Peta Searle, the first woman recruited to AFL coaching ranks, has signed a two-year contract extension with St Kilda.
Fully supportive of her longer-term aspirations to be a senior coach at VFL level, and gain more responsibilities at the elite pinnacle, the Saints are also funding an overseas educational trip for the pioneer who was appointed as a development coach 18 months ago.
A footballer before coaching Victorian Women's Football League side Darebin to five premierships, Searle found a male champion in Hawthorn legend Gary Ayres who employed her as an assistant at VFL side Port Melbourne.
Intent on making coaching a sustainable full-time career but frustrated and, for a period, disheartened by the lack of headway in the AFL's previously exclusively male domain, Searle was on the verge of abandoning her dream two years ago. But after sharing her story with Fairfax Media, and detailing how she had reluctantly returned to primary school teaching in order to support her two children, St Kilda made a landmark appointment.
Saints chief executive Matt Finnis, who oversaw Searle's hiring, broached the topic of her future about June this year. The trailblazer signed a fresh two-year deal in recent weeks and will travel to the US in October for a 12-day tour that will expose her to development programs in NFL, Major League Basketball, elite ice hockey, lacrosse and wrestling settings.
The study tour has been organised by the AFL Coaches Association and Searle's participation is being funded by St Kilda.
"Pete's shown us in a short period of time that she has fit into the program well," Saints' general manager of football performance, Jamie Cox, said. "She's developing her own areas of accountability and we'd like to extend that and explore that further. So the fact that she's keen to commit to that as well is something we're very pleased about."
Searle told Fairfax on Wednesday that her time at St Kilda felt like a "whirlwind", and that she still regularly pinched herself over the opportunity that opened up.
"This is where I want to be," she said. "I'm excited about where the club's going, and not just on the footy field but off the footy field; for who it stands for and in terms of empowering different people, not just women."
Searle said she could never have imagined the level of support she'd experience at St Kilda. Asked how she measured that, she said: "Just the check ins. Check ins by the coaches, check ins by Matt [Finnis]. Just 'how are you going? Is everything all right? How are the kids?'. It's just general care."
Searle is one of four development coaches at St Kilda. Simon McPhee is head of the area with Paul Hudson and Lindsay Gilbee completing the quartet.
Hudson is head coach of St Kilda's affiliate VFL side, Sandringham, and responsible for goal kicking with the seniors.
Gilbee is VFL backline coach and is specialist kicking coach with the seniors. Searle is VFL forward coach and is responsible for working with the Saints' on decision making and the club's international players, including Jason Holmes, the American who made his senior debut a fortnight ago.
Searle sits alongside Hudson and Gilbee in the coaches' box at VFL games. During St Kilda's AFL games she leads match analysis with the club's year one-three players who are not selected in the senior side, often sitting in a corporate-style box with McPhee.
While she has sat in the coaches' box with Alan Richardson and his senior assistants on occasion, an anticipated part of Searle's progression will be more exposure to that environment.
When Searle joined St Kilda in the middle of 2014 she was match-day bench coach for then-VFL head coach McPhee, who has since relinquished that role to be in charge of development for St Kilda generally, and manage the Saints' player academy.
Sandringham played two finals last year and finished second on the ladder this season.
THE STORY SO FAR
■ Development coach, St Kilda, from 2014
■ VFL assistant coach (defence), Port Melbourne 2012-13
■ Darebin coach (Victorian Women's Football League), 5 premierships
■ Western Bulldogs women's coach, exhibition match 2012
■ VFL women's academy head coach 2012-14
■ Western Jets U16s assistant coach, 2011
