Few people would have been more qualified than Craig Starcevich when the Brisbane Lions went searching for their inaugural AFLW coach in 2016.

Starcevich had fashioned an impressive football CV over three decades.

For most of the previous five or so years he’d held key posts for AFL Queensland: game development manager in North Queensland; operations manager of the NEAFL competition, and – critically – high-performance manager of the state’s emerging female football programs.

Prior to his AFL Queensland postings, Starcevich spent a tick over two years back in his hometown Perth with the West Australian Football Commission, primarily as high-performance manager overseeing the state’s talented player and coaching pathways.

Add stints as physical performance coach for the Brisbane Roar soccer club, head of training services for St Kilda, nine years as physical performance manager/coach for the Brisbane Lions (a run that included the club’s historic premiership run from 2001-03) and a 144-game League career with Collingwood and the Brisbane Bears (from 1987-95, including the Magpies’ drought-breaking premiership in 1990) and it’s plain to see why the Lions were eager to tap into his experience and knowledge.

Starcevich knew the Queensland landscape well, including its unique challenges and advantages, having worked closely with then-AFL Queensland female participation manager Breanna Brock to enhance the initial work done by ex-Australian cricketer Julia Price to set up the state’s female football program. They had overseen a Queensland under-18 team playing in the girls’ national carnival and established senior women’s academies.

“We were getting ready for the national league to start,” Starcevich recalled. “Halfway through 2016, part of our job was to present to the Suns and Lions and see which one of them wanted a licence to join the AFLW. The Suns indicated they weren’t ready for it at the time; the Lions jumped at it straight away.”

Soon after confirmation the Lions would be part of the competition, they approached him about becoming coach.

“I was a little bit torn at the time because I was happy with the administrative and talent side of things, and I wasn’t sure whether giving that up and going into coaching was going to be risky. But it’s been okay,” said Starcevich, who holds a bachelor of education degree specialising in physical education.

“Okay” might be a modest view. The 54-year-old coach has steered the Lions into the finals in five of the competition’s six seasons, winning the premiership in 2021 after Grand Final appearances in 2017 and 2018. Last year, he was named the AFLCA’s AFLW senior coach of the year.

Brisbane easily accounted for Collingwood at the Gabba last weekend in a rescheduled qualifying final and will play Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday for a place in the Grand Final. “[The players are] very excited about the chance to play at the MCG. Who wouldn’t be? We've got a high-quality opposition who just snuck past us last time we played them, so there's lots of incentive to get out there and put on a good show,” Starcevich said after the 50-point win.

Starcevich, the only person to play in an AFL premiership and coach an AFLW flag, will be matching wits and tactics with the Demons’ Mick Stinear. The two are the longest serving coaches in the AFLW competition.

Starcevich’s role is full-time for six months of the year. Apart from coaching the team, he helps Brock, now the Lions’ AFLW CEO, with other elements of team building.

“You’re doing everything, including list managing and recruiting. Whatever stage of the year it is, we roll up our sleeves and get stuck into it,” he said.

“At this time of the year, it’s mainly coaching but with the expansion (four teams will join the competition next season), there’s a bit of list management going on, but Bree does the large majority of that. In the off-season, I probably get involved with the majority of the identifying and recruiting. But coaching is clearly the number one priority.”

A typical Saturday-to-Saturday week in-season sees Starcevich and his assistants, including Brisbane’s 2021 premiership captain Emma Zielke, run a post-match review and light training session Monday. He’s on hand Tuesday when players do gym work and on the track Wednesday for the week’s main training session. And he’s there for an optional gym session Thursday before a light run and final preparations on Friday before a Saturday game.

Not surprisingly, Starcevich believes forging strong relationships with his players is an essential part of the job.

“I don’t think there’s any going past that. You have to know your stuff obviously, but if your relationships are no good, it doesn’t matter what you know and what you’re trying to impart,” he said.

“The number one thing is just to be there. You have to pad the edges to make sure the ship is always sailing in the right direction, so we’re not getting ahead of ourselves or not getting too down on ourselves.”

Starcevich is his own harshest critic. “I’m pretty stubborn, but I’m prepared to listen,” he said, chuckling. He tends to blame himself when a drill goes awry or when players are not responding to coaching or feedback.

“I do self-analyse too much. But you need to snap out of it and understand that sometimes there might be a bit more going on than what you’re saying or doing,” Starcevich said.

“I definitely think it helps that the first person you should be apportioning blame to is yourself, rather than pinning it on other people or making excuses. That part of how I function, in a backhanded way, probably helps.”

Lauren Arnell, a Lion for three years under Starcevich and now the club’s academy coach, said Starcevich’s strengths included his ability to make players aware of how they can best contribute.

“He’s really clear on what each player can bring on- and off-field. He had a really solid understanding of me and supported ‘me being me,’” said Arnell, who played in the team’s 2021 premiership before retiring.

“He has a deep understanding of what’s required to play at the highest level, but he doesn’t push all that. He doesn’t need you to know how much he knows about the game,” she said.

“He keeps footy pretty simple, which I think is really important, particularly in a part-time space. It’s good for any footballer to have space to see what’s in front of them, rather than being overloaded with instruction.”

Starcevich is vocal about the competition becoming fully professional as soon as practicable, citing the current players’ fast-growing level of commitment and dedication.

“The habits and standards are better than those of any of the AFL boys’ cohorts, as a collective, from the 1990s. I’m sure of that,” he said.

He also is keen to see more women in coaching roles at AFLW level, suggesting the various AFLW coaching pathways around the country are set to produce qualified candidates in due course.

“My biggest priority when we started the team was to get boys involved who were recently retired to bring and teach the professional habits,” Starcevich said. He cited the likes of Zielke and Arnell as part of a growing core of recently retired or veteran players who are developing the requisite experience and knowledge to take up key coaching roles.

“They’re the logical ones to step in and eventually be head coaches.”

As well as playing an invaluable role moulding women’s football in Queensland and championing the national competition, Starcevich also plays a small part supporting the growth of Australian Football in Europe.

Since 2020, Starcevich has been spending almost half of each year living in Basel, Switzerland, with his wife Sonia, a senior executive for pharmaceutical giant Novartis. While there, he works a day or two a week on AFLW matters, mainly watching film to assess potential draftees. He also trains with the local AFL Switzerland team, the Basel Dragons, once a week and is a keen onlooker on match-day. Last year, he even suited up for one game. “I played as an unaccountable half-back. There wasn’t a lot of looking after of my direct opponent,” he said with a laugh, recalling a fun afternoon capped off with a recovery dip in the extremely cold Rhine River.

Starcevich is clearly passionate about seeing all elements of the code flourish.

“He’s so supportive and personable and he’s a very caring and loyal coach,” Arnell said.

“His legacy will be about the influence and impact he has had, not just on his playing group and the staff he works with directly, but on the whole AFLW industry. He is such a powerful advocate for women in football and for the development of the game.”