Sydney's inaugural AFLW coach Scott Gowans pushes for more full-time coaches in the league

The AFLW's newest senior coach, Scott Gowans, has called for part-time coaches to push into full-time coaching.

Gowans was last week announced as the Sydney Swans inaugural women’s senior coach after a two-year spell from senior coaching. Gowans was last at the helm of North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos before losing his job after cutbacks from COVID-19.

After winning 11 from 14 games in his two-year tenure at Arden Street, Gowans was offered an assistant coaching role at Collingwood under Stephen Symonds, something he told the The W with Sharni and Sam he was very lucky to be a part of.

«They offered me more money than what the average assistant coach gets, so I was very lucky at Collingwood,” Gowans said. 

»The average assistant in an AFLW program is around the $6,000 mark.

«Even if you were getting four times that — which I wasn’t, but if you were — it’s so tough and for the hours you do.

“If you imagine you’re going into training four times a week in pre-season, and you’ve got to work a normal job to pay your rent or a mortgage.

»You’ve got elite athletes in a program, and an assistant coach probably has a closer relationship [with players] than a head coach, because the head coach is overseeing the program and got so much on.

«So we’re probably in AFLW land sitting in a space where the assistant coach is, unless they’re connected with the club in some other way and doing dual roles at the club as a full time coach, it’s a really tough gig.»

While at Collingwood, Gowans worked across multiple roles where he’d spend approximately 25–30 hours a week «on the tools» across different areas.

It led to more reflection on the differences between being an assistant coach at Collingwood and previously at Carlton, and how different it