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<\/p>\nWhen Adelaide was named one of eight clubs to join the inaugural AFLW season, one challenge loomed large – finding top-tier talent.<\/p>\n
David Noble, who was the Crows\u2019 Head of Football at the time, together with Phil Harper, were two of the main people charged with the massive task.<\/p>\n
It was, however, a challenge that Noble was eager to take on, given he had spent countless years prior to the June 2016 announcement lobbying the AFL to hand the Crows a licence.<\/p>\n
And there was one player at the top of Noble\u2019s list – Chelsea Randall – who would later down the track go on to not only Captain the team, but become one of the Club\u2019s most decorated stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a couple of trial games going around and we were doing some talent scouting and we saw Chelsea on one of the videos that we were doing some assessments on,\u201d Noble said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI picked up the phone and rang her directly in Newman (WA), told her who I was and told her what I was thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her I\u2019d love to jump on a plane and come up and visit her. She was surprised that there was that level of interest from interstate.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I jumped on a plane to Perth, caught another plane to Newman, and spent the day with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Noble said he was instantly taken by Chelsea\u2019s kind nature and knew straight away she would make for an important selection.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe drove around Newman, we had lunch together, we chatted about moving interstate, we talked about the options of what that might look like not only from a playing perspective, but also from a work perspective,\u201d Noble said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody spoke so highly of her and she knew everybody\u2019s name when we stopped at parks for a training session, or she had a meeting with a school, or whatever it was.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just awe-struck by how engaged all the people in Newman were with Chelsea and how loved and respected she was.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came back to the Club and said \u2018she is the absolute person that we need to get\u2019. She\u2019s been one of my best ever recruits. She\u2019s up there with Eddie Betts, Lachie Neale, she\u2019s just a complete package.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noble can clearly remember the feeling when the AFL announced the Adelaide Football Club as one of the eight teams set to form a national women\u2019s football league.<\/p>\n
The announcement brought a mix of excitement and trepidation, as well as a determination to build the best possible program for South Australian women, who had been starved of their own national competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe interesting thing was that before the licence, I think it was in 2011 or 2012, we held a couple of trial games in partnership with the SANFL and that gave the Club a really strong insight into the appetite and the thirst for the women to play,\u201d Noble told AFC Media ahead of the Crows\u2019 100th AFLW game on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had fought hard (to get a licence) because we felt with the local competition there was talent there, it was just that we needed to build the infrastructure and the talent all at the same time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very exciting that it had been awarded to us. There was a fair bit of competition with Port Adelaide, but we felt that we were able to present a case that allowed us to go to market and secure some talent, which we ended up doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we were awarded the licence, it was like \u2018now what do we do? We were aspiring to replicate what the men had as far as opportunity, resources, key drivers of talent acquisition and growth, all those sorts of areas and facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Although Noble departed the Crows in September 2016 to take up the role of Brisbane\u2019s General Manager of Football, he spent three months working hard, alongside Harper, to get the Crows\u2019 AFLW team ready.<\/p>\n
As part of the licence agreement, the inaugural Crows team was to be made with a combination of players from South Australia and the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n
And Noble said the partnership was a great initiative and allowed the NT talent to shine through.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys in the NT took up the challenge really well. They were certainly very keen to get involved and it provided the NT with an avenue to get involved in AFL,\u201d Noble said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a way of bridging that gap to continue their growth and development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NT had a fairly strong local female competition, and then it was one of the areas when the AFL said to us \u2018well you don\u2019t have enough talent\u2019 that we thought \u2018who could we partner with\u2019, who would be interested, and the conversations were pretty open and honest as to how we made that logistical concern work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noble also said the work Harper and current Senior Coach Matthew Clarke did should not be underestimated, with the pair being key contributors behind the team\u2019s sustained success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPhil did a great job, he was at the grassroots putting together infrastructure, and the foundations of what\u2019s been able to be established now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be undersold the work that Phil and Doc at the time put in, Phil was a rock and really established the foundations.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoc is a big softie and his personality really lent itself to a brand new program. It was the care and nature that he showed in the growth and development of not only the program, but the individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always willing to invest time, whether it was a meeting around talent, or whether it was around a training session, or after a long day on the track with the guys, he was always prepared to help, and I think that\u2019s what\u2019s made him such a good coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite not being at the Club for the Crows\u2019 inaugural AFLW flag, Noble watched from afar with a sense of pride and was glad Adelaide had claimed the inaugural Premiership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was pretty cool. It was fantastic,\u00a0 I had always believed that women should have the same opportunity as the guys,\u201d Noble said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made a statement to the competition and showed that this is genuine and it\u2019s here to stay, and it was great that it was able to be Adelaide first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (the 100th game) brings to fruition the vision that we had, and to look back proudly and go \u2018I played a small part in the growth of such a strong, emerging competition\u2019, that\u2019s now on a national scale.”<\/p>\n
The Crows will celebrate their 100th AFLW match when they take on Sydney at Unley Oval on Sunday at 2.35pm.<\/p>\n