grappled with the balance sheet and what to do next.
Then-women’s senior coach Scott Gowans - who had an 11-3 record at the helm - became a victim of brutal cost-cutting measures and was let go in June 2020 with Darren Crocker installed in a dual men’s and women’s role.
“You’ve just got to grab hold of that adversity and work out what you’re going to do with it,” Dr Hood recalled.
“We got a lot of stick for appointing Darren Crocker as coach.
“I have maintained from the outset that that’s one of the best decisions we made. With no disrespect to Scott, because he was terrific and it was very unfortunate the way that contract worked out in terms of Covid and all the rest of it, but if Scott wasn’t going to continue with us, Darren was such a good choice.
“He’s got senior coaching experience, and he comes from - in North terms, he’s footy royalty. He’s a premiership player, he’s part of the fabric of the club. And in terms of fast-tracking the acceptance of women’s football into the club, that decision was really important as well.”
When Crocker was offered the job, his reaction said it all.
“I never thought I’d coach at the highest level again,” was reportedly his response.
Hood has “huge respect for that”.
“He saw this as being “at the highest level” - there was no question in his mind what he was being asked to do, and he wasn’t being asked to take something that was second-best,” she said.
“(Laura, also) was a huge part in where we got to, Carl Dilena appointed her, kudos for him, the board backed it in when a lot of clubs were not prepared to take the risk or prepared to put in the effort, and we did it in a way that really made it work.”
Having two women at the helm of North Melbourne - president Dr Hood and chief executive Jennifer Watt, who was appointed late last year - seems fitting this week, Kane said.
Extra special.
“It would be. And it feels a little bit similar to Peggy (O’Neal) with Richmond and Kate (Roffey) with Melbourne - that a lot of hard work has paid off,” she said.
“But to have the women’s team win a premiership when you’ve got a female president and a female CEO would be extra special.”
Skipper Emma Kearney, a development coach in the men’s program, agrees.
“It’s so good having Sonja and Jen running the joint,” she laughs.
“It makes the place so inclusive. Even with Clarko (Alastair Clarkson) in charge (of the men’s) - he loves coming down and talking to me about my games. Sometimes in our coaches’ meeting, he pretty much goes off track and it’s just me and him across the table with all the other coaches around, talking footy about the game. But that’s the kind of person he is - he’s so invested.”
To be contesting on Sunday is “really good for the club” after what Kearney describes as “some really rough times”.
“Since I’ve come to the club in 2018, we’ve had four different men’s senior coaches, so we haven’t had great stability in that space,” Kearney said.
“We had to let go of our own senior coach in Scott Gowans. We came into the competition all guns blazing and wanting to make an impact, so to be playing in our first grand final is pretty special not only for us as a playing group but for us as a club.
“It’s hard to know who would have won in 2020 … but for us to come and improve throughout this season, everyone was sort of writing us off thinking that we couldn’t match it with the top three teams. And we’ve been able to prove that in this finals campaign. So we’ve got one more to go, but we’re looking forward to the game.”
To be doing it alongside Watt isn’t lost on Hood - who has overcome her own personal health hurdles this year, too, and is “desperate” for the Roos to beat Brisbane.
She can’t bring herself to think beyond just being there just yet.
But it’s real.
After all it has endured, years committed to forming a team, a program, a culture - it’s here.
As the T-shirts that will flood Ikon Park declare - “Just you wait and see”.
“On Wednesday, we did the jumper presentation for the male players,” Dr Hood said.
“I got up and gave my (speech to them) … and then (men’s football boss) Todd Viney got up and talked about how the club was in a quest for silverware this weekend.
“And it was not a women’s thing or a men’s thing, it was a ‘we haven’t been here since ‘99 and now it’s 24 years later and this is just an incredible moment for our club’.
“We’ve got all this talk about ‘one club’ all the time and here it is in practice.
“It’s just North playing for a flag and I reckon that’s outstanding.
“They’ve provided hope, and that’s beautiful.”
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