NAOMI MAIDMENT has given a lot of her life to football, but it has also given her so much.

On International Women’s Day, Port Adelaide’s Next Generation Academy women’s coach sat down with portadelaidefc.com.au to discuss her passion for the game and her vision for the future.

For as long as she can remember Naomi Maidment has loved sport. At first it was cricket, but there was always time for tennis and basketball. Her family encouraged her to participate.

And then there was football. She grew up watching her dad play and then got involved herself.

“I played footy my whole life but didn’t join a team until late,” Maidment recalled. “That’s probably to do with cricket and the opportunities that we had as girls growing up, which were limited.

“I played a lot of primary school footy with boys and then through high school, the nine-a-side footy tournaments but didn’t really take it that seriously.

“I was leaning more towards cricket for most of my junior sporting life.

“The opportunities were fairly limited. There was the South Australian Women’s Football League which consisted of four teams of girls from 16-year-old girls right through to 40-year-old women in the one competition so it probably wasn’t ideal for the development of the game.”

With work taking up much of her focus and injuries taking their toll, Maidment decided to take up coaching.

There were not many female coaches in the system and she was made to earn her chance.

“There weren’t lots of opportunities growing up to play the game so once we got to a stage where there were more teams in the SA Women’s football, I realised there was a lack of coaches around the place so I took an opportunity at West Adelaide,” she explained.

“Andrew Collins was the senior league coach at the time and was looking at developing girls in the coaching field and he got me into that opportunity to learn from him and some of the coaches at West Adelaide and that developed into a coaching role in 2012 there.

“Initially I spent two years coaching the women’s team and then I took a bit of a step out of my comfort zone and applied for a boys’ under 16 role, which I saw as a step up in the playing arena.

“I got an interview and was lucky enough to get selected.”

Coaching boys was a new experience for the then 31-year-old.

It was also something new for the boys.

“It was definitely different for them but I had really positive feedback from the players and also the parents,” Maidment recalls.

“I found a really welcoming experience, which might surprise a lot of people but I didn’t feel like I had any push back from anyone.

“The club supported it really well and promoted it as me being the best person for the job. I won it on merit and that’s how it felt.”

After four years at West, Chris Davies and Shane Grimm at Port Adelaide came calling when the club was setting up its female Next Generation Academy program.

Maidment admitted she initially had reservations about returning to coaching girls but with Port Adelaide looking to build its female program in preparation for its inclusion in the AFLW competition, she decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

“It’s just so exciting to be on the precipice of a Port Adelaide AFLW team in the next few years. There’s nothing but excitement to look forward to,” she said.

“There’s some really talented girls who have now developed their playing ability from Auskick right through so we’re seeing the development of players is coming on in leaps and bounds.

“To eventually take a group we’ve had for four years through to the AFLW is really exciting. We’re already developing a list of players we can hopefully take forward.

“It’s always a topic of discussion at training, the opportunity that sits in front of these players, so I’d love to be involved in that and hopefully it’s not too far away.”

Port Adelaide is one of just four AFL clubs which still do not have a licence to participate in the AFLW but the club is optimistic about joining the competition in 2023.

It is making sure it has the right facilities in place to host games at Alberton Oval with plans to upgrade the changerooms in the Fos Williams Family Stand and surrounding precinct once funding is secured.

The excitement about the future is not lost on Maidment, who admitted feeling some jealousy of the group she is coaching.

“I’m super excited about the future. I often tell the girls in the Port Adelaide program that I’m super jealous of them being 15-year-olds now in 2021 playing footy,” she explained.

“It’s just a really exciting possibility for them. They could pretty much go anywhere.

“I would love to be one of them with the opportunities ahead of them. I probably would have chosen to play footy over cricket if those opportunities existed for me.”

While she has already had one training session with her latest group of NGA participants and has her eyes firmly set on maintaining an unbeaten record against Adelaide’s NGA, Maidment has a vision for the future.

She can see a world where women can coach men and boys if they are the best for the job.

And she can see Port Adelaide winning premierships in the AFLW, as it has done over its 150-year history in men’s competitions.

“I see every team in the AFL having an AFLW team. I see that competition getting stronger and stronger over seasons to come and making it a legitimate pathway to rival soccer and cricket for girls,” Maidment said with confidence.

“I can see one day the girls having it as a career, which is exciting for young girls now who go and watch football to understand what the pathway looks like.

“Port Adelaide is a real community club. It will be really good for the club to have the AFLW team and have that one club extend into the women’s space.”