League Support Coach - 2021
McMahon was Norwood’s inaugural Captain of the women’s team in 2017. She was appointed Captain again in 2018 and was co-Captain with Leah Cutting in 2019.
Prior to the establishment of the SANFLW in 2017, McMahon had played for the North Cairns Tigers and represented Queensland in the 2013 AFLW National Championships (two games) and again in 2014 (two games).
In 2015 and 2016, McMahon played for West Adelaide in Division 1 of the South Australian Women’s Football League (SAWFL) – the top level precursor for women’s football prior to the establishment of the SANFLW in 2017. In 2016, she was selected alongside South Australia’s best women’s footballers to play in the third All-Stars match. Playing for the Red team in the number 17 guernsey, the match was played at Adelaide Oval as a curtain raiser to the Showdown. The Red and the Blue teams included a plethora of future AFLW and SANFLW stars, as well as future Norwood team mates Alison Ferrall, Cassie Tsoumbris, Demi Sonneman, Leah Cutting, Nicola Burns and Tess Baxter.
In 2017, McMahon captained Norwood to the inaugural SANFLW premiership, when the “Lady Legs” defeated North Adelaide at Unley Oval. McMahon was given a shut down role on North’s Chloe Scheer, a dangerous forward, and played her role well. After the final siren, McMahon raised the premiership cup with her coach Steve Symonds in what was history making euphoria in front of a crowd of around 2,000 that included many of the league players from the Norwood men’s team.
After playing in every game in 2017 (7 games), McMahon played 10 of a possible 12 games in 2018. Norwood made the Grand Final again but this time, Captain McMahon had to concede the honour of raising the premiership cup when South Adelaide were victorious.
In 2019, McMahon broke her leg badly in round one, which required surgery and ended her season. Her leadership remained apparent however, as she performed a player welfare role as well as doing one-on-one work with players and going through game footage with them. She also helped on the bench on gamedays.
McMahon played a further three games in season 2020, before announcing her retirement.
As a player, McMahon was noted for her leadership, her toughness and her ability to get the best out of her team mates. McMahon completely endorsed and demonstrated her coach’s philosophy to prioritise great connections within the team, and uphold Steve Symond’s core philosophy that all Norwood contributors were “family for life”.
McMahon also played Division 1 Women’s football with Port Adelaide in 2017 and 2018 and SMOSH West Lakes in 2020 and 2021. In 2023 and 2024 she played in Division 2 with Westminster OS.
Since retiring from SANFLW, McMahon has gone on to work at the SANFL in development roles for junior women footballers, including as an umpire for the Development League (established in 2022). In 2023 and 2024, McMahon coached the state u/16s girls teams, winning the national championships in both years (undefeated on each occasion), and was named the All-Australian u/16 girls coach in 2024 (although no All-Australian coach was named for the 2023 team).
Chris Brown, October 2024