In The Arena

Mark Riley has spent a career where few would know his name, but his fingerprints are everywhere. Assistant coach across the Fremantle, Melbourne, Carlton and Gold Coast Football Clubs. Nine games as Melbourne's caretaker senior coach. 450 AFL games in the box. But the real story starts in a shearing shed in Hyden and ends up at the Clontarf Foundation — 12,500 Indigenous boys, 170 sites, generati...

Dave Misson has spent a career where most people would never know his name, and that's exactly the point. High performance manager across Tennis Australia, Australian Cricket, the Sydney Swans, St Kilda and Melbourne Football Clubs, Dave has been in the room for premierships, World Cups and some of the most powerful cultural moments in Australian sport. He steps into the arena with a mantra given...

Janey Martino built Smiling Mind, one of Australia's most impactful not-for-profits, led businesses, coached founders, and is now back in the CEO chair at KIC. But this conversation isn't about what she's built — it's about what broke, and what she found inside the cracks. Janey steps into the arena with a willingness to go there, sharing openly the moments that reshaped how she leads and lives. W...

Neil Craig is the first guest we've brought back into the arena — and for good reason. He's 70, coaching leaders at the Australian Institute of Sport, and still the most curious person in any room he walks into. Former AFL senior coach at Adelaide, performance coach with England Rugby and the Wallabies, and a wonderful mentor of mine. We go deep on expectations — the most dangerous word in high pe...

I can’t remember exactly when I first heard the statement: “If it’s too obvious, it can’t be trusted.” This thought comes to mind when I am speaking with Gabrielle Dolan, a leader I have come to know over the past decade and feel so fortunate to have done so. The fact that we immediately connected is no surprise. Her leadership builds on the power of story, its nuance, and relatability. Our capaci...

There comes a time when every leader must pause and take stock. For Dr Taylor, it’s the passage between age 40 and 55, a stretch of life that exposes both the weight and the cost of relentless striving. It’s a season that asks harder questions, such as: Is this still who I want to be? What truly matters now? It’s a crossroad that humbles even the most accomplished. The first mountain’s confidence...

Jenny George runs Melbourne Business School - #1 in Australia. "A CEO is a symbol of what matters," she says. "Every choice you make — what you wear, where you sit, how you spend your time — tells the organisation who it's becoming." A mathematician turned CEO who learned leadership at thirteen, voting on where the family's charity money went. Her parents chose impact over income - dad building el...

At sixteen, Maggie Roberts broke her back three weeks before the Olympic diving trials. Eight months later, at three in the morning, she made a decision that would define her life: she went for a run. "The pain of my injury was less than the pain of standing still." From that moment of choosing movement over stillness came a scholarship to the University of Hawaii, three degrees, three years as th...

"Unless you have a deeper sense of what sport can be, it’s impossible to navigate the ups and downs you face every day." John Didulica grew up in football clubs forged by migrants, led by his grandfather, who arrived in Australia in the early 50s with very little, but with everything to give. Those clubs became sanctuaries of the willing — places where people felt safe enough to be who they are, a...

When bombs exploded near the Australian cricket team's hotel in Pakistan, Paul Marsh was just 33 and only weeks into his role as CEO of the Australian Cricketers' Association. No playbook. No precedent. Just the weight of responsibility for some of Australia's most recognisable athletes in immediate danger. "I felt like I was failing," our next guest 'In the Arena' reflects, the memory still sharp...

For leaders, 'not knowing' is our greatest source of vulnerability. Leadership is in the business of ambiguity - if not for ambiguity, we don't need leadership. In this episode, Western Bulldogs CEO Ameet Bains shares his journey from a kid of Indian heritage in 1980s Bendigo to leading one of the AFL's most respected clubs. His story reveals how authentic leadership isn't about having all the ans...

Sisters in Arms The moments that meet you where you are—but never leave you where they found you. Lisa Alexander’s story doesn’t begin on the court. It begins with a diary, a pen, and the quiet courage of self-reflection. At eighteen, she was a young mother, studying to become a teacher, writing her way through the complexity of life. That simple act—making sense of experience through words—became...

Courage Over Comfort When I had the choice… Craig Foster was 23 when he first chose courage over comfort. Rising through the Socceroos, he saw older teammates being denied medical treatment, players without power getting pushed around. He had a choice: use his growing status for himself, or use it differently. That decision set the pattern for thirty years. Legendary AFL coach Ron Barassi used to...

Creating belonging in the unknown When leadership demands you build what doesn't exist This conversation with Marne Fechner, CEO of AusCycling, speaks to one of leadership's fundamental truths: it meets you exactly where you are, and then it doesn't leave you where it found you. It will reveal who you are and then ask you to choose who it is you wish to become. Eighteen months into one of the bigg...

In this episode of "In the Arena," coach and author Cody Royle explores what might be the greatest irony in leadership: those of us who believe deeply in coaching often refuse to be coached ourselves. Having spent decades in leadership positions, I've experienced firsthand that moment when "the weight of responsibility sits heavy on your chest before your feet even touch the floor." It's the silen...

Neil Balme is one of those people that you immediately feel good about. Charismatic with a big presence, quick and eager to find humour even in the most challenging situations, disarmingly intelligent in the most humble of ways. He cannot help but draw people to him, but somehow he stays fully present with them with wonderful generosity and decency. Yet, as impactful as this is, what makes Neil Ba...

I recently had the privilege of sitting down with Nick Stone, whose journey from AFL journeyman to founder of Bluestone Lane, America's fastest-growing premium café brand, exemplifies resilience and authentic leadership. Nick played just 20 games across Collingwood, Hawthorn and St. Kilda over six years, fighting for his career with each one-year contract. What struck me most was how Nick never al...

"If you are not genuine with people, you won't get anything. You won't get productivity, won't get ideas, you won't get innovation, and you won't get a safe building site." - Joe Barr When Joe Barr became CEO of John Holland, he made a decision that would define his leadership journey: to embrace what he didn't know. With little experience in rail and infrastructure, Joe found himself leading one...

Come to Play "Just be a good person, Cameron." I have put myself back 'In the Arena', this time on the other side of the podcast desk. Soon, I found myself having a conversation I had never had. This is not a coincidence. My inquisitor is Andrew Horsfield, who is well experienced in drawing out the conversation we need to have. He has his own podcast, the wonderfully named "The Messy Middle." He i...

Hawthorn Football Club President Andy Gowers’ leadership beliefs do not reveal themselves through grand declarations or certainties but through a willingness to embrace complexity. It is an effort to find connection where others might see only division. "The feedback I got when I was considering running for the board was confronting. Some people thought I'd be wasting my time. Others warned me it...

"You Can't Stop the Waves, But You Can Learn How to Surf" I've used this Jon Kabat-Zinn quote countless times in my presentations, conversations and keynotes with leaders, with an image of Layne Beachley, seven-time world champion surfer. It is a wonderful quote and a beautiful image of an athlete in their element. I understand enough about Layne’s story to know that both the element itself, the s...

Ben Williamson arrived at my office seeking a coach, though he had no intention of engaging one. What followed was a three-hour session mapping his 'so far' story on a piece of A3 paper. Through this process, Ben developed what he calls his "anti-goals" – not just what he wanted in his life but what he definitively didn't want. This clarity has guided his decisions ever since, particularly in his...

My guest today has forged a new path in leadership. A path that wasn't supposed to exist - from psychologist to Director of the Australian Institute of Sport. For decades, the pathway to senior leadership in sport has been narrow and predictable. Commercial expertise and playing experience were considered non-negotiable. For a female psychologist, these traditional expectations created a double ba...

“The Space Between” A wonderful kind of wisdom comes from those who understand that performance emerges not from exerting control, but from creating the conditions for performance to flourish. As I speak with our next guest on ‘In the Arena’, Shane McCurry, this thought comes to mind. His understanding of performance and well-being reflects this wisdom: "It's not one or the other, it's one through...

As a leader, people do not experience our intentions; they experience our behaviours. How you make them feel, to elevate and inspire, by not only supporting and encouraging them through the demands of their work, but also when trying to stretch and grow them when you glimpse potential and possibilities they are yet to see in themselves. I call this the Leadership Promise . Our next guest, ‘In the...