Narrator [00:00:03] This is a Sport Australia podcast production.

Cam Tradell [00:00:07] Hello and welcome to our Coaching and Officiating podcast series. My name is Cam Tradell and I am the Project Lead for Coaching and Officiating at Sport Australia. Over this series, we will look at what it takes to modernise Australia's Coaching and Officiating system. Each podcast, we will be joined by a special guest who will share experiences and practical tips on their topics. Today, I'm joined by Brad Donald, who has held many coaching and administrative roles over the last 20 years with the National Rugby League, including Game Development Manager, Elite Pathways Manager and the Head Coach of the JILLAROOS, the Australian National Rugby League women's side. Brad, I'm really keen on getting an understanding from you of now coaching females who are coming through the system. They're coming in from multisport backgrounds. Have you noticed that the skill levels are different or that they've got a lot to offer rugby league?

Brad Donald [00:01:03] Oh, most definitely. I think one of the one of the things that happened when I transitioned across to the female side of rugby league, a lot of my mates and players and people involved in the game, the first thing they say is, oh, gee, the females are so much more skilful now. I think they're a little bit forgiving in terms of, you know, we make, the women seem to make more mistakes than what our guys do. But you'll see more players that can kick or can pass or and traditionally they've come from, say, 360 degree sports. Soccer where where there's a number, everybody has to kick in soccer, netball, basketball, AFL. And that holds them in really good stead. They basically come with a whole range of skills. And I think it's a it's a really prime time to be a female athlete, because if you're a good athlete and you and you've got all those skills, you can pretty much try everything. It's something that we encourage amongst our male sports. And I've even heard like in the US where, you know, they've they've picked kids way too young to participate in one sport and sort of, you know, mums and dads have pushed those kids to to be Baseballers and put them in the in the batting nets for, you know, six, seven, eight years of their life. But they haven't had the opportunity to try other sports because they, you know, haven't hedged their bets at all. And the poor kids haven't had that experience. So when they get to universities and they get the colleges, I know that they're encouraging them to play other sports as part of their as part of their development. So we've been really fortunate. I can just think in the past we've had players like Julia Robinson, who has come across from state netball and a year later is playing for the Jillaroos. Meg Ward, who's been a soccer player and played at representative level. We've had junior jillaroos sorry, the Socceroos or the Matildas. Sorry, we've had we've had players, part of the Matildas program that have played for Australia one and two years later. So it's most definitely great that they can show up with with such great skill set. And it's great that there's so many opportunities for females to participate in all their sports now.

Cam Tradell [00:03:13] Yeah, that's brilliant. Is there a process that you've got in place or is that is it maybe not a set process, but a way that you go about coaching them to hone their skills? So if they're coming from netball or they're coming from another sport, how do you identify what it is that they can do? And then how do you sort of bring them on the journey to utilising those skills into Rugby League?

Brad Donald [00:03:35] Yeah, I think it's like there's a couple of different processes and and it's all part of the pathway. So we have things like talent ID days, identification days where we we test the strength, we test the speed, we test the aerobic capacity of of players. But it's when you get when you get a player that might have a great offload, like we've got a shot putter in our team that was, you know, close to getting Commonwealth Games selection. And she's big and strong and she has an unbelievable offload. So like more so than, look we definitely want to hone the skills and and teach them the traditional skills and things that would teach them in Rugby League. But it's also about seeing what else they bring to the table. So it's a really great time to be a coach in this female space because we can utilise their skills. I think about I just spoke before about Julia Robinson. Like I've never seen a female player that can move while the balls in the air so she can put herself in this space, but catch the ball outside of it. But that's come from a netball background. And, you know, I think we've seen we've seen instances of that in the male game even recently in the NRL. And people are going, wow. And and I think that's the things that we've got to look for as coaches when we bring in players across from other sports.

Cam Tradell [00:04:48] When you're pulling these teams together, I mean, you being the national Jillaroos Coach and you're pulling them from different systems and different franchises or, you know, from the state systems, et cetera, how do you go about meshing that or gelling that with their skills from their states and so on? How do you jel that into a team that's cohesive and makes sense for at the Australian level?

Brad Donald [00:05:10] I think it's really like it's a privileged position to be in and and me understanding that, our staff understanding that and then every player that comes into that environment, understanding that like this is a national jersey. It's the you are the best player at that current time in Australia. That's why you've been selected. So that team or any other team, I think it's it's really a. Important for the players to understand why, and I like why is why is that Jersey there? So we talk a lot about the history. The Jillaroos first match was in 1995. There was a there was an Australian team that was put together in 1993. The history isn't that long. It's not like the Kangaroos back to 1908, but we talk a lot about the history of the jersey, what the players went went through before. And part of bringing the team together I think is especially with what I've found with females is, that they are socially connected differently to guys. There's less of a hierarchy. So I find it really beneficial for every player to sort of talk a little bit about their story, what brought them to the national jersey. And and we probably go through that once a year. And we've got new new players that come in into the system every year. So it's really, really important that everybody understands the journey of all their mates. And and when you get in that environment and you hear about the person opposite you in the circle and how they got to be part of the jillaroos system, it makes you want to do more. It makes us as coaches want to do more for every single one of those players. So I know it bonds and connects the players. And it also makes the jersey a much more stronger commodity within that group as well. And the understanding of what it meant from everyone that pulled it on in 1993 to those players that have pulled it on and taken the field in that match.

Cam Tradell [00:06:57] The piece around mentoring and your role as a coach, knowing that the NRL have just appointed two females in the states spaces. How many females have been appointed in the state space now?

Brad Donald [00:07:08] Yeah, so we've got female coaches in both the New South Wales and Queensland Origin teams, which is a fantastic move for the game having these ladies. They've been in the system for a very long time. We don't have a great deal of female coaches traditionally, which is a shame. And it's part of our role to make sure that we do empower. Now, we've got a number of ex-players which are a very clever and know the game very well. And it just comes back to my previous point about having that confidence. And they've definitely got the competence, but having the confidence to step up and be the Head Coach where there's there's a lot of pressure. It's just so great to see that. And we've got Kylie Hiller as the New South Wales Head Coach Tahnee Norriss, the Queensland State of Origin Head Coach this year would be really great to see those guys do battle later in the year.

Cam Tradell [00:07:52] What's your relationship with them as you're coming through? How do you work with those two coaches as they're coming through?

Brad Donald [00:07:59] Yeah, it's really important that we work with them. I've been fortunate enough to coach both of them in some capacity over the last couple of years anyway. But, you know, Tahnee, a fair while ago and Kylie more recently, but making sure that we offer our skills and experience as well as learning from those guys because they've got a lot to offer as well. And I could honestly say that I've learnt just from them in the last couple of years or even more recently, just in their short time, like Kylie, short time in the game as a coach. But I think it's a really important ingredient that, it's really hard to have a full male coaching staff with a with a team of females. And there's so many examples of we think we understand, but we don't. And and that's why it's always it's great to see some female Head Coaches now who can temper how they're the rest of the females are actually feeling within that group. So I think the balance is good if you've got a female om staff. But it's even better now to see that we've got some female Head Coaches that have been produced.

Cam Tradell [00:09:03] Brad, I'd be really interested to know what's the NRL vision for Women's Rugby League.

Brad Donald [00:09:08] Yeah, look, I think this is all sports are looking at this at the moment. And I'll just sort of quickly touch on why I got involved. It was about ten years ago, I'd move to Queensland and I got asked to help a female team and it was a team to go to the state championships. And I went down and I was fortunate enough to coach about six or seven just in this one session, six or seven ladies that had played at the top of the game for ten, twelve, thirteen years. You know, this is the Tahnee Norriss', Karen Murphy's, Nat Dwyer's. And what I picked up straight away was that we hadn't looked after the game at all. And these ladies, I talked about a video session and they'd never heard of that before. So I had this great sense of responsibility personally from from this point. And I know it had I knew there were other people in the building that had started talking about female rugby league who felt exactly the same way. And it wasn't too long before it ended up on the NRL's agenda. I was an employee at the NRL at the time, and before long we'd started to put together a strategy. And I think if we look at that strategy now, we've got a we've got a a pathway strategy nationally, which matches our boys. It's going to take us a little bit of time. And we've tried to expedite that. We've got a an under 19's National Championship happening this year. So every player from every state in Australia has access to that. It'll be bringing together two hundred and eighty of the best female Rugby League players into one venue, which has never been done before, and I think what we need to do, it's a basic philosophy at the NRL, whatever is offered to males is offered to females. And we've got to make sure that we can do that in every aspect of our game, from being a participant to a coach to sports trainer, physiotherapist, whatever it is. So I think that's our philosophy at the NRL now and making sure that those opportunities for females are there. It makes sense, 51% of our population are females. You know, lots and lots of mums make decisions around the household and it makes good business sense as well as doing the right thing. So I think as we move forward, we're going to see we've got four NRL W teams at the moment. There won't be long before we start talking about six and eight. And there's a lot more ladies running around the country playing Rugby League. And that'll be a happy day for all of us at the NRL.

Cam Tradell [00:11:20] I think critical learning of each other and sort of developing together, I think's a fantastic way of putting it is the fact that we all learn from other people's experiences. Brad, I want to thank you very, very much for joining us today. That's really insightful and impactful. Thanks for that. Thank you for joining me today, if you'd like to find out more about Coaching and Officiating or have any feedback or questions, please email us at workforce@sportaus.gov.au. My name is Cam Tradell and I look forward to you joining me for the next podcast in the Coaching and Officiating series.