Two-time Adelaide premiership co-captain Chelsea Randall still has a lot of footy left under her belt but is already preparing for life beyond playing.
Randall, 28, is one of six women enrolled in the second intake of the AFL Women's Coaching Academy, including fellow players Alicia Eva (Greater Western Sydney) and Aasta O'Connor (Geelong).
The first round of participants last year contained West Coast AFLW assistant Nikki Harwood, Geelong AFLW assistant/VFLW head coach Nat Wood and GWS AFLW assistant Krissie Steen, among others.
"We in the process of doing our level three coaching course, which is awesome. We've spent the last two days doing that and we've consumed a lot of information," Randall told womens.afl.
"Basically, it's a 12-month program that will basically enhance our coaching skills and hopefully accelerate more females in that coaching spaces and roles."
Participants will have an individual development plan, be assigned an industry mentor and have placements and education sessions. They will also be involved in an AFL "in-club" learning experience.
Along with playing for Adelaide, Randall also works with the club's talent academy.
"I work with our under 16 and under 18s, the next generation of young girls who are coming through to the AFLW," she said.
"I just really wanted to utilise this opportunity while still being a player, you never know when your last game will be, so you have to always prepare for what the future might look like.
"I guess I'm just exploring different areas in order to open some doors in the near future."
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It goes without saying Randall enjoys her coaching work.
"It's so rewarding working with young athletes for a period of time and seeing them achieve what we're trying to work on together. Taking someone from A to B, just having that positive impact on them not only as a footballer, but a person," Randall said.
"There's so many amazing key messages that can come from football for life in general, and it's awesome that as a coach, you're able to facilitate their learning and growth.
"We want to see more female coaches across all sports. The number one thing for girls to stay in football is generally the coach's influence, so having more females in that role offers that leadership."
Over the AFLW off-season, Randall spent a few weeks training with teammate Ailish Considine's Gaelic football side County Clare in Ireland.
"It's a fantastic sport, Gaelic, it really opened my eyes to try and work out how to kick this round ball. It's a pretty agile kind of sport. I kept running straight up to the opposition, getting there and realising I couldn't tackle, and they'd just step me," she said.
"It was good in a sense, working on short feet when approaching for the tackle, which is great for injury prevention.
"Being able to experience Ailish's culture and home has obviously given us a bit more of an understanding of her as a person, so having that opportunity was awesome."
2019-2020 AFL Women's Coaching Academy
Alicia Eva (GWS player/GWS development coach)
Shannon McFerran (Carlton AFLW senior assistant coach)
Chloe McMillan (Collingwood AFLW assistant coach)
Lauren Morecroft (North Melbourne AFLW assistant coach)
Aasta O'Connor (Geelong player/AFLW talent manager)
Chelsea Randall (Adelaide player/Adelaide female academy coach)
