Laura Kane: The Roos' Secret Weapon
- Apr 20, 2017
- 3 min read
From player to coach to president to being appointed to the role of Football Operations Manager of an AFL club, Laura Kane has seen footy from many perspectives over the past fifteen years. And she’s bringing all that experience to the table in her new role of Football Operations Manager at North Melbourne.
After a long association with inaugural VFLW club Melbourne Uni, Kane was hired by North Melbourne in April of last year as part of the Kangaroos’ bid to claim one of the four available licences for Victorian clubs in the inaugural AFL competition.
“I came to the club to help our CEO Carl Dilena with the application for a licence in the AFLW competition through my role as President at Melbourne Uni… and I never left,” says Kane happily.
“The main selling point was our long-term involvement in women’s football, so to be able to show that for six years we’ve been heavily involved in our community and have actively created opportunities was more about showing and explaining what we’ve done. Melbourne Uni was a really good example of that sort of concentrated involvement.”
Kane’s footballing career began in 2002 at Melbourne Uni. Since then, her resilience and ambitious vision for her beloved Mugars (and subsequently the Kangaroos) have been her constant allies.
She has watched women’s football go from its grassroots, hand-to-mouth existence to having a fully-fledged national competition. It’s been a long, hard, uphill battle, so it’s a good thing that patience is Kane’s long since acquired virtue – between the ages of twelve and fifteen, she could no longer play in co-ed football and a youth girls’ competition did not exist. So, she trained at Melbourne Uni with the seniors. For three years. When she finally made her Youth Girls’ debut in 2005, it was in a team that she, along with a couple of high school friends, had set up.
Upon accepting the role as President of one of the biggest female football clubs in Australia in 2014, Kane says her highest priority was “providing the best environment to develop players”.
“It was about growing the game but making sure we had an environment that fast-tracked the development of our players. I was really conscious of making sure we had qualified coaches,” says Kane, who considers the appointment of Melbourne Uni’s current VFLW coach Andrew Jago to be among the most significant achievements of her tenure.
“It was also about making sure we strengthened our relationship with North Melbourne at the time.”
Melbourne Uni’s alignment with North Melbourne began in 2010 as the Mugars assisted the Kangaroos with their Youth Girls’ Academy, the first of its nature at an AFL club, provided their own players as coaches in North Melbourne’s AusKick. When Kane took the reins as President, she knew that the Mugars’ future would be heavily invested in their partnership with North Melbourne.
“Last year we signed a five-year community partnership agreement that provides us access to the facilities like the gym and the theatrette,” says Kane of the ground-breaking deal that has allowed Melbourne Uni to train at the famous Arden St Oval and become the first VFLW club to run post-match video analysis in an AFL facility.
“All of our staff at Melbourne Uni are linked to the North Melbourne equivalent to help them with everything from sports science and strength and conditioning to administration operations.”
Kane was appointed to the role of Football Operations Manager at North Melbourne on January 30.
“I’ll be looking after the operation the football department under our GM, Cameron Joyce,” surmises Kane. “I also oversee player welfare, look after our VFL alignment, women’s football and our Next Generation Academy.”
"Laura is well suited to the role and its an exciting opportunity for her and the football club," North Melbourne General Manager of Football Cameron Joyce said.
"The work she's done since arriving at North last year has been of the highest quality and we are thrilled to have someone of her calibre as part of our club."
Kane’s predecessors are Collingwood’s Meg Hutchins and Melbourne’s Debbie Lee, who were appointed to the role of Female Football Operations Manager at their respective clubs in 2016.
“There’s really good people around women’s football and I was really pleased with the clubs that got licences that they appointed people who had really long and significant involvement in grassroots women’s football.”
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