Greensborough has unveiled a new coaching structure for its women’s football team, with premiership skipper Kelly Mullins stepping up to join Stew Lewis in the coaching ranks.
Lewis, who led the Boro to the Division 3 Women’s premiership in 2019, will continue in his role but will share the coaching duties with Mullins, who has been promoted to playing-coach.
The duo will be joined by Mick Lewis and Brett Temple, who return to the Greensborough women’s program, but in different roles from previous years.
Mullins, the club’s inaugural captain, said that with role would allow her to develop her coaching skills while continuing to play.
“I’m still committed to playing, but in this role I’m getting the best of both worlds and learning on the job,” she told NFNL.org.au.
“(Lewis’) expertise, he’s coached across a lot of different footy associations over many years now.
“I will be learning that experience and what he knows from all those different experiences.
“It’s making sure I’m a good support to the coaches and helping my teammates get the most out of their footy journey and learning how to bring that out of everyone and working together to keep that culture.”
Greensborough certainly made the grade in the higher level this season with a third-place finish on the Division 1 Women’s ladder.
Lewis believes the time is right to implement a new coaching system.
“I’d always thought that when you develop a new team and form that nucleus of culture, skill and competitiveness, there’s a three-year window,” Lewis said.
“We were lucky enough to get a premiership in that, but the job wasn’t done. It was about setting up future leaders and now’s the time to do it heading into 2022.”
Lewis said he was looking forward to working alongside Mullins, who he believes has the hallmarks of being a successful coach.
“She’ll sit with us in our grading matches. We’ll analyse players and develop some non-negotiables and identify things that Kelly needs to implement on the field and learning how to make quick adjustments while she’s on the field,” he said.
Lewis said the playing group had continued to work hard during the COVID-enforced break and hoped that would be evident on the field when the 2022 season rolled around.
“They’ve all been running their own rock show so to speak, but I’ve also set them targets for 2km time trials and just kept them ticking over,” he said.
“It’s not hard stuff, but it’s stuff that ticks them over and provides a good headspace.
“There’s a lot of things that we have to prepare them for in 2022, but they’ll get through it. They’re a good team and they’ll get through it. They’re ready.”
Mullins said she was looking forward to returning to the training track with her teammates.
“We used to train twice a week and play once a week. It’ll be nice to catch up with everyone for a kick. Just touching base with the girls and seeing them again,” she said.
