Amy Catterall is looking forward to the challenge of building Williamstown’s inaugural Swisse Wellness VFL Women’s squad from scratch.
As Mitch Wynd writes, Catterall is honoured to be leading the Seagulls for their entry into the competition in 2018 and said cooperation throughout the club had made her potentially difficult task much easier.
“I’m very excited, you can’t really say more than that,” she said. “I feel very lucky.
“There’s a lot of support networks provided by Williamstown from the men’s side and the women’s side. They’re all very supportive of getting the team off the ground. We work together and we’re looking forward to producing a really successful team.”
Catterall spent several years as a player with St Albans in the Victorian Women’s Football League, being part of their Premier Division premiership team in 2011. She then played in the first AFL Women’s exhibition game for Melbourne against the Western Bulldogs in 2013 before going on to win another VWFL Premier Division flag with Deer Park in 2016.
After spending the 2017 VFL Women’s season as a playing assistant coach with the St Kilda Sharks (where she also played from 2013-15), Catterall now takes charge of a team in her own right.
With so much experience in and around Victorian football, she has seen plenty of changes in the women’s game recently.
“We’re going into new territory but we haven’t figured it out yet,” Catterall said. “We’re going along a new path.
“It’s important that we get it right from the start at Williamstown and develop those support networks and development programs that lead into AFL Women’s, and also create pathways for other females to be confident in themselves to take up coaching.”
Building a team from the ground up has been busy work for Catterall and her Seagulls colleagues – with recent signings including Shani Dixon (Cranbourne), Stacey Cross (Diamond Creek) and Jedda Heard (Redan) – and there is still much to do before Round 1 of the VFL Women’s season begins in May.
“For me, it’s (about) putting the processes in place so we’re organised… (with) training, conditioning, skill work and structure, and that will be supported heavily by my coaching team and also coaches from the men’s team,” Catterall said.
“Instead of having separate coaching groups, we have one coaching group at Williamstown being men and women, so we all work together to make sure that the process runs smoothly.”
Asked what kind of coach she would like to be, Catterall emphasised the development aspect of the caper.
“I want to be someone who inspires people to take up the opportunities presented to them – be that coaching or playing AFL – and be known to have helped girls with their football and also their personal development.”
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When she's not working at Victoria Police during the day, Amy Catterall is teaching the next wave of talent at Victorian Football League (VFL)'s newest club – Williamstown Football Club!
Posted by Women's Footy on Monday, 5 February 2018
