It took the work ethic of an Olympic Games gold medallist to set up the Port Adelaide AFLW program and to be competitive in such a brief time.
“Juliet has done an outstanding job in building the program, literally from the ground up and especially considering the accelerated timeline last year.
“She has developed a program full of high-quality people and has done an outstanding job in building that.
“I’d like to thank Juliet for her passion and hard work and congratulate her on the platform she has established for the AFLW program at Port Adelaide.”
This was Port Adelaide CEO Matthew Richardson, in November 2023, reflecting on the “tireless” job Juliet Haslam had done in building the AFLW program at Port Adelaide, the same club for which her father, Ross Haslam, played in the late 1960s.
Put simply, her role and responsibilities had been monumental: overseeing football operations, culture, coaching appointments, list recruiting and management, and high-performance areas of the new AFLW program.
Juliet Haslam responded in a heartfelt way: “It has been an honour to have been a part of the AFLW journey at our club so far, and I feel very proud that the foundations have been firmly set in place to achieve sustained success, as expected by our passionate Port Adelaide community.
“We are adding some incredibly exciting talent to our squad for the 2024 season, and I feel confident that on field success is not far away.”
Yes, she had done the work, the relentless hard yards with a work ethic of an Olympic gold medallist to give birth to a high-performing program – and her prediction of impending success was as faultless as was her leadership over the previous two years.
In 2022, its first year, Port finished 17th with one win, 8 losses, and one draw. In 2023, Port finished 15th with 2 wins, 7 losses and one draw.
Then, on the eve of Juliet Haslam stepping down due to health concerns and seeking a greater life balance, Port Adelaide manifested that enormous potential arising from the work of Haslam and her team.
In the 2024 season, Port finished the minor round in 6th position with 7 wins and 4 losses, then beat Richmond (7th) and Hawthorn (2nd) before finally being eliminated by eventual premiers, North Melbourne.
It had been a magnificent run, the foundations for which had been largely invisibly laid by the leadership of Juliet Haslam and the group culture she built around her.
