AIS launches new program to end coaching’s jobs for the boys culture in Australian sport Insert Social Headline here

The gender imbalance in the coaching ranks in Australian sport is obvious – and it’s getting worse. But a new taskforce is about to make a big difference.

Veteran swimming coach Denis Cotterell has been inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame. Dennis coaching at the Miami Swimming Club. Picture by Scott Fletcher

Australia’s silent culture of handing out the best coaching jobs in sport to men could finally be about to change after being put under the microscope.

It’s one of the worst kept secrets in Australian sport that the odds are heavily stacked against women coaches getting hired when they’re up against the blokes.

For a country that talks a good game about gender equity, the imbalance in the coaching ranks is shameful – and the gap is only getting wider.

At the 2012 London Olympics, just 12% of Australia’s accredited coaches were women.

Four years later, in Rio de Janeiro, that dropped to 9% – bucking the global trend where most developed countries are actively increasing opportunities for female coaches.

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Ian Thorpe and coach Tracey Menzies at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Picture: Gregg Porteous.

Swimming Australia, as just one example, typically chooses around six to eight coaches for each Olympic Games but the last female who got picked was Tracey Menzies in 2004, when she was coaching Ian Thorpe.

Australia’s only other Olympic female swim coach is Hall of Famer Ursula Carlile, who coached Shane Gould way back in 1972 – and the number of female coaches is not much better in Australia’s Paralympic teams.

“As a system, we probably haven’t done well enough in terms of providing the right opportunities but to be honest, I don’t think any country has really nailed it,” Swimming Australia’s chief strategist Alex Baumann told The Saturday Telegraph.

All sports are allowed to select their own coaches as they see fit and Swimming Australia is right behind the push for change with Baumann joining the Taskforce which the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) has launched.

Concerned that Australia is falling behind the rest of the world in developing coaches, the AIS has set itself the ambitious task of making Australia the world leader in coaching development before the end of the decade.

The Taskforce includes some of the brightest minds in Australian sport, whose focus is not only on repairing the neglect of female coaches but also on how to develop better Australian coaches and keep them from being poached overseas.

The taskforce could the end the recruitment of foreign coaches such as former head swimming coach Jacco Verhaeren, right. Picture: Brett Costello

That could mean an end to the days of recruiting foreign coaches such as Dutch master Jacco Verhaeren to oversee the national swim team ahead of a local coach – or even worse, the nauseating sight of legends like Denis Cotterell helping Sun Yang win gold.

“This doesn‘t mean that we don’t bring any internationals in because you want the best but we really should be growing and developing our own,” Baumann said.

“We have already got some fantastic coaches so of course other countries are going to want them and I don’t think you can ever stop that.

“So we have to understand what the rest of the world is doing and how we can keep as many of our coaches here.”

Providing better pay is the most obvious ways to retain the best coaches, along with more opportunities.

In the two years after Rio, research uncovered by The Saturday Telegraph found that 24 of Australia’s Olympic and Paralympic head coaches have left their jobs.

Of those, a quarter were poached to go overseas, while two-thirds moved to different roles within their existing sports.

One of those was Tim Walsh, who coached the Australian women’s sevens rugby team to gold in Rio, before being approached to run the men’s program.

Australian swim coaches Denis Cotterell, left, Chris Mooney and Rohan Taylor react as Alicia Coutts swims at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Picture: Dave Hunt/AAP

A strong advocate for transferring knowledge between coaches, he still works closely with the new women’s coach John Maneniti and has also been appointed to the Taskforce.

“It’s about having a competitive advantage,” Walsh said.

“Everyone’s got talented athletes and science and data and what not, but the mental side of it and the technical skills and just the ability to get the best out of people is a real point of difference that this is trying to achieve.”

Putting their money where their mouth is, the AIS has already invested $13.2 million in coaching pathway programs as well as developing a 24-week e-learning course with La Trobe University.

But chief executive Peter Conde said much more needs to be done, so he’s already recruiting for a manager to drive the development of national high-performance coaches.

“The world’s best coaches are no longer just masters of technique and tactics, they need to be experts in managing people and professional networks. They need to set a performance culture, while balancing athlete wellbeing. They are on the frontline when it comes to protecting the integrity of sport,” he said.

“Australia has had, and still has, incredible coaches, but we need to build on that with a cohesive national approach so we can expand our coaching pipeline at all levels.”

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NRL LEGENDS’ KIDS GO HEAD TO HEAD IN THE POOL

Blocker’s boy against Daryl’s daughter.

It sounds just like a UFC promotion in Las Vegas but it’s actually one of the mouth-watering match-ups taking place in Australian water polo on Saturday.

Unable to practice against foreign teams because of the international travel restrictions, Water Polo Australia have organised their own tournament to help prepare their men’s and women’s teams for next year’s rescheduled Tokyo Olympics.

Split into four mixed teams, Australia’s best players will compete in a T20 beach polo competition at the Cabarita Swimming Centre in Concord before rejoining their training comps for the long road to Tokyo – and there’s a big NRL connection.

AJ Roach and Bronte Halligan

Blocker’s Boy is AJ Roach, a long-time member of the Australian men’s team – whose dad just happens to be rugby league legend Steve Roach.

Daryl’s daughter is Bronte Halligan, one of the stars of the Australian women’s squad. Her father is Daryl Halligan, the former NRL leading pointscorer.

AJ and Bronte have been named as two of the four captains for the KAP7 Clash of the Champions tournament, along with Joel Dennerleyand Keesja Gofers.

“I think the girls will be keen to show they‘re just as strong and fit as the boys and the boys won’t want to let the girls get one up on us – it will be a lot of fun,” AJ Roach said.

Stranded on land for months, Bronte Halligan said it was just nice to compete again after Tokyo was postponed for 12 months.

“We haven’t played competitive water polo due to COVID-19 for a while,” she said.

“While this is a bit of fun, we are all elite athletes so you can expect us to all be super competitive.”