The women's revolution that has engulfed the AFL over the summer has broken another barrier with the appointment of Emma Quayle as the game's first female club recruiter.
![Emma Quayle: "Plunging into the unknown" with GWS Giants.](/web/20170216104748im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/z/n/4/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guew5w.png/1487239148804.jpg)
And as Greater Western Sydney unveiled their new prize off-field recruit, the club did so with a sense of pride that not only had they chosen Emma, but that the award-winning Fairfax Media football journalist had chosen them.
"We feel like we're a club that likes to do things differently," said Giants football boss Wayne Campbell. "We're really proud but we now need to make a success of it and we are partly proud because Emma, in a way, half chose us.
"It's no secret that several clubs had spoken to her about crossing over from journalism but she believes in us and our future and even though she gets on well with (GWS recruiters) Craig Cameron and Adrian Caruso, she is plunging into the unknown in a way."
"We need to make this work. It's a legitimate role and we didn't want it to be part of a game directive we wanted to own it - it's coming out of our football budget."
The transforming of yet another gender dynamic in clubs was championed by Gillon McLachlan but was ultimately driven and funded by the Giants for purposes of timing also. The club, said Campbell, has been forced to expand its recruiting resources and potential talent pools due to the AFL's changes to the academy rules.
"We need to spread our wings a bit across Australia," he said, "because of the restrictions placed on our academy talent and if our points go early in the next few drafts we will need to look at players at the back end of the draft.
![Emma Quayle](/web/20170216104748im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/e/p/6/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guew5w.png/1487239148804.jpg)
"Emma's worked with young talent for a long period of time and she's passionate about that work but to be honest we need to see whether that eye for talent can work critically and not just positively.
"What we know she will be very good at is interviewing the young players because she has a great skill at putting people at ease while taking them out of their comfort zone."
As football clubs intensified their focus on recruiting not only great players of the future but also sold young men the Giants football chief believed that there was a gap in recruiting which could be filled not only by an expert communicator but also one with a different perspective.
"Given the combination of her skills and the fact that she's a woman - and women see things differently to men - we think she'll bring something to our team. Seeing Eleni (Glouftsis) come into the AFL umpiring department ... it changes the dynamic and that is a good thing."
On a personal note, having worked alongside Emma for almost two decades, it has been a joy to witness her empathy with young footballers and her passion for not only their promise but also their personal histories. These skills have made her without question the go-to journalist in the lead-up to each national draft.
Listening to her negotiate stories over the years is to understand that many club recruiters and football managers also interrogate her, asking as many questions about certain players as she is asking them.
Memorable award-winning articles still resonate years after they were written. Notable among them was The Street Named Desire (2008), which told of three young boys - Nick Naitanui, Michael Walters and Chris Yarran - growing up as neighbours in Western Australia through to last year's remarkable feature on Essendon's Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti.
Also notable among her 18-year Fairfax file is that Emma broke the story of Adelaide's under-the-table dealings with Kurt Tippett and the subsequent AFL investigation, is the author of two unique football books and will venture into this new role with as much goodwill from her colleagues as is conceivably possible given the sad nature of any ending.
But Emma's compassion, communication and subtle analytical skills should serve her and the AFL's newest club well in their quest for the Giants' first premiership as she works to sort the wheat from the chaff as their recruiting frontiers expand.