Forced to isolate at home last weekend due to a COVID exposure in the family, O'Bree was a notable absentee as his Pioneers squad took care of the Gippsland Power by 73 points at Churchill, leaving assistants Chris Guinane and Matty Dunham to take the coaching reins.

But the experienced mentor was by no means switched off from the game. Anything but.

With rival coach Rhett McLennan similarly sidelined and isolating at home for the same reason, the pair chose to watch the live stream of the game together from their homes.

A fascinating experiment marked a bright new collaborative approach to female football mentoring, giving both coaches a unique chance to tap into each other's expertise and knowledge and to swap notes.

In what was undoubtedly a NAB League first and potentially an elite-level Australian Rules first, O'Bree could not have been spoken anymore positively about the experience and has hailed it as the way of the future.

"Because neither of us was going to be there, we decided a couple of days beforehand to watch the game together," he said.

"We watched the live stream and also had an online meeting together for the entire game.

"The takeaways from that were brilliant. I think it's something we are definitely going to look at doing in the future and possibly even review games together with other NAB League coaches.

"It's significant for the players' development.

"I got a lot out of it with Rhett and I can't thank him enough."

The ambitious and pioneering project was embraced fully by both clubs.

O'Bree stressed he was never at any point apprehensive about sharing information.

"Not one bit, if anything, I would say I was overly excited. I couldn't believe this could possibly ever happen, particularly in a national competition," he said.

"Rhett I'm sure was just as excited at the opportunity of watching the game with the opposition coach.

"Credit to our staff as well, they coached and mentored our girls incredibly well over the entire weekend," he added in reference to the Pioneers girls having an overnight stay in Gippsland ahead of their Sunday clash.

O'Bree and McLennan had no contact at all with their players or coaching staff, leaving it the assistants on the ground to call the shots.

"We just stayed away and let them be," he said.

"We are pretty clear on how we operate and I have full confidence in our coaches to execute that.

"I had a conversation for over an hour with our staff (post-match) and I couldn't be any more pleased with the weekend, except for being at home.

"It's obviously a little weird - I wish I was there. But it also provides an opportunity for people to grow.

"It certainly did that for me, watching a game with an opposition coach.

"I think it would probably be a first, but hopefully not the last."

Power coach McLennan also hopes the unique experience will be replicated.

He especially urged coaches at country and metropolitan level to perhaps give it a try during upcoming practice matches, in particular when playing against teams from outside their league.

"If anyone is gutsy enough to do it at a country or community football club level, I would highly recommend it at this time of the year," said McLennan, who was originally from the Mallee town of Nullawil, before spending much of his adolescence on the Sunshine Coast.

"If you go in with an open mind and you are willing to listen, then you are going to get a heap out of it.

"There was certainly nothing to hide from both Danny and I."

He believed the NAB League Girls competition was the perfect environment to trial such an initiative.

"It's not so much about the results, it's about the individual development," McLennan said.

"And that's something Danny has embraced well in his time at the Pios.

"It was great to do and it was great again (two days later) to go through the review together and have (National Academy manager and coach) Tarkyn Lockyer in with it as well and have him share his ideas.'

With no contact with their coaches on the ground, McLennan revealed the two coaches had been pretty forthright with their ideas, even going as far as to suggest on-field player moves for each other.

"We did say at the start we'd swear off contacting the assistant coaches - I think it tore Danny a bit more than it did me," he said.

"Even though our side was clearly not in the same class as the Pios girls on the day.

"But there were different camera angles and we got to see things like Danny's girls' interactions with their coaches at the breaks.

"So we chatted about that and we chatted about different set-ups and how we defend and how we attack and what our plan was going into the game.

"It was a great perspective to be able to do it."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: