WHEN Hawthorn assistant coach Steph Binder needs a distraction, she signs up to run a marathon.

It’s happened twice now through her short but extensive coaching career.

The first time was when she took on the head coach role in North Melbourne's VFLW program, and the second time was after Hawthorn’s devastating one-point loss to Port Adelaide in last year’s AFLW semi final.

The running helps Binder deal with her feelings.

"I'm not good with dealing with emotions, I need something to distract myself," she told AFL.com.au ahead of Women's Coaching Month.

“When I got the VFLW role at North Melbourne I signed up to a half-marathon, the day after the Port loss, I signed up to a marathon...and I'm not a good runner.”

These were two of the biggest moments in a coaching career that began back in 2019.

After playing with Cranbourne and the Southern Saints in the VFLW, Binder turned her attention to coaching, and has achieved a lot in the past six years.

Binder has transitioned from under 15s coach to be an assistant coach at AFLW level where she now leads the backline at Hawthorn.

Binder began coaching St Kilda’s Next Generation Academies and the Dandenong Stingrays in the Coates Talent League, before landing the VFLW head coach position at North Melbourne in 2022.

“I was playing VFLW at the Southern Saints, but I was not a very good footballer at all,” she said.

“But I was a good leader and I really loved the technical side of it, the structures and things like that. So when it was pretty clear that I couldn't get a kick, coaching seemed like the obvious transition.”

At the start of her coaching career Binder heard an interview with current AFLW player and Giants’ VFL development coach, Alicia Eva.

“It was an Alicia Eva interview and she said she just said yes to everything. So that's sort of what I've been doing,” Binder said.

“Through the Saints I got a coaching gig with their Next Generation Academy and things from there progressed fairly quickly.

“I was an assistant and then I went to the head coach of their under 15s and under 16s, which was awesome. I loved it. Then they got me in touch with the (Dandenong) Stingrays.”

North Melbourne, who were at the time looking for a VFLW head coach, reached out to Binder to apply for the vacant position, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready for the jump in responsibility.

“I thought I was ready to go into VFLW as an assistant coach, but then I actually got approached by North Melbourne to interview for the head coach role," she said.

“There's a big difference between being an assistant and being a head coach.”

But after referring back to the interview she’d heard with Eva, Binder remembered her motto and decided that she would say yes and apply.

“I remember I accepted the job and then it was a massive panic," she said.

Although it was a huge challenge, Binder was a natural and loved her time leading the Kangaroos team.

“It was actually amazing. I loved it,” Binder said.

“You tell your players to get comfortable being uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable every single time. But I knew that was getting the most out of me, being on the edge.

“My playing group at North Melbourne VFLW were the most brilliant people. I had three or four lawyers, and then I had an engineer who was like a head of strategy at some big construction company. I had physios and nurses and teachers.

“It just made me become this better person, because I knew I had to lead them. That really made me grow.”

After two seasons at the helm, Binder decided that she wanted to progress into the AFLW space and started at Collingwood as a Development coach under then coach Steve Symonds.

Last year Binder took the next step and moved into an assistant coaching role, applying for the position of backline coach at Hawthorn, the position she currently holds.

“Everybody at Hawthorn has been so supportive and amazing,” Binder said.

“The players are just brilliant, the staff are brilliant and, luckily, they kept me on, which is great. So I’m back here again this year.”

In another step forward Binder was the recipient of last year’s AFL Coaches Association Women's Coaching Pathway Scholarship.

The scholarship provides Binder with an array of development opportunities, including a mentorship from former senior AFL coach Brett Ratten, who also works at Hawthorn as the club’s Head of Coaching Performance and Development.

“Brett’s been so good. Being at the same club as well, it's great. You can just walk past and have a chat, and it's just footy conversation, which I love," Binder said.

“He's so open with his time. Over Christmas I came into a few of the men’s training sessions here. I got to go into all their meetings. They just opened everything up.”

Along with her position in the AFLW program, Binder has been volunteering her time with the Box Hill Hawks, Hawthorn’s VFLW affiliated side.

Binder still has a love for the state league competition, but has noticed a number of differences between VFLW and AFLW.

“(AFLW) is a big shift up. We train during the day, the level of detail and the amount of support staff is huge," she said.

“VFLW's fairly bare-boned, everyone is absolutely there for the passion and the love. Which you still get at AFLW, but you don't have to wear as many hats at AFLW level.

“As a coach, I purely get to focus on coaching, which is great because there's so many other people around to do all the nutrition and the recovery and the high performance.”

In her second season at the Hawks, Binder is feeling more settled and is looking forward to the upcoming season.

The Hawks are looking to go one better than last year, following their disappointing loss to Port Adelaide in the semi final where they squandered a 22-point lead at three quarter time, to eventually go down by one-point.

“After the game, I was numb. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. Nothing came out, I was just numb. Normally, I'm happy, excited, angry, and I wasn't either of those three," Binder said.

“The players have done an outrageous amount of work over the off-season, and even now, we always have lots of conversations around the standard. It always comes back to how did you feel after Port Adelaide?

“As soon as the fixture came out, we were so excited that we get to play some good teams. We start off with Brisbane and then we've got North Melbourne to finish, and we're going to be ready to go.

“It's now about embracing that challenge, because we know if we let one slip last year, we're not going to let that happen again.”

Binder believes Women’s Coaching Month is important in highlighting that women have a place in the previously male dominated area.

“(Women’s Coaching Month) is about promoting the really positive influence that women and gender diverse people can have in football, and how important diversity of thought actually is," she said.

“It’s about showing that we do have the right skill sets, we do understand football, we shouldn't just be seen and not heard.

“The more we can highlight women and gender diverse people in football, the better, and hopefully the culture starts to shift more and more.”

Women's Coaching Month runs throughout July.