As the dust settles on the 2025 Capital Football NPLW season, one significant club achievement stands out. This was the year that the Blue Devils, in their fourth season under coach Scott Conlon, attained the summit they had been climbing since the tumultuous 2022 pre-season. They won every game they contested and every trophy on offer, finally defeating Canberra Olympic in a fourth successive Grand Final attempt, and completing a four-year rebuild.
As Conlon remarks,
“It’s not a story of a bunch of people coming across and having success straight away. There’s been a lot of patience, there’s been a lot of persistence.
“It’s been more about the slower journey to have sustainability, as opposed to knocking something together quickly without foundations.”
We caught up with Conlon after the whirlwind of presentation nights to discuss the achievement and the rebuild. But first, here he is speaking with Capital Football’s Sam Watson immediately after the Grand Final.
A Canberra local, Conlon had a decorated playing career that included time in the National Youth League, a season with the Canberra Cosmos in the NSL (National Soccer League), as well as playing stints in England and Italy.
“The pathway from playing to coaching happened suddenly. A [pre-season] knee injury in the early 2000s meant I couldn’t play anymore at that level. So I had surgery, and I thought I just can’t not be part of the game. I was in no way ready for that, and coaching was something that I already had in the back of my mind in my early 20s.”
Conlon considered going into coaching after playing under some excellent coaches as a teenager. It was a period of success as a player with Canberra Croatia late in his playing career that made him restless for the next challenge.
“Next minute my knee was gone, and I moved over to coaching [men’s football] and started at Canberra City, because that was the team I was going to play for that year. I was looking for something different, and they [Canberra City] took me on as a Reserve Grade coach. And then, the next year, they wanted me to coach 1st grade [when] Steve Bryant was moving on.
“A bunch of calls came, and Tuggeranong was one of the calls, and they’d just been relegated. They said, ‘Do you want to help us get back to the Premier League?’. I had to weigh up three or four options, but Tuggeranong was my home at heart, and I took that one. So I spent three years there, and then Belconnen United came along. I had three good years at Tuggeranong; we were always knocking on the door for semis. And I did two years at Belco, and then it came the time when my kids were at an age where I had to stop coaching, personal circumstances [which had me] more or less in lockdown five or six years before COVID-19 locked us all down.
“I have daughters, they came up playing in juniors, and that was the move to the girls [coaching]. I never considered going back to the boys since.”
Conlon was happily coaching his daughter’s under-13s in 2021 and was already a respected voice at Belconnen United when coaching shuffles and an NPLW player exodus took the women’s programme by surprise (you can read Michaela Thornton’s take on those times here). Around ten players would leave the NPLW squad during the second COVID-19 lockdown, with several joining Canberra Olympic. Half of those leaving were key figures who had featured in 2021 “team of the year” lineups.
“Turmoil’s happening when [NPLW coach Michael] Zakoski moves to the men. 24 hours later Thornton was out, and three other players are gone 24 hours after that.
“We’re unaware, unprepared, and we can’t do it face-to-face.
“The easiest thing would have been to get everybody in a room and say, calm down, things are going to be OK. It was impossible.”
“So then it was 60 phone calls in about three days. Much of it hinged on me and Hamish [Cresswell, Director of Women’s Football]. I wasn’t the 1st Grade coach, but was still involved in the decision making because of my background, even though I was happy coaching my daughter’s 13s team.
“I was on the phone with five potential coaches to take the [NPLW] role, racking my brain. I call them all, and none of them are in a position to take it. And then it was dawning more on me that I had to do this. I loved the 13s; some of them I’ve had since they were nine. Funnily enough, Alina [Roberts] scored a hat-trick [in the 1st grade Grand Final], Scarlett Wells scores a winner too [in the Reserve Grade Grand Final]. Multiple players were on show in the seniors [this year who] came from that little team that I’ve grown up with coaching.
“So I say to the club I want to do this; it’s two years in front of [me] wanting to, because I wanted to spend two more years with [my daughter’s team] as there’s a development pathway from 10 to 17, and I wanted to see them through two particular development phases.
“So I said I have to do an online session with my 13s tonight, and I have to tell them that I’m running 1st Grade, they have to be first to know. In between setting up that online meeting and that night, my daughter went for a skateboard ride with Leila Billington. You’re allowed to go out at that time to do exercise. I saw Shane Billington, and I told him what the online meeting was going to be about, and he said, Scotty, if you need me to take the [13s] girls next year, I will, and that was a big reason why the program didn’t lose more kids.
“I went into the meeting, saying, ‘I’ve got to do this for the club’, but Shane, and by then an assistant [coach] had jumped in. I reassured everyone they were going to be well looked after, then asked Hamish to put it into the [NPLW] chat – Scott’s going to coach next year – and everything quietened down.
“I knew what was needed to [start the rebuild], and it was more about mentality and personalities as much as talent – the balance between the mental, the technical, and the physical, and the right mix of introverts and extroverts. I was happy to take gambles on 15-year-olds that had a good attitude as opposed to players that wanted, for example, a guaranteed start.”
A fast, mobile, quick-thinking team, like the one that achieved so much success in the 2025 season, naturally lends itself to youth and aligns with Conlon’s ethos from the start of the rebuild, but it took time to evolve. After the exodus, three or four experienced players in the 2022 squad were crucial, such as Katie Woodman, Karen Clarke, and Talia Backhouse, who helped guide the young team around and control the tempo.
Additions to the 2022 group who would play a big part in the next four years included Sophia Doumos, Ella Palframan, Sofia Palywoda, Pearl Tein, Maddie Steinacker, and current captain Lauren Preston from the University of Canberra team.
Few pundits gave Belconnen United much of a chance in 2022 with Canberra Croatia’s prominence in the league at the time, and an all-star new-look Canberra Olympic lineup (the Beyond 90 2022 season review makes for interesting reading now). Conlon took out the coach of the year award (and now has the NPLW coaching treble after 2024 and 2025 gongs) after the Blue Devils contested the Federation Cup Final and the Grand Final, and showed they were a legitimate part of a ‘big three’.
“I knew coming in if I straight away locked into my principles, then the wins wouldn’t have happened straight away because it was a big learning curve, so I had to mix working out ways to win games to prove to them that things were going to be okay, and then also teach them at the same time. In a two-session-a-week program, that’s almost impossible. So, the focus for the first part of the season was, how do we win games? And being very adaptable and flexible with our starting system, and changing on the fly sometimes, just to negate what the other teams were good at.
“Someone said to me at the time, I think it was [Soccer Snaps By] Sal,
“If you can keep this team together for a few years, you’ll be unbeatable.”
“And that was about their mentality, and taking a risk on the talent of some young ones, and at the end of the day, coaching.”
Nonetheless, it took some time to fully embed Conlon’s principles into the playing group.
“It was game three or four into [our] third year. I came off the field, and we might have only won by one, and I said girls, this is the happiest I’ve been since I started. They didn’t know why. I said ‘Today, you look like Scott’s team. What I saw out there today was, that’s me on the field. As in not me as a player, but for how I want you guys to play, I’ve seen it for the first time today for the full 90.’
“I saw it in patches through the second year. Don’t get me wrong, because by then, it wasn’t just about winning games, it was about what my principles are here. And I have said many times over recent years, anyone who just comes [to coach] for a year and leaves, they don’t have a close affiliation to some philosophy, because it’s impossible to get someone playing your way within a year. I mean, it’s possible if you’re doing four or five contacts a week like pros, but for two sessions a week, which most of us are, you can’t get a team playing your brand within a year.”
More success followed, but it was only in 2025 that the Blue Devils showed they were once again in a league of their own, and Conlon had the balance across the squad he was seeking.
“In 2022 we found ways to win games.
“We could have won the league in 2023, and 2024 was decided in the last round of the season, versus Olympic in a winner-takes-all game.
“And both of those at the time hurt me considerably. But at the same time, knowing now what I know this year, we weren’t ready then.”
“That could be an age thing, that could be a temperament thing, that could be an experience thing, I don’t know.
“One of the things between 2022 and today is: I never wanted to bring too many [players] in one go. You lose a lot of momentum if you change a lot, and with the path we were on, [there were] two or three I had to take a gamble on each year, and they didn’t always work.”
‘Coaching’ is a single word that is underpinned by a variety of different skills, all of which need a high degree of mastery to attain success. Firstly, the coach’s temperament: Conlon is approachable, affable, and calm. He is not prone to ranting at his players, but he gets his message across in-game and is careful not to do so when a player is in the thick of the action.
Tactically astute, Conlon was also aided by some mid-season squad additions. In games where the opponent was strong in midfield, he played three at the back and crowded the middle of the park, cutting off supply to opposing forwards. Losses of attackers Hattie Cram to injury and Alyssa Di Campli to US college football were counterbalanced by the arrival of ex-captain Backhouse, and Pascale La Hei returning for a second stint.
La Hei’s arrival gave Conlon the option of a three-pronged pace attack in Keira Bobbin, Roberts, and La Hei, which defences had real trouble dealing with. And even if they showed they could, he had a back-up plan of moving Backhouse to striker with Tein in behind, providing an altogether different problem for defences to solve.
How did Conlon choose Roberts as the central striker for the Grand Final in a three-pronged speed assault?
“For the three weeks leading up to that, when she was playing wide areas, she was getting into space with lots of time … where she was frustrating herself because she was making the wrong end decision, too much time to think at her age and her experience level. So, I said, when you play nine, there’s less time to think, you act on instinct, and just do your thing. And Boom, Boom, Boom! Three goals. These things don’t always work, but sometimes they do.”
Conlon also has praise for several others, including players at the defensive end of their 2025 formation. If Ailish McDonagh and Bobbin were his selections for the coach’s team of the year survey, he could have just as easily picked Bronte Pyke, Anneke Corry, or Steinacker. Isy Hindmarsh, as a holding midfielder, was also named in the team of the year, as was Preston.
What then are some of the key tenets of Scott Conlon’s approach to coaching? Firstly, places in the starting lineup are never guaranteed, as healthy competition for places is key to the team performing at its best.
Second, tailor how you deliver individual and team aims to the group being coached. “If somebody wants to challenge themselves, become a better coach, spend a couple of years [coaching] females. It definitely makes you really think about why you are doing something. Because you get a better version of a female player if they understand what they’re trying to do, as opposed to the boys and men, who are more or less happy to do as they’re told. Whereas girls/women would be a bit like, I’m okay to do this, but if you help me understand why, then I’ll do it better.
“So, if my messages are clearer with the boys/men eventually, like it has become with the girls/women, I’ll be a stronger coach. These are things I would have taken for granted if I hadn’t gone through the pathway of [coaching] girls/women. Just like the men’s game would teach someone who spent a lot of time in the women’s game, vice versa.
“I used to think it was a coaching cycle between juniors and seniors. You do one for a while. You get to where you need a change, and go to the juniors, but it could also be a cycle including female and male these days.”
Third, stay on top of modern football trends and tactics to add weapons to your coaching bow and refine your philosophy, and be open to points of view beyond your immediate sphere. Look at how data analytics can help you win games as a coach; this is something Conlon has embraced over the last 18 months.
“As well as my own coaching philosophy, I got a lot out of the B-Licence two years ago when I went to Melbourne. I didn’t want to study it in Canberra because I know everybody in Canberra, and I wanted a different experience. I’ve got a lot out of networking with some of the coach educators in Melbourne.
“Canberra is always what I’ve called, like a little bubble. I went overseas to England as a player for a few years, spent time in Italy trying to make it there. I’ve done things outside of Canberra, and it’s incredible how small our demographic is.
“If we want to be better and make an impact on Canberra football, we need to go out of the bubble.”
Conlon is also of the opinion that the current NPLW competition is unbalanced, in light of the Capital Football review and Declaration of 2026 Leagues. The 2025 ladder shows that five of the seven teams are currently competitive, noting that Tuggeranong United has been asked to “… demonstrate its capacity towards ensuring player sustainability throughout the 2026 season”. A six-team league is just one example of something that could be done to make for a more compelling end product (noting this discussion took place before the news about Gungahlin United’s future).
What’s next for Scott Conlon? In what direction do you go when you’ve just won everything? In 2026, he’ll be with the Blue Devils again, but you get the sense that it won’t be a cut-and-paste of 2025, with some different challenges in the offing to keep it interesting. For example, both he and the club are keen to become self-sustaining regarding the development pipeline from juniors to seniors, and are already well on the way to achieving this.
“We’re not doing an EOI this year [for NPLW trials]. Everybody else will, it’ll be the second year in a row [we haven’t]. We’re using our pathways, or someone I’m head-hunting, and I’ll be honest, I haven’t even rung one person this year. I have no intention of calling anyone.
“I want to get to the stage where our junior program doesn’t even need to do that. I feel that’s a bit out of reach right now, but we’re not far off. Pick the right people at 11s and then that’s someone you don’t have to pick for the next six years.”
Beyond 2026, there’s no certainty, but at some point Melbourne will come calling again.
“I’m going to leave Canberra in a few years to go coach in Melbourne for a year. I’ve already semi-organised it, not with a team but with some people, when my work allows me to sign off for a year, and my kids are a little bit older. In the near future, you’ll see me coaching in Melbourne for a season. It’ll be men’s by then; it’s something I want to put on the checklist to do.”
One thing is for certain: Conlon’s hunger to keep evolving as a coach is far from being sated, and we can’t wait to see where that hunger takes him.
