Central Coast Mariners head coach Emily Husband speaks to aleagues.com.au about the challenge facing Australian football to get more women coaching in the professional game, and the intense seven months spent building her Mariners squad.
To this day, Emily Husband still wonders what might have been had she let self-doubt prevail when offered the job that would launch her coaching career to new heights.
Four years ago, Husband was unproven as a senior head coach – but that was all about to change, thanks to a show of faith from Sydney University’s Director of Football John Curran.
Husband had coached every age group at the NSW NPLW club except for the first team when then-head coach Alex Epakis took on the top job at Perth Glory, and Curran offered her the life-changing role.
“I point-blank said to him: ‘No, I’m not ready’,” Husband recalls to aleagues.com.au.
“And he said: ‘No, you are and you’re going to do it’.
“He mentored me in that space to give me the confidence to do that, and if he’d listened to my first answer I probably wouldn’t be where I am today.
“That was because he saw something in me that I hadn’t quite seen in myself yet – and that happens when you’re a relatively young coach. Although I have worked in the game for such a long time I’ve still got a long way to go so I do genuinely think it’s so important to have someone who has got your back.”
Today, Husband is leading Central Coast Mariners through the club’s first Liberty A-League campaign since 2009, with a squad that took her seven months to build from the ground up.
Husband and the Mariners are shaping as strong finals series candidates as the club exceeds expectations in its comeback season.
Take one glance at her coaching CV, and it will come as no surprise that Husband thrived at the helm of Sydney University and is on track to do the same at the Mariners.
Buy tickets to Central Coast Mariners v Adelaide United in Gosford on Sunday!
Husband grew up in Yorkshire, England. She played youth football at her childhood club Leeds United, and senior football at Huddersfield Town, but found her calling as a grassroots coach in her teens.
She coached at Princeton in the United States and performed roles at both Leeds and Chelsea as well as a one-season stint in the Liberty A-League as Vicki Linton’s assistant in an all-female Canberra United coaching staff.
Husband then rose through the coaching ranks at Sydney University before receiving the offer from Curran to take charge of the senior women’s side in 2020.
Two years later, she was NSW NPL 1 Coach of the Year. One year after that, she had followed the lead of Sydney University’s past two senior coaches – Epakis and Heather Garriock – in departing the NPL club to become a Liberty A-League head coach.
Today, Husband is one of only two women leading Liberty A-League clubs. The other is Kat Smith at league-leaders Western United.
In all her years as a footballer, Husband never played for a female coach. The closest she ever came to finding a female role model to look up to was PE teachers at school.
It’s a point of pride for the Mariners boss that today females aspiring to coach in the professional game can look to the Liberty A-League and take inspiration from her journey.
“Pretty much every club now will have a female coach somewhere within their ranks but 90% of the time they’re with U14s, U15s, U16s and once you get into the senior end, that’s when it starts to be dominated by men,” Husband says.
“For me, it’s got to start in the National Premier Leagues. It’s just about people putting faith and going against the narrative to give female coaches the opportunities.
“Yes, the ratio isn’t as high as we’d like it to be in terms of female and male coaches but you get a lot of female coaches in the youth that never seem to progress into senior football, and you have to ask the question: why?
“The NSW NPLW is somewhere I’ve coached for multiple years, and during the six years I worked there I can only name three female coaches that took on a women’s senior team: myself, Heather Garriock and Ash Wilson. For me, that’s where it starts. All three coaches went on to progress to the A-League.
“We’ve really got to be looking at why more coaches currently in the youth system haven’t been looked at for that type of opportunity in senior football. That’s ultimately where you’re going to pick your next breed of coaches from, the NPL around the country.
“I’d always like to hope that if any (female coaches) did want to reach out, I’m always more than happy to sit down and have a coffee and talk football. It’s my favourite thing to talk about! You hope that by being visible more coaches will think: ‘If this is something I aspire to do, then this is something I can achieve’.
“But at the same time, you’ve always got to have someone fighting in your corner for you. At Sydney Uni I was lucky enough to have John Curran who gave me opportunities when I wasn’t 100% confident myself, and everyone needs a mentor like that to give you the push when you need it.”
Husband was named Central Coast head coach in March 2023, but couldn’t shift her full focus to the Liberty A-League squad until the end of the 2023 NPLW season in September. One month after the end of her stint as Sydney University head coach, the 2023-24 Liberty A-League season began.
Nearly one year to the day since her confirmation as Mariners coach, Husband looks back with near disbelief at how all the pieces fell into place in time for the club’s reintroduction to the Liberty A-League.
“At the time we only had one player signed – Annalise Rasmussen,” recalls Husband.
“Your thoughts immediately turn to: ‘What sort of a culture do I want to build, and what sort of playing style do we want to have?’
“It was a huge few months. It wasn’t just the recruitment of players, it was the recrutiment of staff, policies, procedures, and processes. Your mind goes to everything but at the same time, I was trying to continue finishing the season off as strong as I could do at Sydney University.
“I didn’t sleep much. There was a massive degree of doubt. I’d worked one season previously in the A-League but to build the program from top to bottom is not something you get prepared for as a coach.
“Most coaches come in and the foundations are laid, and it’s just about what you can put on top of that to bring a good brand of football to a club.
“One of the biggest changes was every single decision being mine, which has never been a particular strength of mine. Every single decision came down to me and what I wanted, so that was something I had to force myself to get used to.
“But do you know what? Yes, it was a hard time in terms of the hours I was working but it was also one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever been given… no matter what happens and how things go, as long as I know within my heart of hearts I’ve given it everything, I can walk away proud.
“That’s something I’ll continue to do: put everything I have into what I’m given. It was exciting, definitely challenging and it got me out of my comfort zone. It was a big step up but I’ve absolutely loved the journey so far.”
In the months following her confirmation as Mariners head coach for the 2023-24 campaign, the club’s men’s side ramped up a charge to the Isuzu UTE A-League Championship.
Along that journey Husband spent ample time in Gosford, acclimatising herself to what would become her new home, and learning very quickly that the women’s program would slot seamlessly into a club with community at its heart.
“The passionate fanbase just drives you further, to want to do well for them and for the club,” Husband says.
“They’ve been nothing but supportive and welcoming since the first day I walked through the door.
“They’ve adopted the women’s team back into the league kind of like we never left.
“The support we do get now is truly fantastic, it’s certainly beyond the expectations we had initially so that’s a credit to the club and how well they’ve handled the women’s team coming back in, and how close-knit we are as a club.”
Husband’s Mariners sit fifth on the Liberty A-League table heading into Round 19, and a clash with Adelaide United at Industree Group Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Buy tickets to Central Coast Mariners v Adelaide United in Gosford on Sunday!
