Over the last decade, the growth of women’s sport, particularly in traditionally male-dominated codes, has been more significant than ever before.
While playing opportunities, pay, facilities and resourcing have all improved considerably for female athletes, there is no doubting the role that the introduction of the AFLW has played in welcoming new female administrators into the industry.
Port Adelaide was involved in the final round of competition expansion, with former Hockeyroo Juliet Haslam becoming the first dedicated AFLW staff member in late 2021, before building a support team around her.
“We were always determined to bring in the best people for each position within the AFLW program,” Haslam said.
“We never set out to employ only women as part of our administrative group; it just turned out that the best candidate for each role we went to market for happened to be female.”
The establishment of a new football program meant finding suitable candidates to fill both newly created and existing roles, seemingly sparking an increase in female employment at Alberton.
Haslam’s seven-person AFLW administrative leadership group was part of this surge, and at the same time, the club engaged two more female Board Directors (now three in total) and added two women to the senior executive table.
The administrative staff body is now just shy of a 50/50 male to female gender split, while the total staff and player cohort is at 40 per cent female – a 20 per cent increase since 2021.
Haslam’s AFLW leadership group, or ‘WLG’, comprises seven women, each with varying experiences in elite sport and specific areas of expertise.
With Haslam as the program’s head, the dual Olympic gold medallist looked for others to complement her; they needed to be driven, creative, qualified, and not afraid of hard work.
Port Adelaide Next Generation Academy coach Naomi Maidment was appointed list manager and soon after, former Australian basketballer Rachael Sporn joined the club as operations manager.
Next, Lauren Arnell was plucked from a fiercely talented pool of candidates, becoming the first former AFLW player to become a senior coach at the top level.
Experienced player development manager Amanda Sheldon was added to the group to support player wellbeing, while two media and marketing specialists were secured to launch the program into the public sphere.
“Our leadership group has a fantastic dynamic where we can challenge each other and have tough conversations, but we’re also sure to pause and recognise achievements and celebrate successes,” Haslam said.
“The opportunities available to women in sport now are so exciting and I feel very proud to be working for a club that champions equality.
“Our WLG often talks of wanting to be a destination club for the best female athletes, but that also applies to female administrators.
“I’m really proud to lead this group who cares so much about this club and our program.”
Port Adelaide Football Club is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from suitably qualified and diverse candidates from all backgrounds, experiences, age, communities, nationalities, sexualities, gender and sex.
The club is committed to growing our people processes to provide a welcoming, safe, and flexible approach to work to create an environment that benefits from and enables the best from everyone.
Organisations that embrace diversity, including gender, are three times more likely to outperform, are more adept at innovating and embracing change. For 150 years, the Port Adelaide Football Club has been a place where everyone is welcome. We are committed to cultivating a culture where everyone feels that they belong, can bring their whole-true-self, and nurtures a club membership base that is representative of the community in which we work and play. We are a club that understands when we harness the diversity of our people, specifically their broad range of skills, attributes, experiences, and views, we deliver better outcomes for our community, on and off the field.
