Premiership player Lauren Arnell announced as inaugural AFLW coach of Port Adelaide Power

Lauren Arnell has been announced as the inaugural AFLW coach of Port Adelaide, in a coup for the second South Australian side to join the league.

As a member of the 2021 Brisbane Lions premiership team, she is the first retired player to be announced as a senior AFLW coach.

She also captained Carlton in the first season of AFLW in 2017, going on to play a total of 36 games.

In securing the head coaching role at Port Adelaide, she will also become the third woman to coach an AFLW side, joining Bec Goddard (Hawthorn) and Natalie Wood (Essendon).

In season six, every AFLW club was coached by a man, but three of the four expansion teams have named women in the role.

Arnell has spent the last 18 months working as an Academy coach at the Brisbane Lions, while she also worked with the Calder Cannons.

«To be the first AFLW coach in a club that is more than 150 years old is truly humbling and I can't wait for our team to write their own chapter in Port Adelaide's rich history of success,» Arnell said.

«The history of success at Port Adelaide and the expectations that come with this are not lost on me. It's what has drawn me to this club.

»I want be part of something great and I can already see we are building something special within our AFLW program."

Adelaide's third AFLW premiership may be their most meaningful, as it came at the end of a season that challenged the club, and the league, more than any other, writes Kate O'Halloran.

Arnell added that she was excited by the club's «progressive» and «bold» vision for its women's football program, including the transformation of the Alberton Oval precinct.

«Our female athletes will enjoy world-class training facilities and will provide future generations of young girls and women a pathway to