The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Dom Starsia is an American Lacross coach. As a player he represented the USA at the 1978 World Lacross Championship, while coaching in a variety of roles at his alma mater Brown University.  In 1982 he came the head coach men's lacrosse team and led them to 2 Ivy League Championships. He then moved to the University of Virginia in 1993 and over 23 seasons led the Cavaliers to 4 NCAA champions...

Our great coach on this episode is Mike Dunlap Mike is a basketball coach who has led teams in US Colleges, the NBA and in Australia. He was also an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks when then they defeated the Phoenix Suns to win their first NBA Championship in 2021. I first interviewed Mike in 2022, and since then we stayed in contact and he has appeared on the podcast in 2 other episodes,...

Our great coach on this episode is Kath Tetley. Kath is a Netball coach. She started her career as the first paid employee of Netball New South Wales in 1998 when the Commonwealth Bank Trophy began. She then progressed through roles working for Australian Netball while coaching at the state level. She then took on coaching roles with the newly formed GWS Fury and NSW state teams. In parallel she m...

This episode is a recording of our book club. The book we discuss is Sum It Up by Pat Summitt   Pat was an American basketball player who won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics and then transitioned into coaching leading the USA team to a Gold at the at the 1984 Olympics. However its as the coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012 that she is most famous. Over her c...

Our great coach on this episode is the Rugby Union coach John Mitchell. John retired as a player in 1995 and moved into coaching straight away as a a technical adviser/forwards with the Irish National team. In 2000 he returned to NZ as the head coach of the Chiefs in Super Rugby. He then went on lead NZ national team the All Blacks from 2001 to 2003, winning two Tri Nations titles and th...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Handball coach Staffan Olsson. Staffan played 357 times for the Swedish national team and won a silver medal three times at the Olympic Games. In 2005 he transitioned into coaching and over the next 5 years lead Hammarby to 3 Swedish National championships. In 2008 he became the Swedish National Mens coach and led them to the silver medal at the 2012 olympic...

Joe Montemurro is a Football, or as it is called in some places, Soccer coach.   Joe started coaching in his late 20’s in the early 2000’s in Australia. He progressed steadily through state league teams before achieving his first international position in Papua New Guinea. He was then appointed to lead Melbourne Victory in 2014 and Melbourne City in 2015 leading them to back to back champions...

Our great coach on this episode is Jeroen Delmee.  Jeroen is a field hockey coach who first represented his country in 1994. He retired in 2008 with 401 International caps and a 2 time Olympic champion. He then transitioned into coaching working with the Dutch National womens team, the Belgium mens team and then 4 years leading the Frech National team. In 2021 he was appointed as the Head Coa...

Todays episode is On Game Day and to explore the topic I am joined by Eamon Devlin.   Eamon is the founder of Minute9, a consultancy that works with some of the world’s elite teams and coaches in helping them improve their half time talks and preparation.   This discussion is so rick in information, and useful to any of us that are leading sporting teams or work teams that have split int...

Todays episode is On Game Day and to explore the topic I am joined by Eamon Devlin.   Eamon is the founder of Minute9, a consultancy that works with some of the world’s elite teams and coaches in helping them improve their half time talks and preparation.   This discussion is so rick in information, and useful to any of us that are leading sporting teams or work teams that have split int...

Our great coach on this episode is Mike Cron.   Mike Cron was a coach with the New Zealand All Blacks for 2017 Games. This includes a stretch where they won 2 Rugby World Cups. He was also part of the team that led the NZ Women’s team to the world cup in 2022. In addition he has worked with the Welsh and Japanese teams and is presently coaching the Australian Wallabies alongside Joe Scmidt. 1...

  This episode is a recording of our book club.   The book we discuss is World’s Best by Ric Charlesworth, the iconic Australian Field Hockey Coach Ric Charlesworth. Ric led both the Australian and Men's Hockey teams to World Cup victories. He also ed the women to an An Olympic Gold. He has also worked in Cricket, Australian Rules Football, is a medical Dr and spent 10 tears as a federal...

Our great coach on this episode is Bob Shillinglaw.   Bob is an American Lacrosse coach.   Bob spent 42 years as a college coach, 39 of them leading the University of Delaware Mens Lacrosse team . He has coached 654 games, more than any other lacrosse coach in history, and is one of only 2 to win over 300 games. . Along the way his teams went to the NCAA tournament on 6 occasions and mad...

Todays episode is on the topic of Burnout and I am joined for the discussion by Dr Gavin Weeks. Gavin is a Doctor of Psychology and Associate Fellow at Oxford Sayyid Business School and director of innovation and development at the consultancy Thompson Harrison. And Dr Brendan Meany. Brendan Meany is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant and His work focuses on implementing high-performance sk...

Our great coach on this episode is Eddie O’Sullivan   Eddie played Rugby at provincial level in Ireland and started coaching after becoming a PE teacher.   He would go on to coach Rugby for 35 years and counting across the USA, France and Ireland.   This journey has led his to coach at 5 Rugby World Cups and to win three triple crowns leading Ireland. That Irish team won 50 tests un...

Our great coach on this episode is John Aloisi   John Aloisi  is a former Australian professional soccer player and now head coach. He enjoyed a 20-year career across top leagues in Europe and Australia, becoming the  first Australian to play and score in La Liga, the Premier League, and Serie A . Internationally, Aloisi earned  55 caps for the Socceroos , scoring  27 goal...

Our great coach on this episode is Samantha Bird.   Sam is a Netball Coach. As a player she represented England but retired at 24 after a knee injury. She then carved out a long career as a lawyer working with the London Metropolitan Police. In 2005 the United Kingdon Netball Super League was formed and Sam started as an Assistant with the London Mavericks. She became the team head coach in 2...

Mickey Arthur is a cricket coach. Mickey has coached 4 of the 12 test cricket playing nations in the world. South Africa, Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.  Key highlights from his career include leading the South African team to be number one in all cricket formats. Coaching the South Africans when they scored a record 438 in a One-Day International against Australia. And Taking Pakist...

Todays podcast is on the topic of Connection. And to explore the topic and the impact it can have on team performance I am going to use audio from 10 of the 214  Great Coaches we have interviewed on the podcast.   Their voices will complimemnt and amplify each other and at the end of this episode my hope is that you have a few ideas on how to improve the connection in your own sport...

Our great coach on this episode is Anders Tortensson. However this is not just a story about Anders, its also about the triumph of his team Mjallby in winning the Swedish top tier football competition in 2025. Mjallby is a town of 14,000 people with a budget that is only 12% of the richest club in the league, Malmo. Their stadium holds only 6000 people, and many of the players live in flats togeth...

Todays episode is On Leadership and I am joined for the discussion by 2 great coaches.   The first is Mike Dunlap. Mike is a basketball coach who has led teams in US Colleges, the NBA and in Australia. He was also an assistant with the   Milwaukee Bucks when then they defeated the  Phoenix Suns  to win their first NBA Championship in 2021. The second is Rugby Union coach Franco...

Our great coach on this episode is John Connolly. John is a rugby union coach who started coaching in the 1980’s. He rose through the ranks and eventually led the Queensland Reds to the Super 6 title in 1992, and then back-to-back Super 10 titles in 1994-94.  He then went on to coach in in Ireland, France, Wales and England, before returning to coach the Australian National team, the Wallabie...

Our great coach on this episode is Dell McGee. Dell is an American Football Coach. He played for the college powerhouse Auburn before a professional career that included stints with the Arizona Cardinals, and the Detroit Lions. The year after retiring he started coaching as an Assistant at High School level. He eventually became a Hih School head coach and won the 2007 state championship. He...

Todays episode is on Great Team Work, and I am joined for the discussion by 2 great coaches.   The first is Lisa Alexander. Lisa was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020. During that time She oversaw gold medal successes at the  2014 Commonwealth Games  and  2015 Netball World Cup , as well as silver medals at the  2018 Co...

Jamilon Mulders is a German Field Hockey coach and former player for the National Team.   As a player, he was part of the team that won the World Cup in 2002. He then retired and transitioned into coaching. He progressed through youth teams, eventually leading national youth teams. He was then an assistant for Markus Weise when the German women won the Gold medal at the Champions trophy. He t...