To celebrate International Women’s Day, essendonfc.com.au is profiling some of Essendon’s many inspiring female staff. 

First off is Charlotte Miller, who is the club's VFLW operations manager and nutrition and food lead.

Charlotte has played a vital role in a variety of positions at the club in recent years, with the 2020 season marking her fourth at the Bombers.

You may remember her as the face of Dons Dishes - a short series where Charlotte shows you how to prepare the same meals the Essendon players enjoy.

Charlotte, how did you get into working in football and why did you want to work at the club?

As I was finishing up my dietetics degree, I spent three seasons working with the Eastern Ranges under-18 boys, so I got a taste of the football world over that period. That was some time ago and I hadn’t imagined moving back into football before being approached out of the blue by Essendon almost four years ago. The club was keen to cease using external food providers and to bring the management of players' meals internal. 

In addition to being a dietitian, I am also a trained chef and somehow the club got hold of my number and gave me a call. When we first started chatting, we weren’t sure exactly how the program might operate, but over the following few months we pulled together a plan and got it started for the following season. 

I was really impressed with the club’s willingness to embrace new ways of doing things and to make big changes where they felt something wasn’t working. There were a lot of things to work through, but I felt fully supported by Essendon through this process and was happy to be able to come into a place and create positive change. 

What kind of opportunities has the club provided you? 

As you can see, my current job title doesn’t match the way I was brought into this club. I've been extremely fortunate during my time at Essendon, having had the opportunity to work in other areas of the football department. Just over a year ago, I took on two days helping out with VFLW operations, then in the middle of 2019 there was a changeover of staff and I was offered the role of managing the team. These jobs don’t come up very often and are highly sought after, so I am very grateful to Essendon for allowing me the chance to take it on and have a go. 

What are some of the misconceptions of your role? 

We are only just starting the club’s third season in the VFLW, so the roles within that team are changing and evolving constantly. There are quite a lot of days where I have to be able to adapt quickly. When I talk to people who don’t work in football, they rarely understand what I do. They have no idea of the sort of work that goes into creating and running a team and actually making a game day happen. 

What excites you most about your future with the Bombers? 

The AFLW team that (we hope) is coming our way very soon. The club is working really hard in this space with the goal to enter the competition over the next few years. I’m very excited about the club’s launch into this as we have already worked hard to create a fantastic team dynamic and culture within the VFLW team.

We have heaps of outstanding staff, including plenty of females working in traditionally male roles, who are showing us that they can do it just as well as anyone. I’m excited to watch the players and staff develop and see what happens as we enter the next phase.