OLD GUILDFORDIANS
‘Resilience’ earns Cooper AFLW Coach of the Year
Trent Cooper (Wb 1986-1990)
As senior coach, Trent Cooper (Wb 1986-
1990) knew in 2019 that his Fremantle
Dockers AFLW team was strong, having
shown flashes of absolute brilliance at times.
With six wins and one loss by the end of the
regular season, they came oh so close to
topping Conference A, only giving way to
the Adelaide Crows based on percentage.
Finals loomed and expectations were high,
unfortunately the team did have a weakness
and capitulated under pressure at critical
moments. The preliminary final saw this flaw
exposed and Carlton schooled Fremantle
with a 64 to 28 shellacking, knocking them
out of the competition.
Still smarting from defeat, Trent and the
team needed to find that little bit extra for
the 2020 season. ‘Resilience’ became the
team’s mantra, the determination to fight it
out until the bitter end, no matter what was
on the scoreboard. The players’ leadership
group focused on working hard to be
unselfish, thinking of their team members
before thinking of themselves. The game
style shifted to become more attacking and
aggressive. These changes paid dividends
and the team finished the regular season
undefeated in all games, including some
absolute nail-biters where the squad fought
from behind to overcome Collingwood
and St Kilda. Unlike 2019, the Fremantle
juggernaut continued on in the Semi Final,
obliterating the Gold Coast Suns 80 to
10. Grand Final glory seemed a genuine
possibility, however, COVID-19 dealt a cruel
blow and the final series ended abruptly.
Naturally Trent so desperately wanted
a Grand Final win, however, as some
consolation, the team’s performance did
draw attention and Trent was selected by his
peers as the 2020 AFL Coaches Association
AFLW Senior Coach of the Year. In selecting
the recipient, all AFLW senior coaches
voted, taking into account each team’s
performance, available resources, player
talent and team management. Trent, while
immensely honoured, was humble and made
it clear he shares this accolade with the entire
coaching staff.
Surprisingly Trent has not always wanted
to be a coach. Footy has always been in
his blood though having played for Swan
Districts as a Colt and then in the Reserves
from 1992-1996, switching to Peel Thunder
in 1997-1998 for his opportunity to play
Trent Cooper in action as Senior Coach for the Fremantle Dockers AFLW side.
League, before returning to the Swan’s
League side in 1999.
Despite his playing career, it looked
as though Trent’s career path was in
Education. He started at Wesley College
as a Mathematics Teacher in 1995, later
becoming a Head of House. It was while
he was at Wesley that he got a taste for
coaching and developing football programs,
starting with coaching teams like the 8A,
9A and 10A teams while in his early 20’s.
This led him to coach the 1st XVIII side from
2000-2001 and to become the Director of
Football. It was a good program to learn
from and in his time at Wesley he had some
impressive footballers come through the
system, such as Buddy Franklin (who was also
in his house when he was House Master),
Mark Coughlan and Scott Stevens.
Trent developed a taste for coaching and
he discovered he was rather good at it. Of
the eight seasons he coached at Curtin Uni
Wesley Amateur Football Club between
2001 and 2012, Trent’s teams won two
premierships and were runners-up three
times. He then returned to Swan Districts as a
Senior Assistant Coach from 2012-2016 and
coached the Colts from 2014-2016. His Colts
side won the Premiership in 2014 and Trent
received the honour of WAFL Colts Coach
of the Year, and the team made the Grand
Final again in 2015. In 2017, Trent was the
A Grade Coach at Curtin Uni Wesley, as well
as the Women’s State 18’s Head Coach and
West Australian Football Commission Female
High Performance Coach.
Landing the Fremantle Dockers AFLW senior
coaching role was a personal milestone for
Trent. He loves the culture at Fremantle and
feels the club has been extremely supportive.
Critically the team members feel valued and
this positive culture goes right to the top
with the President saying he would, “die in a
ditch” before allowing the AFLW to get cut.
Trent is a family man and he and his wife,
Josephine, have a three-year-old son, Peyton,
and a one-year-old daughter, Allegra. While
he was already supportive of the School’s
decision to go co-ed, Trent feels there are
parallels with the AFLW now that women
can play a traditionally male-only sport. Trent
believes that this progress in professional
sport plays a vital role in showcasing a more
balanced existence to society. To elaborate
his point, Trent shares an interesting example
of his son. Peyton’s exposure to female
football has been more than most, including
sharing victory dances in the changerooms.
In Peyton’s world, females in football is the
norm, not men, so much so for little Peyton
that when asked by dad if he would play
football, Peyton innocently said he would
play basketball as football was “for girls”,
because that is what he has seen. Trent
will work on that opinion in the future by
balancing Peyton’s exposure to both the male
and female versions of the game.
At the risk of sounding grandiose, Trent
believes the AFLW’s part in promoting
equality is important. For the reason why,
Trent looks no further than his son and his
daughter as he wishes to raise them both in
a world free of sporting stereotypes, where
the boundary is marked by a white line, not
by a person’s gender.
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