Peta

Peta Searle is your average 40-year-old, mum of two from Melbourne.

But this week, she managed to do something that no woman has ever done before – she became the first female coach in the AFL.

Peta has dedicated most of her life to football. She grew up playing and played for 11 years, then switched from playing to coaching.

When Mamamia interviewed her in October last year, Peta was the head coach for the Western Bulldog women’s team, ran the AFL Women’s High Performance Academy and the Victorian Women’s stateside. All while working a full-time teaching job at a high school.

She had previously been the first woman to get a coaching role in the VFL (Victorian Football League), and spent two years with Port Melbourne, training up the boys along with Gary Ayers. She was also the first female coach in the TAC (another AFL league) with the Western Jets, and the first head coach of the AFL Victoria VWFL (Victorian Women’s Football League) Academy Coach/Mentor.

“I’d like to work in an AFL club as a resulting coach,” Peta told us last year. “The biggest challenge is for me, now, is getting into an AFL final. That’s tough. Every year I keep knocking on doors and keep asking questions, and every year, I keep getting turned back so that’s the challenge. Am I ever going to get to an elite level? I’m not sure.”

And just eight months later, she’s done it. Peta has been signed onto an 18-month contract with St Kilda Football Club, and is set to be their new development coach.

I asked her to tell us a little bit about what she was feeling:

A million congratulations go to Peta. All of Australia has been so excited to hear your news.

And in other sports news from the week…

Have you seen anything in the news that you’d like to talk about?