Guest Speakers – Sports Academy

Amanda HannUncategorized

Sports Academy students were very fortunate to have former Australian netball player, Bianca Chatfield as our special guest speaker. Bianca played over 240 games for Melbourne Phoenix ad Melbourne Vixen, she is also a Commonwealth Games gold and silver medallist and world champion. Bianca spoke to the athletes about how to develop a high-performance mindset to get the best out of yourself, on and off the field/court. She will also talk about the highs and lows of elite sport and creating a career pathway post sport. 

Three time All Australian AFLW player and Australian Middleweight Title holder, Tayla Harris took time out of her busy schedule to speak to our academy students. Tayla spoke to the students about the pathway she followed to becoming an AFLW player and also the hard work and battles she faced on her way to winning an Australian boxing title. We thank her for her time and experience.

Brett Henderson (Specialist Coach at Williamstown VFL) spoke about characteristic of successful players and urged our players to think about ‘why do they want to play footy?’ and ‘how are they are going to contribute to a positive team culture?’

Tara Morgan (ex AFLW Collingwood player) spoke about success and failures and how to respond to both in a positive manner. She also spoke about the importance of feedback and reminded our players to ‘always take feedback as a gift’.

The Sports Netball Academy students had a Q&A sessions with Diamonds/Collingwood Magpies superstar sisters, Kelsey and Madi Browne. Madi also took the players for a Pilates session. A massive thank you for giving our athletes your time, knowledge and experience, we really appreciate it.

COVID-19 isn’t going to stop our athletes getting the most up to date information about Sports Nutrition. Our guest speaker, Samantha Coppinger from the Western Bulldogs AFL side, spoke to our athletes about pre, during and post sports nutrition.