THE 10th AFL Women’s season is set to play out in 2025, and the competition has come a long way since its first round of matches about eight years ago to the date.

As a way to celebrate the milestone, Rookie Me Central will be catching up with some of the pioneers of the early AFLW era to reflect on their careers and see what they have been up to since retirement.

In the next article of the series, it is time to catch up with former Crow and Sun Sally Riley.

In her day, Sally Riley was the definition of a true utility, and was someone who could play in every third of the ground from week to week.

Riley described the build-up to the first AFL Women’s season as an “absolute whirlwind” because of the unique situation she and her Adelaide team mates found themselves in.

“I remember the draft was mid-October, and I think a month later we were flying to Melbourne for the AFL induction and for us that was meeting our teammates because I was living in Darwin in that first year… I’m meeting my teammates because we’re living in two different states,” Riley explained.  

It proved to be a big year for Riley and her team mates who went on to become the first ever premiers of the competition. She described what it is like to be one of the members of the first ever AFLW premiership team as something “really special” and a “crazy feeling” she woud never forget.

After spending three years at the Crows, Riley then moved to the Gold Coast Suns ahead of their inaugural season in the competition, and by doing so joined a fairly exclusive club as someone who was a member of the inaugural squad of two AFLW clubs.

”It’s something I’m really proud of, and that played a big part in me moving to the Gold Coast after my time in Adelaide,” Riley said.

“I really enjoyed building the foundations and setting the standards, and creating an environment that players and people and families want to be a part of.”

Riley looks back fondly upon being one of the pioneers of the AFL Women’s, especially given “how far it’s come.”

“At the time it was just, you’re so grateful to be in that era where the timing was right and I was the right age to be able to make the AFLW,” she said. “You felt really honoured and special that past players who would have been there didn’t have that opportunity. It’s something that I’m very grateful for.”

Riley ultimately decided to retire in 2021, and in hindsight it is little surprise that coaching is the path she went down.

She continued to teach on the Gold Coast after her last AFLW season, but then moved back to her home state of Victoria in the middle of that year.

Riley then found herself in an assistant coaching role with the Greater Western Victoria (GWV) Rebels in what is now known as the Coates Talent League, and after the league brought in full-time coaches for the girls teams, Riley took over as head coach and has been in the role ever since.  

Coaching is always something that Riley has been interested in.

“That’s a big part, and especially now I’m a bit older, or even when I was at school, I just get so much joy from [helping others],” she said.

“It was always something I aimed to do post-career. But in saying that, never did I think it would be a full-time job. I always thought it’d have to be a side hustle with my teaching, where now the teaching’s a side hustle and footy coaching’s my main passion and job, which is crazy when you think about it.”

On the question of whether she would ever want to be a head coach in the AFLW one day, Riley is open to the move but is happy where she is for the moment.

”It is something that I’ve probably thought about for a flashy moment or two. I still think I’ve got so much to learn, and right now I’m really enjoying the place that I’m in with coaching and with the group,” Riley said.