Collingwood’s newly appointed AFLW coach, Steve Symonds, is settling well into life at the Holden Centre.

“Everyone at the club has been really receptive and open which has been great,” Symonds told collingwoodfc.com.au.

Having made the move from Adelaide to Melbourne just two weeks ago, Symonds’ dedication to the club has been immediate.

In fact, he even flew over to watch several of the club’s VFLW matches before his official commencement.

“We’ve been interacting all the way through, getting to know each other and are building strong relationships,” Symonds said of his players and staff.

The 2017 South Australian Team Coach of the Year has an impressive 22 years of coaching experience under his belt, which extends to several grand finals and premierships.

He spent several years working in men’s football in the SANFL before dedicating his time to the establishment of a women’s program at Norwood.

As Collingwood’s AFLW team prepares for its fourth season, Symonds has a key focus on player development. 

“We’ve got a really young list at the moment so we are really keen to further develop those girls and start to take their football to another level,” he said.

He is also motivated to build a strong team culture and ensure his players have a healthy balance between work, training and life outside football.

“We’ll start to tweak our program to make it more streamlined with the girls in the AFL environment and also combining their own work as well, so it’s just about trying to make it a little bit easier for them.”

Symonds’ already understands the importance of the one club mentality at Collingwood and is looking forward to the many opportunities to work with other teams across the club.

“We’ve got the ability to come in and work around some really good quality coaches, not just in football but also netball.

“We’ve got a wide range of resources to tap into, which is a great way to learn and share experiences.”

Symonds will continue to support the VFLW program for the remainder of the season before the commencement of the AFLW pre-season in November.

“It’s a chance to come into the program and rebuild that with a young group, and the progress of that young group is going to be really exciting,” he said.

“Now it’s really about establishing a strong culture and strong environment that promotes development [for] girls really trying to establish themselves as players.”