13/09/2022
Sandringham Football Club is pleased to announce Michelle 'Alpha' Densley as Head Coach of the Southern Saints for the 2023 VFLW season.
Densley replaces outgoing Head Coach, Dale Robinson, who has taken on an Assistant Coach role with St Kilda’s AFLW side. She joined the Southern Saints as an Assistant Coach in 2022, transitioning from her former role as Senior Coach of the Seaford Tigerettes, and has demonstrated why she is the perfect person to lead the side in 2023.
Speaking on her appointment, Densley says “I am honoured to step up and take over as Head Coach for the 2023 season. I appreciate I am filling big shoes, taking over from Dale but I am very much up for the challenge.”
“Dale is an amazing coach and I will forever be grateful for her taking me under her wing. We made a great team this year, partly because we have very different coaching styles that complement each other but also because we both share the love of the game and the girls; we became a family.”
Densley’s journey to the Southern Saints VFLW coaching ranks is a testament to the growth of women’s football.
“I grew up down in Gippsland and my brothers played football, everyone played football, but I had no idea that there was the opportunity for women to play,” she said.
“Then I moved away from Gippsland in the early 2000s and started playing soccer for a few years, and I still didn’t know women could play.”
“Someone I ran into asked me if I played football and I said ‘no, I’m a female’, and they told me there was a (women’s) league affiliated with the Parkdale Football Club, so I went down to training in around 2006 and played there for a few years.”
In her playing days, Densley was a powerful defender turned forward who stunned the VWFL competition in 2013 whilst playing for St John’s Old Collegians, kicking 20 goals in a match against Hallam and topping the weekly goal-scoring table across the entire country.
Post-VWFL, she was a playing assistant coach in the Seaford Tigerettes Division One team, and quickly rose through the ranks to become Senior Coach a few years later.
In 2021, Densley’s Seaford Tigerettes played 10 games and finished the year undefeated, winning 9 and drawing their Round 9 clash against the Eastern Devils. This led to Densley receiving the 2021 SEWFL coach of the year award.
In 2022, alongside Dale Robinson and her coaching team, Densley helped lead the Southern Saints to a Grand Final. Despite not getting the result everyone hoped for, it was still a fantastic achievement.
“I won’t lie, the loss is still raw, but I could not be prouder of our girls for making the Grand Final. Although the end goal for all coaches is to get that elusive premiership, the determination and heart each and every one of our girls showed completely overshadows any loss.”
As for the season ahead, Densley says there’s a lot to look forward to, “I’m excited about building on the program Dale has developed and making the program my own. We are currently rebuilding our off field department with some amazing new additions coming onboard. Our playing group is even more exciting with most of our girls from this year coming back on board, so we can hopefully go one better than this year.”
The Southern Saints will return to pre-season training in a few months and we can’t wait to see what Alpha brings to the role.
Written by Sandringham Football Club Media
Photography by Anthony Vella