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, as Callum O'Connor reports.
In early March, Collingwood CEO Gary Pert sat at his computer, determined on securing one of the four Victorian nominations for a side in the inaugural 2017 National Women’s competition. With two certain frontrunners Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, Pert needed to find 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 AFL.
“I identified the need for a large club like Collingwood to be part of the national women’s competition,” says Hutchins, who is in her fourteenth season at the highest level of Victorian women’s football.
“I initially just wanted to help them with their submission.”
‘Initially’ indeed. Collingwood were so taken by the idea that over the next month, Hutchins liaised with a host of Collingwood legends: Pert, Graeme ‘Gubby’ Allen, David Emerson, Neil Balme and finally Nathan Buckley.
“My life changed at the click of a send button,” she laughs. “I’m pretty thankful that I was a bit bullish and approached them.”
For just over two months, Hutchins’ role has been as advisor to the Collingwood board as well as supervising the recruitment and development of players, coach and staff should a licence fall the Magpies’ way, which it now has.
“I’m seeing from a larger perspective what’s really important,” says Hutchins.
Her community work has focused on increasing participation and retention of girls playing footy at a higher level – and it’s about strengthening standard and depth, not about Collingwood stockpiling all 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.
“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 last eight seasons. The words ‘tough’ and ‘leader’ are regularly used by commentators to describe her game, with her Devils’ leading goal kicker awards between 2005 and 2008 a distant memory.
Hutchins defines the most important aspect of being a good defender as “identifying when to attack and when to defend”. It’s a surprise to hear her say she doesn’t feel like an accomplished defender yet: “If you feel like you know everything, everyone’s going to go past you.”
In an historic day for women’s football, the AFL publicly granted licences to eight clubs who will make up next season’s competition, Collingwood being one of them. Hutchins has pulled on the Western Bulldogs’ jumper in their last four Women’s Exhibition matches, most recently on June 5 against Western Australia, but says it’s no secret that she will play for Collingwood in a heartbeat.
“I’ve absolutely loved every minute at the Bulldogs and the people I’ve met. 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.”
AFL licences granted
History was made today at the MCG with AFL Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick announcing the clubs which have been granted a licence to compete in the inaugural season of the national women’s league in 2017.
The Adelaide Crows, the Brisbane Lions, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, the GWS Giants, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs were named as the successful applicants after the AFL Commission ruled on the submissions yesterday.
The Geelong Cats, North Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda and the West Coast Eagles haveeach been granted provisional licences, and in the coming days will be provided with an outline of how the AFL will work closely with them to develop the talent base and ensure they are part of an expanded competition at the earliest possible opportunity, some as early as 2018.
Last Modified on 15/06/2016 12:39