SYDNEY is on the hunt for a new women's football boss on the eve of the upcoming AFLW season, with Kate Mahony set to depart the Swans after landing a job at English soccer club Chelsea.
It's understood Mahony will leave Sydney in October, around the midway point of the 2026 AFLW campaign, and will move to London to work with the Women's Super League powerhouse.
Mahony, who is part of the Swans' executive team, has looked after the women's program since their inception in 2022 and has also held roles as part of the club's boys and girls Academy.
Her departure will make Sydney the 10th AFLW club to replace its women's football boss since the end of last season, with more than half of the competition now forced to undergo wholesale change within their AFLW programs.
The club will join Carlton (Eleni Valos), Melbourne (Katrina Gill), Adelaide (Bree Brock), North Melbourne (Rhys Harwood), Gold Coast (Erin Phillips), Hawthorn (Keegan Brooksby), Richmond (Jane Woodlands-Thompson), Brisbane (Danielle Smith) and Port Adelaide (Daniel Merrett) in making a change to their head of AFLW role.
Sydney was also one of six AFLW clubs to make a coaching change across the off-season as well, with Irishman Colin O'Riordan replacing inaugural Swans coach Scott Gowans last December.
Sydney enters the upcoming AFLW season off the back of a disappointing 2025 campaign, where the Swans dramatically lost six of their last eight games to go from 4-0 to missing finals completely.
Mahony is set to join English side Chelsea, who has one of European football's most dominant women's programs having won eight WSL titles and six FA Cups in the last 12 seasons.
