JAN COOPER has been named the 2015 Football Woman of the Year at the Liptember Grand Final Comedy Debate at Crown Palladium on Thursday.
Cooper is the AFL’s National Manager of Female Football (WA) and has been synonymous with female football development across the nation.
She joins women such as Jill Lindsay (1999), Caroline Wilson (2000), Beverly Knight (2002 – joint winner), Bev O'Connor (2002 – joint winner), Susan Alberti (2008), Debbie Lee (2009) and Michelle Cowan (2013) as past winners.
She has been instrumental in changing female football from a few small leagues across Australia to being on the verge of having an elite competition.
"I can't wait for the implementation of a national women’s league – when it is truly everyone’s game," Cooper said.
Cooper will be part of the Grand Final motorcade on Saturday and at the AFL official function on Grand Final Day.
She was presented with the award on Thursday by last year's winner, St Kilda assistant coach Peta Searle.
While Cooper took out the major award, Ainslie (NEAFL) assistant coach Rebecca Goddard won the Honourary Category and North Melbourne's Sport and Recreation Coordinator Bridge Barker won the Emerging Leader award.
The award recognises women in the industry who have made a significant contribution to the game, and is open to any woman involved in football regardless of club or profession.
The Perth-based Cooper has been with the AFL since 2007, and previously held the role of the WA Female Football Manager before taking on the national job.
In the past eight years, she has overseen female participation growth from 60,000 to more than 280,000, with 650 female teams now in competition.
She admitted there had been times where she'd hit hurdles in her career because of her gender but was pleased to see the landscape changing.
"This has taken hundreds of people a hundred years to get to this point where females are accepted and can aspire to be in any role they want to be in our code," she said.
Cooper also used her speech to thank the people around her – including her husband and sons – and claimed it was a team award rather than an individual accolade.
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, who was part of the award's judging panel, said the award "represents a progression of our game in the right direction" given the ambition to appoint more women in positions of influence.
"The Football Woman of the Year Award is an important recognition of the role women play in our industry and a great opportunity to formally celebrate women in football during Grand Final week," McLachlan said.
"We are proud of our endorsement of the Football Woman of the Year Award and are committed to ongoing cultural change to engage more women in the game."
The AFL intends to establish a national women's league by 2017, following on from the success of the recent Melbourne-Western Bulldogs games.
