MetroStars are leaving no stone unturned in any department after a Grand Final defeat, looking for their first NPL SA Championship in 13 years in 2025. Incoming assistant coach Nicole Calder spoke to Front Page Football's Antonis Pagonis about her pioneering appointment.
Nicole Calder has joined Danny Graystone's coaching staff at MetroStars. (Image: MetroStars)
Having coached junior football and started an academy, it is no surprise that Nicole Calder was interested in coaching after her playing days finished.
Last year, returning to Salisbury Inter after a stint in the United Kingdom, Calder told herself that if her side were to win the WNPL SA Championship with her awarded the Player of the Match in the Grand Final, she would retire on the highest of highs.
When that moment eventuated months later, Calder was having second thoughts until a torn meniscus ended up as something more sinister.
Four days before the WNPL SA registration window closed, Calder received a call that made the decision easier.
"Danny (Graystone) approached me and offered me a position as his assistant coach, and he did say that it would mean that I wouldn't be able to play given the commitment for the men's NPL side, and if he had asked me that a month before I would have said that I was not ready to give up playing," Calder told Front Page Football recently.
"Because of surgery and meeting with the surgeon again and him saying that I've got the knee of an 80-year-old, and I think he was exaggerating a bit. He said that if I keep playing, I might get one to two years more out of my knees, but realistically, I will struggle to walk in five years. I want my knees for coaching and my knees when I have kids eventually."
Nicole Calder (middle) with the Player of the Match award in the 2024 WNPL SA Grand Final. (Image: Pagonis Photography)
This opportunity stemmed from Calder reaching out to MetroStars head coach Graystone during her time in the United Kingdom about the possibility of mentorship when she returned.
"Danny was so happy to mentor me, so I was going out to one training session a week and out to all the games that didn't coincide with playing, so I was able to build that relationship with players and the coaching staff, and I learned so much in that time.
"I was there with my pen and paper at every meeting, just taking notes on everything Danny was doing and the whole set-up. I reached out to him because MetroStars are at the top of the NPL, so if you want to be the best, you have to learn from the best, right?"
While admitting that remaining involved in the women's game while not playing at this stage of her life would have felt like she was missing out, Calder makes no qualms about wanting to coach at the highest level possible, and with MetroStars winning back-to-back premierships, she feels the proof is in the pudding.
"My experience in the UK was in a semi-professional environment, but I was fortunate that the club that I signed for had three full-time staff members and a full-time strength and conditioning coach who was basically a full-time staff member, so everything was football, football, football.
"The environment that Danny has created at MetroStars is very much like that. It is a professional environment, where the players may be semi-professional as they are not full-time, but what Danny is trying to create is the most professional environment in that semi-professional setting."
While the move is significant in terms of representation, with female coaches in the men's game being few and far between, Graystone has made it clear to Calder that her appointment is purely based on the hunger and ability she has showcased and not her gender. While Calder has won the role on merit, she knows it can create a ripple effect regarding representation.
"Even kids that I coach are very excited for me to take on this role, and maybe that's opening a potential career path for them that they didn't even think was possible because it hasn't really been done before.
"Anytime there is a female in a position where there hasn't been that representation before, it makes you think that it is a possibility, and all of a sudden, you don't just have to limit yourself in the women's game, but you can coach in the best environment possible for your coaching career."
Even during her playing days, Calder has consistently been an advocate for mental health and the psychological part of the game. As football pivots to a holistic approach, she hopes to include those values in her practice at a club already embracing that side of the game.
"I think that the psychological aspect of any sport is extremely important. There are a few ideas that I'll throw around to Danny regarding the psychological aspect, whether it is about setting intent for players in training or even just a matter of building those relationships with players.
"The more you have established a relationship with a player, the more likely they are to tell you something is going on, which allows you to tailor your approach to get the best out of them.
"This is certainly something I am hoping I can bring to MetroStars from an individual or a team perspective and getting these players functioning even better as a team and building those relationships with each other and with the coaching staff, which they already have a fantastic base for just by seeing how they embrace each other and new people coming into the club."
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Calder has felt embraced in her first months at MetroStars, praising all the stakeholders, from coaches to players to volunteers, for accepting her for who she is and the culture and resources the club provides, making it "easy to focus just on coaching."
The main thing that impressed the incoming assistant coach was the club's ambition, which she feels attracts individuals who strive for bigger and better things.
"I think people want to be part of MetroStars because the club has big ambitions, and I think the players with those ambitions will find themselves in alignment with the values of the club. I guess that is where Danny has seen that I align with the club's values, my professionalism, and my desire to be the best coach that I can be.
"I would love to coach internationally at some point, potentially achieving things in coaching that I wasn't able to do in playing; those are my long-term goals, and Danny sort of sees that as the sort of coach that people he wants at the club, people with ambition."
MetroStars kick off their 2025 NPL SA season on Friday 21st of February, at 8 pm AEDT, away to rivals Campbelltown City, live on the FSA Leagues YouTube channel.
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