Norwood announce SANFL Women’s Senior Coach, Ben Hunt

The Norwood Football Club is pleased to announce Ben Hunt as its Head Coach of the Redlegs Senior Women’s Program. 

“Rex” Hunt coached Central District’s Senior Women’s side for the past four seasons, and was named the SANFLW Coach of the Year in 2023 when he led the Bulldogs to their inaugural Premiership.

Hunt has also been involved as an assistant coach during last season’s inaugural SANFLW State side, and been involved in coaching at local level with Payneham Norwood Union, Houghton District and Hope Valley across many years.

With Payneham, Hunt has served as the Interim Senior Men’s Coach of the Division 1 side, and for eight seasons was an assistant Coach of the A Grade when the Falcons made six Grand Finals, winning three and gaining promotion to the Division 1 competition.

He also coached Payneham’s Senior Women’s side to three Grand Finals, winning the 2019 Premiership.

Hunt has previously been involved with Norwood, coaching at junior level in the mid 2000s, and also involved as a trainer in the Senior Men’s program in the late 1990s.

Norwood CEO Richard Kelly welcomed Hunt to the club.

“We are very excited to have Ben back at Norwood,” he said.

“His passion, knowledge and experience at SANFLW level is just a few of the compelling reasons as to why we are confident that Ben is the best person to take on the role of our Senior Women’s Coach.

“We look forward to seeing Ben’s impact on the team as we head into a new era of women’s football. He has tasted a lot of Premiership success over many years, at many levels and we believe Ben will be our next Premiership coach here at Norwood.”

Hunt said he was excited to return to Norwood, describing the appointment as “a full circle moment”.

“I am stoked,” he said.

“I remember coming to the Norwood Football Club as a kid with my parents and grandparents, and then to be a trainer during the 90s and have the chance to coach juniors out here was great.

“I went away, learnt a lot about coaching, and to come back now is a full circle, I’m very excited to be here.”

Both at Centrals, and working alongside Norwood Legend Garry McIntosh at Payneham, Hunt has experienced great success throughout his coaching career.

“I spent 10 years at Payneham, and to be involved in Premierships at Senior Men’s, Senior Women’s and U18 Boys level has been great,” he said.

“I thoroughly enjoy coaching, seeing the development and comradery of the players and coaches is awesome.

“Senior Women’s football is really exciting, the players love to learn and look to get better at every session, they really value the knowledge you can pass on to them.”

Hunt was looking forward to working with the players and coaching staff at Norwood.

“Norwood has an exciting list, there’s a lot of young talent coming through, but there’s a lot we can do over the off-season and pre-season to make ourselves better and a contender in 2026.”