who clashed with broadcaster Kelli Underwood over the demise of the Magpies\u2019 Super Netball team in 2023<\/a>, acknowledged the Collingwood men\u2019s program had benefited from a $15m federal government grant for facilities supporting women\u2019s football and netball.<\/p>\nCollingwood had turned its netball court into a synthetic turf-covered indoor training field by the end of 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a really good point,\u201d Kelly said when asked about the grant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Ed (McGuire) and the guys did netball, there was no AFLW \u2013 it didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiterally a year later, AFLW starts. Well OK, I\u2019ve got to be in that, so I put up my hand to be a founding club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly said he often wondered if the Magpies would have been better off waiting to enter the women\u2019s competition at a later date.<\/p>\n
The Pies played in the inaugural match at a sold-out Ikon Park against Carlton, but had star players including Jasmine Garner, Chloe Molloy and Jaimee Lambert poached by expansion clubs in the subsequent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look back in hindsight and say, \u2018if we had netball at that stage and we didn\u2019t have football, and we were staggering our football start, should we have done it differently?\u2019 Maybe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, I came in here (in 2023) and we\u2019ve got a football club, both men\u2019s and women\u2019s, and in the middle is an amazing group of athletes \u2013 our netballers were fantastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t afford the cost, the expense \u2013 we couldn\u2019t do everything. We just couldn\u2019t do both \u2018W\u2019 and netball, from a facility-size point of view.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we couldn\u2019t have our green floor, we couldn\u2019t have our men\u2019s and women\u2019s doing warm-ups and training, we didn\u2019t have enough room.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo forget about the money we were losing from our netball team. We just didn\u2019t have the size of facility to represent a football club, and we are a football club, we weren\u2019t a football-netball club.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the hard decisions we had to make, and to say that we haven\u2019t invested in our W team is just fundamentally wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who says it, I have major issues with, because we have invested as much up to the soft cap, and then some.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny of those athletes out there who you talk to, any of the coaching staff saying that we\u2019re not doing stuff to get better and to have support around them \u2026 it\u2019s just, you\u2019re not in the building, so don\u2019t say it. It\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly was one of the game\u2019s most influential player managers and at one point had almost a monopoly over the AFL coaching cohort before he left his executive and board roles at TLA to replace Mark Anderson as Collingwood\u2019s chief executive at the start of 2023.<\/p>\n
The Pies immediately tasted success in their men\u2019s program with a premiership triumph over Brisbane, but the women\u2019s team missed the finals with a 5-5 record that year which led to the axing of coach Steve Symonds and the appointment of North Melbourne assistant Sam Wright.<\/p>\n
Collingwood has only managed five wins in 32 games under Wright, in a period marred by persistent injuries to Davey, who was then captain, and other setbacks for key players including Schleicher and Butler.<\/p>\n
Rival women\u2019s football departments were incensed last year when Collingwood asked for and received a list assistance package from the AFL along with GWS and Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
The Pies were given two extra list spots this season, down to one additional spot in 2027, but it is believed they will ask the AFL for further support.<\/p>\n
An AFLW recruiter from a rival club said the Pies had made a \u201cbizarre\u201d decision to sign Melbourne Mavericks netballers Olivia Lewis and Maisie Nankivell as long-term key position prospects, when the top clubs were chasing pacy and skilful Irish players who could immediately play at senior level.<\/p>\n
Kelly flagged changes to the club\u2019s AFLW program but ruled out commissioning an external review as Carlton, Richmond and St Kilda have recently done.<\/p>\n
He said his opposition to independent reviews was a blanket approach to the whole club.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the club needs to review me and the executive, that\u2019s probably a different conversation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we should have the ability \u2013 and we do on our board, and in our club with the people around the execs \u2013 to sit there with individuals and talk, and ask questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need external people to be sitting there doing that \u2013 we can do it ourselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll it becomes is a public narrative that a big review is happening \u2013 mate, any business that is any good continually looks at itself and wants to get better. It\u2019s not a review, it\u2019s a pulse check.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a mid-season check, end of season check. It\u2019s reviewing job descriptions, asking each other about how you did your job? Have you done well? What\u2019s the feedback from your peers?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all we\u2019re doing, normal business. That\u2019s what we need to start doing as an industry, and get our head around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly emotionally defended senior coach Sam Wright and his decision to quietly extend Wright\u2019s contract to the end of 2027 late last year despite his side\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n
Players found out about the decision via media reports last month, which left several players feeling as though they had been left out of consultation about the club\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n
Wright, a former North Melbourne player, recently became a father, and Kelly said the Magpies had needed to provide him security.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we had this discussion with the board, we said it was about having a young family,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to make sure that Sam was secure, and that we were making decisions that are long-term decisions, not short-term.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pushed for it to be done (without an announcement) \u2026 I wasn\u2019t keeping it secret, I wasn\u2019t trying to hide it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just, \u2018why do we need to tell anyone?\u2019 It\u2019s between us to make sure that he and his family are secure \u2013 that\u2019s the conversation, nothing more than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould we have done that differently? Maybe now you look at everything and think, we should have stood up in front to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Wright, football boss Jess Burger and list manager Edward Clark are all under pressure as Collingwood prepares to dissect its AFLW performances at the season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
The coach cut a frustrated figure after the Pies\u2019 loss to St Kilda at Moorabbin on Saturday, where he said his team was \u201cabsolutely smacked in the contest\u201d as the Saints fired up for their last game under Nick Dal Santo.<\/p>\n
He had to defend the Pies\u2019 decision to use only 37 of their 60 permitted interchange rotations on a warm day as the Saints ran over them in the second half.<\/p>\n
Schleicher suffered a season-ending shoulder fracture during the second term, but Collingwood still had four bench players which were sparingly used.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand here saying I absolutely trust our players. I think when it comes to continuity though, it\u2019s a different thing \u2026 you lose Ruby (Schleicher), you\u2019ve got to try to hold more players on the field,\u201d Wright said after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still managing players from a minutes point of view, which is quite difficult. It\u2019s more so from a physical performance point of view and that continuity we\u2019ve got with (players) coming off our injury list, rather than trusting players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vice-captain Allen, a contracted defender who is expected to again seek a trade at the season\u2019s end after she was unable to get to Brisbane last year, suffered a calf injury in training this week.<\/p>\n
It means 21-year-old Lucy Cronin, who is contracted next year, will lead the side for the first time in its Pride Round double-header game against Sydney at Windy Hill on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood boss Craig Kelly has been forced to front Magpies AFLW players and staff to address concerns 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