Lauren Arnell says the "love was mutual". The AFLW premiership winner is eager to start her senior coaching career at a club brimming with ambition. Port Adelaide wants an inaugural AFLW coach who will inspire on-field success.
In Port Adelaide jargon, this is the "Perfect Pear".
"It became clear pretty quickly that Port Adelaide is the place I want to be - and this is the program I want to be heavily involved in," Arnell said on Tuesday when the 2021 Brisbane AFLW premiership player was formally presented as Port Adelaide's first national women's league coach.
"I know this club is steeped in tradition - 150-plus years of being a highly successful football club. It is a club I am keen to join. One of the early phone calls I had was with (club president) David Koch who was really keen to talk about the wharfie background and the hard work that makes up the culture of the football club and its community. That really resonates with me.
"And I am for embracing the expectations of this football club. That appeals to me."
Port Adelaide football chief Chris Davies described Arnell as the "best candidate - with the feedback from Carlton and Brisbane (underlining) Lauren brings fantastic energy".
"Lauren's background as a teacher was significant - and we have seen Lauren's ability to drive culture," Davies said. "She was the best candidate for the role."
Arnell will take charge of the newest football program at Alberton from May 2 for the club's inaugural AFLW season that is expected to be fast-tracked to late August - five months earlier than first expected.
"I am absolutely stoked to be joining the Port Adelaide Football Club; I could not be more humbled or excited," said Arnell from Brisbane where she is in isolation by COVID close-contact protocols.
Arnell will have a full agenda on finding her desk at Alberton. There is an inaugural player list to assemble with the chance to cherry pick established talent from the current 14 AFLW teams, a coaching panel and support team to build around her and a national draft to contemplate.
"Building the team on and off the field is the first task - and culture forms the biggest piece of that for me," Arnell said. "We want to build a team, on and off the field, that makes this program great. We will bring in great people.
"I am very much a values-based person - and culture is something that really matters to me. I very quickly understood from Chris Davies and (Port Adelaide AFLW boss) Juliet Haslam the environment at the football club and what is important to Port Adelaide.
"It very much matches with what is important to me. My partner is from Adelaide, so I have a strong connection with South Australia and some strong family connections with Port Adelaide.
"Also, building a program from the beginning - while some might think it is too big a job - is a challenge I embrace. I know we are very well placed as a football club to create the best environment for our athletes."
The anticipation for AFLW great Erin Phillips - the first female player signed by Port Adelaide in 2015 when the national women's league was in the planning stages - to make a homecoming move to Alberton looms large.
"There are a number of players we are looking to speak to (soon)," Arnell said. "With the Phillips' family history at Port Adelaide (where Erin's father Greg played in eight SANFL premiership teams) we would be mad to not do our due diligence and have that conversation with Erin.
"There will be a number of players across the competition (looked at by Port Adelaide). We will do our due diligence on (which players who can be part) of the best-possible program. There will be many players we speak to in the coming weeks.
"We will be doing a lot of work in the next couple of weeks with player signings. It will be a team effort (forming the first squad) - and I want to highlight the incredible job Naomi Maidment has done so far as our list manager. She has been amazing so far and I cannot wait to support her further.
"We are looking for players who want to be the hardest working in the room and those who bring their team-mates along with them. Players who will represent the Port Adelaide Football Club with pride."
Arnell is the fourth major appointment to the Port Adelaide AFLW program with all four ringing true to the club's commitment to back women in key roles and to develop pathways for women in elite Australian football. Arnell as coach follows Olympians Juliet Haslam and Rachel Sporn as the club's head of AFLW and operations manager and Naomi Maidment as list/recruiting manager.
"We have an incredible group of people in our program," Arnell said. "Naomi, Rachel and Juliet have well placed this club to work with not only the next generation of AFLW players but also those already in the league."
A member of the successful Darebin Falcons football team in the VFLW, Arnell's AFLW playing career included two seasons at Carlton - where she was the inaugural captain in 2017 - and three at Brisbane for a combined total of 36 national league matches. She was a member of Brisbane's 2021 AFLW premiership team.
Arnell's coaching apprenticeship includes being head coach at the Brisbane academy for the past three seasons and being mentored by current St Kilda and former Carlton AFL senior coach Brett Ratten in 2019. Her commitment to establish pathways for women in coaching lives with a scholarship program - the She Can Coach system - in Victoria.
While she is a novice as an AFLW senior coach, Arnell's experiences in football and life ensure she is well prepared for her baptism in one of the new hot seats in the AFLW competition.
"Ten years in teaching, I was coaching well before AFLW came to be (in 2017) and my background as a player and a teacher and coaching in talent pathways since 2013 places me very well in this role," Arnell said. "Teaching experiences help with every element of life. The background I have as a teacher - and in coaching in the talent pathway with younger people - will serve me well in this role. I can't wait to work with the next generation."
Arnell's intent is to embrace "the Port Adelaide way" and have her teams entertain by emphasising goals on the scoreboard.
"There is no doubt that the Port Adelaide brand of football is highly competitive and contested with smart players who use the ball well," Arnell said. "You will see that will certainly come into our AFLW program as well.
"I am a real believer that the most-enjoyable footy is when you score goals. So, you can expect a game plan based on working to score - and that pure competitiveness for one-on-one contests.
"But it is not worth having a gameplan that does not match your player list. While I am a really strong believer in what is the best version of football for the spectators and the players - and that is with your team kicking goals - we will have to formulate our game plan that suits the list we build.
"A really big piece for me - and I know it is aligned with the football club - is to have good people involved. Culture will be a strong building block."
Arnell's eagerness to embrace Port Adelaide's expectations for success from the first AFLW match - that could be a Showdown with Adelaide on Friday, August 26 at Adelaide Oval - is matched by her want to build an AFLW team that is true to Port Adelaide's ethos on club and its people.
"It is realistic to expect we will have a great group of people working really hard to continue the success of the Port Adelaide Football Club," Arnell said.
"We will perform when is required. We will be ready (whenever AFLW Season 7 starts).
"I've already been dreaming about Adelaide Oval, Never Tear Us Apart just before the first bounce ... it is such an exciting space in South Australian football and for Port Adelaide in particular."
