OPPORTUNITY and encouragement are the two keys to an unofficial women's coaching pathway that has formed across the elite female football teams in Geelong.

Melissa Hickey has taken the full-time senior coaching reins with Geelong Falcons' girls under-18 team this year, while another ex-Cat in Elise Coventry heads up Geelong's VFLW side, the latter with support from a third former player in Anna Teague.

Despite vastly different AFLW journeys, devastating knee reconstructions provided the initial trigger for the pair to dip their toes into coaching.

Coventry, 39, was a netballer in her prime, making the switch to football when the Cats introduced a VFLW team ahead of their AFLW entry.

A lifelong footy fan – her great-grandfather Jim Flynn played in Geelong's first VFL team and later captained Carlton to its first flag – Coventry ruptured her ACL against the Blues in a practice match during the Cats' inaugural AFLW season.

She was delisted at the end of the year, and did not play an AFLW game. 

"I stumbled across coaching to begin with. I was in the inaugural AFLW squad, did my knee in their practice match, and at the time, (senior assistant) Nat Wood and (senior coach) Paul Hood were very supportive and threw me straight into the coaches box," Coventry told womens.afl.

"I observed the season through a coaching lens, I suppose. Natalie gave me an idea of jumping into an assistant role for that year's VFLW program. 

"Bit hesitant to begin with, but she didn't take no for an answer. Except for the COVID interruption, I've been coaching through the program since."

Coventry is a teacher by trade, so coaching was a natural progression – it was the choice of sport that caught her off guard.

"Being a female athlete myself, I have a good understanding of what it's like to be the athlete," she said.

"I've been along the journey from the start, so I've seen it evolve, I've seen the time and effort Geelong Football Club have put into their W program, so I've been able to understand it from the inside out and really sit back and watch it evolve from where it was in the beginning to where it is now.

"Natalie Wood was a huge one, she was my backline coach as a player, and she was the one who forced me through that door at the beginning. Her and Paul Hood played a huge part in my playing career and taught me the early stuff, then Dan Lowther (current senior coach) and Brett Johnson (head of women's footy) are the ones who have really supported and developed my growth."

Hickey, 38, started her AFLW career as a star of the then-VWFL competition, playing 13 games in her first two seasons at Melbourne (rupturing her own ACL in her final game for the Dees), before adding 12 in another two as Geelong captain.

"I had a bit of a taste of it when I was still playing at (VWFL club) Darebin, a little bit of academy here and there. I was then an assistant coach down at Darebin and took the midfield while I was rehabbing the knee," Hickey said.

"When I retired, I came down to the Geelong Falcons as an assistant coach there, and got a really cool opportunity to learn under Paul Corrigan. 

"Then Vic Country (senior coach), and the last couple of years I've been at the Western Bulldogs as an assistant coach as well. These last six months have been down at the Falcons again."

Coaching was always in the back of Hickey's mind despite her day job in occupational rehabilitation, taking inspiration from then-Darebin coaches Peta Searle and Jane Lange, Wood (initially as a player at the Cats, and then coaching colleague at the Bulldogs) and Lisa Webb.

"I would write notes down, like this is what I want to do, and there were definitely things I learnt from some coaches that I didn't want to do, like long meetings, I just used to switch off," she said with a laugh.

"I was really fortunate to be at the highest level, so hopefully there are some things I've learnt that I can pass on, some of that leadership really helps as well. 

"There are probably heaps of things you don't even realise that have informed that, even balancing having to work. The players I have are students, so they've been at school all day and they've come into training with intensity. 

"I think that empathy is really important in being able to relate and understand that [football] is not a linear pathway, always."

The pair have connections with the Geelong Cats that reach back generations – the cousin of Hickey's grandfather was legendary club coach Reg – and have thrived as the new generation in the hoops, crediting the club's environment and encouragement.

"There's a genuine care for it to grow. [Geelong] see the value in seeing women and men in their program and a balance of both, because we bring so many different elements to the coaching staff, then the players can respond in different ways to the staff on board. There's a genuine want and will for it to grow," Coventry said.

"They're developing plans for it to grow, for people like myself, to encourage myself to get better, but then to bring others through. 

"Players are already being offered coaching courses and that type of thing, we've got current players helping out the Geelong Falcons system, so a lot of our past and present players are in the coaching system already."

One of the barriers to women in coaching has been found to be a lack of confidence, with some feeling they haven't had enough exposure to the game to take on a leadership role.

"I needed the advice to just jump in and take the leap. I was hesitant and I understand that, thinking you don't know enough about the game. But like I've said, you learn it on the job, it's the best place to do it, and you probably know more than you think you do," Coventry said.

"I just love the sport, the players, the staff, being around football. I wish I'd been able to play a little bit longer, but I get a lot of the same enjoyment out of being a coach and being around it. Seeing the young ones develop, they're developing in a game that's evolving all the time."

Hickey echoed Coventry's sentiments, adding on-going support is crucial, particularly to help overcome any natural hesitancies and insecurities.

"I think a lot of female coaches don't have the confidence, so for someone to be empowering and say, we think you can do this, just giving that opportunity and the support network around that and make sure the scaffolding's there," Hickey said.

"When you do quiver a little bit with your confidence, that someone's there to give you a bit of reassurance to keep going with it."