Narelle had played netball until age 26, then took up football until her late 30s. “I was probably the shortest centre-halfback you’ll ever find, but I was known to be pretty ruthless in my day,” she told the ABC.
Narelle Smith seems to have a self-effacing way about her that is both humble and likeable.
On the face of it, she doesn’t take herself too seriously but there is a powerfully committed and serious drive to achieve as a woman in Australian Rules Football.
And as such, she has become a respected and much valued woman in an emerging sport for females at the elite level.
In many ways, as a football coach, Narelle Smith was self-taught.
She had played netball till she was 26, then took up football, playing for 12 years until her late 30s.
“I was probably the shortest centre-halfback you’ll ever find, but I was known to be pretty ruthless in my day,” she told the ABC.
At 38 she took to coaching. “I think in my first few years I was actually a pretty terrible coach,” she continued.
“I really wanted players to be exactly the type of player that I was.”
But she was entirely motivated to learn by observing and talking to other coaches, absorbing every strategy, every drill, every game plan, and then gradually filtering what worked best for her and her teams.
Such pure commitment was rewarded – with senior coaching positions at the Morphettville Park Women’s team, the SA State team, and later men’s reserves assistant at Glenelg FC.
Elite players today have much to be grateful for, especially to those who built something from the ground up, refused to take ‘no’ for answer, and determinedly paved the way forward.
Narelle Smith is one of those people. She has chaired the SAWFL and when the momentum shifted, she was appointed to the AFC’s women’s football advisory body.
At the time, she told AFC’s journalist Katrina Gill, “I think it’s been brewing for a really long time.
“Having been involved in everything that’s female football, it’s no surprise to me that the AFL has grabbed it and said, ‘Let’s run with this’ because it’s a viable option.
“It’ll make football, truly, an Australian game.”
