Daniel Cripps - PFL Women's Head Coach (15.06.2026)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Mark Duffield** (0:25)
Welcome back to the SEMWA studio out here at Optus Stadium. It is a wet Monday morning in Perth. It's currently 10.8 degrees outside. It's not going to get much warmer, a maximum 15 degrees later on in the day.
Well, this Friday, up at Joondalup, there'll be a couple of big clashes between the Perth Football League and State Country teams. The men's teams will square off later in their evening, but as the curtain raiser to that, the WA State Country women will line up against the Perth Football League women. Daniel Cripps is the coach of the Perth Football League women's team, and he joins us on the show now. Daniel, welcome.

**Daniel Cripps** (1:09)
Morning, Duff. Thanks for having me on.

**Mark Duffield** (1:11)
Mate, what prompted you to take on a job like coaching the Perth Football League women's team?

**Daniel Cripps** (1:19)
Well, so I'm the coach of the Trinity Aquinas A-grade women's team. It's my second year at the helm there, and yeah, to be honest, I've just, since I've started coaching, I've absolutely fallen in love with it. Also help out down at Perth in the Waffle W. So yeah, women's foot is really become a big passion of mine. So when the opportunity came up to lead the state girls, yeah, it was something that I really can put my hand up for, and yeah, I was stoked when I got the role.

**Mark Duffield** (1:48)
It's probably the most exciting sector of the sport at the moment, isn't it really? When you strip everything back, it's the sector with all the growth in it. And I think from a coaching perspective, it's probably the area of the game where a coach feels he can make the most difference because there's so much upside in the girls.

**Daniel Cripps** (2:08)
A hundred percent, like I mean, from Trini Klein's point of view, we've gone from B grade to A grade this year. So there's always got to be a jump, but the level of football that is being played in the women's A grade competition is, yeah, just blow me away with some of the skill and talent that we're seeing out there every Saturday. And you're dead right, just the thing about with coaching women, they're so, I guess, ready for feedback, or they just want to learn. They're like a sponge. So, yeah, you really do feel like you can really sort of help them and put them in the right direction.
And yeah, it is so rewarding to see some of the progression that they make in such a short space of time.

**Mark Duffield** (2:52)
So, is it different coaching girls to coaching boys? Do you have to approach it differently? Do you have to give the information and the feedback in a different manner?

**Daniel Cripps** (3:03)
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I was, before I started coaching the women, I did help out a little bit in the A reserves manager and the inquirer. So, I wouldn't say I've had a lot of experience with coaching the boys, though. But I reckon, yeah, there is certain differences. Probably the one thing is, sometimes you've got to be careful with the women to, that they take everything on board. And so literally where sometimes you go tell them, go and stand on that player and you got to make sure when that player runs to the bench, they'd almost want to go and sit down on the opposition bench next to them there.
So, yeah, you got to be careful like that sometimes. And that's the thing, but they're just so conducive to learning.
And yeah, it's all so new to them and they just have so much fun. And you can definitely tell like, it's just this new and exciting thing. And yeah, they just absolutely love it.

**Mark Duffield** (3:55)
Let's talk about the talent pool. Now, are you getting girls that have been with football all the way through their childhood and have played all the way through growing up, or are you getting girls that have played different sports and have decided to have a go at football?

**Daniel Cripps** (4:08)
From Trinity Aquinas' point of view, definitely the former. So yeah, a lot of girls who have just played a lot of other sport, but football's been quite new to them. So you really find especially the netballers, for example, they pick it up so quick. But from the state point of view, the team that we've assembled Friday night, I'd say there's a lot of experience there. A lot of girls who have come out of the Waffle W in recent years, or girls who have played a lot of footy in the PFL level. And probably the way with the footy, women's footy is going, probably the younger the players are, the more footy experience that they have, which sounds funny. But if girls who are in the age bracket of 18 to 22 have actually normally been playing footy as soon as they were little kids. So they've actually grown up playing a lot of footy, whereas some of the older ones who, they've sort of picked that up a little bit later down the track.