Tara Murray
One of the driving forces behind the establishment of elite women’s football league has been awarded AFL life membership.
The AFL announced last week that Lisa Hardeman had been awarded life membership for her contribution to the game.
Hardeman, who grew up in Melbourne’s west, has been involved with the game for more than 40 years.
She began her football career at Fairfield playing 111 games in the Victorian Women’s Football League.
She won the Helen Lambert medal in 1989 as the best player in the premier division.
Between 1992 and 1997, she represented Victoria (twice as captain) and played in five premierships.
Her strong leadership skills saw her become the captain at the Scorpions (1989, 1993 and 1994) and Darebin Falcons (1996), leading both clubs to premiership success.
She then coached the Darebin Falcons (1997-2000) and Melbourne University (2001-2003, 2009) to multiple premierships and led the Victorian representative team as coach from 2001 to 2004.
Hardeman served as the VWFL President in 1989 and from 1997 until 2000.
Her football legacies include the Victorian Football League Women’s grand final best on ground award ‘The Lisa Hardeman Medal’ and the ‘Hansen-Hardeman Cup’ for AFLW matches between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.
Off field, Hardeman served Victoria Police for 38 years and is currently the Commander in charge of the Priority and Safer Communities Division.
Her former roles include North West Metro Region Commander and as superintendent, she covered the Brimbank and Melton, which achieved the highest percentages of women in leadership positions in the North West Metro Region.
