The myriad difficulties which Joelle Murray faced when she took over from Grant Scott as manager of Scottish champions Hibernian midway through the 2025/26 season were all met with the same determination she exhibited during her long and decorated playing career.
The former Scotland internationalist has no intention of abandoning her can do approach in the forthcoming campaign despite the raft of fresh problems she is going to have to contend with.
And the 48-times capped 39-year-old is certain that many others who are involved in SWPL1 will, despite widespread cost-cutting and a mass exodus of players down to England, embrace the many challenges which lie ahead of them as well.
No fewer than nine players, including national squad members Eilidh Adams and Kathleen McGovern, have left Hibs this summer and Murray will have her work cut out replacing them in time for the start off the new league season next month.
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The Easter Road Hall of Fame inductee, though, is focusing her energies fully on identifying and bringing through replacements who are capable to scaling the same heights as their predecessors in the years to come.
Having inherited a side with an established way of playing when she took over from Scott, who departed to join Celtic back in December, she views the enforced rebuild as a gilt-edged opportunity for her.
“I'm not naïve,” she said. “I know that things move on in football. Players outgrow Hibs and outgrow the SWPL and move on. That's just the nature of the game. It's my job and my staff's job to find the next high-potential player.
“We need to know where we sit in the football pyramid. We know that above the SWPL is the WSL2 and the WSL1. Players with aspirations to go to that next level will inevitably move on.
“But it's up to us as a club and up to other clubs to find the next one who is going to come through and develop. Yes, there's a lot of expectation on my shoulders to do that. But it's a situation and a pressure that I thrive on. I'm optimistic.
“There has been a turnover of players, like there always is at any club, at Hibs over the summer. But that actually gives me the chance to build a new team and to build it my way.”
Murray continued, “When I took over back in December, it was a bit of a baptism of fire for me. I was very much learning on the job. I also didn’t have a lot of time to implement the things that I would have liked to have implemented.
“It was a little bit difficult because there was still that level of expectation. But I am a winner. I always wanted to win when I was playing, whether it was in training or in a competitive match. I am the same as a coach. I just got on with it and six months or so down the line it is the new normal for me.
“I was given the chance to lead a fantastic group of players at an unbelievable club and I was very grateful for that. It's been really enjoyable. Yes, there are high pressure moments every day, but I thrive on those situations and I am really relishing it.
“But I have been really looking forward to pre-season. As I mentioned, coming in halfway through a season was difficult. Don't get me wrong, there wasn't a lot, and still isn't a lot, to be changed. But there was a way I wanted to do things. I wanted to put my stamp on it.
“We will stick to the basic principles that we've shown over the last couple of seasons and will be a team that plays creative, fast, free-flowing football with intent. We'll see that in abundance. But there will be small tweaks. Having a full pre-season with my team will only help me.”
Hearts have slashed the budget for their women’s team despite manager Eva Olid leading the Tynecastle club to the Scottish title last term and there are concerns the capital side could revert to playing part-time football in future.
Celtic and Rangers are also cutting back amid concerns in boardrooms throughout the country about dwindling attendance figures and a lack of return on substantial annual investments.
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But Murray has received consistent backing from both the Gordon family, the Hibs owners, and Malky Macaky, the sporting director, since being appointed manager and does not anticipate the level of funding which she receives being reduced.
“The SWPL is changing and there has been a certain narrative around certain clubs in recent months,” she said. “But it won’t change so much for me. When I came into the role, I asked for assurances from Malky McKay and Ian Gordon, who represents the Gordon family, and I got them.
“They assured me that I would be spearheading something that's competitive and properly resourced both from a financial and personnel perspective. They've been fantastic with me. I've not encountered any kind of negativity. There has been no talk about a dilution of budgets and I don’t expect there to be any.
“I'm aware the landscape of the game in Scotland is changing and that sort of thing may be coming, or may have already happened, in certain places. But nothing here has changed for me.
“As I say, I've got a fantastic relationship with Malky and a fantastic relationship with the Gordon family. They're so supportive of the women's game and of the women's team at the club. I was given assurances on day one and nothing has changed since.”
Murray played for Hibs for no fewer than 20 years – and won two SWPL titles, seven Scottish Cups and five League Cups during that time – and witnessed the changes in how the women’s team was both subsidised and run first hand.
The first female player to sign a professional contract with the Leith outfit believes that evolving organically over time has put them in a far stronger position than many of their rivals despite the uncertainty which is swirling around the women’s game in this country.
“We worked under the Hibernian Community Foundation initially,” she said. “But when the Gordon family bought the club they had an aspiration to bring us in house. They've done that and we feel like we're in a healthy position now. We knew where we were and we knew where we wanted to get to. There was a process.
“Other clubs have gone from where they were to where they want to be without following a process and that is why there's maybe a reduction in funding there now. But we're in a really good, healthy, positive place because of the support we’ve received and the collaboration across the club.”
The Scottish women’s game is facing unprecedented challenges as leading players are lured down south by wages which leading clubs like Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, Glasgow City and Rangers are unable to offer. MSPs at Holyrood have been lobbied for increased funding.
Murray showed remarkable longevity during her own playing days and she remains hopeful the sport will be able to come through the current challenges which they are wrestling with and emerge stronger from them.
“We've got Fiona McIntyre at the top of the SWPL and we are supported by a lot of senior people in the Scottish FA,” she said. “As I say, think it is my job as a coach to accept where we are and identify and bring through the next generation of young players. I know a lot of people have exactly the same attitude.”
