AFLW star Katie Brennan is more than a footballer, she’s empowering others to achieve their goals
When AFLW star Katie Brennan was 14 years old she ran 6km every morning and by 15, she had big dreams. The Richmond recruit is living her dream now but playing footy is just one part of it as she reveals her second love, off the field, is just as important.
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When AFLW star Katie Brennan was 14, she ran 6km every morning, and by 15, her to-do list was seemingly just as long.
Brennan sat in her family’s home in Luscombe, a small town in Queensland, and mapped out what she hoped her future would look like.
“I wrote down that I wanted to buy a new car at 17, I wanted to finish my university degree,
I wanted to open a gym and have my own business, and I wanted to make All-Australian for football where we used to play at the national carnivals,” Brennan says.
The star forward and midfielder, now 26, recalls that list while sitting in the Coburg gym she owns, kb.performance, after making that dream a reality at 23.
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“It was a really amazing process to be able to tick all those things off,” Brennan says.
“Some of those things took me four years, and it took me nearly 10 years to open the gym after I planted that seed.
“I think one of the most powerful things that you can do, or you can empower someone to do,
is to write down what they want to achieve.
“Even now, I have a list of things on the back of my door of what I want to achieve.
“When you write it down, you’re putting it out into the universe. You wake up channelling your energy and you know exactly what it is you need to do today to be a step closer to what
you want to achieve, and then you get to start ticking off the processes.
“That’s been a really powerful thing in my life.”
kb.performance is flourishing in its third year as it brings together Brennan’s skills in football and business.
Her dog, a vizsla named Harper, runs frantically after a tennis ball her owner throws across the gym. Harper’s presence symbolises the culture Brennan has worked hard to establish — a welcoming place that prides itself on being an inclusive, supportive and positive environment for women and young girls.
It’s there that Brennan aims to change and impact the lives of others, including with her
Little Dreamers classes teaching girls as young as 10 the benefits of strength training to maximise mental and physical health.
“Our pillars are so important to us and really drive the culture we’ve built,” Brennan says. “We want to empower and inspire and educate.
“It’s the next generation of footballers coming through for our AFLW Academy program and our Female Athlete Academy, but it’s everyday women as well. We find we have a great balance now between our athletes, and we call them our everyday athletes, and I think it’s a great thing that they all get to train together and interact.”
Brennan’s clients are screened by physiotherapists and podiatrists at her gym’s clinical partner Upwell Health Collective to provide strength and conditioning and high-performance coaches with critical information to develop personal programs.
“We empower them to dream big, educate them on exactly what they need to do to achieve it and inspire them along the way,” she says.
Clearly, Brennan isn’t your typical footballer. On the field she leads by her actions, and her skill and courage to play a physically demanding sport at the top level commands attention.
But off the field and in the gym, she uses care, understanding and passion to inspire others to reach their potential.
“I’m very fortunate that I’ve found two things that I love to do,” Brennan says. “I love to play footy but there’s an aspect of this (owning and running the gym) that probably gives you the love on par with playing football because you get to impact people more directly than you do when you’re playing footy.”
AFLW star and business owner is an impressive resume for someone so young.
Brennan never had anyone she aspired to be, having grown up “like a dinosaur” without social media. But her dad Terry, a successful businessman who has designed commercial kitchens for 30 years, has been a source of inspiration, encouragement and support.
When Brennan discusses him, she speaks with pride and enthusiasm.
“I saw his work ethic, I saw the way that he operated owning his own business and how successful he was starting from a young age,” she says. “I think that really inspired me because I saw how hard he worked and although at the time I probably didn’t understand what he was doing or the business itself, I think it taught me a lot of lessons.
“He’s done some incredible projects, like at (Royal) Ascot racecourse, Wembley and a lot of stadiums in Australia, and now I think back to all of the milestones he has achieved throughout his time, it makes me so proud.
“One of the things that Dad drummed into me from a young age, and then that I learnt myself, is that hard work will take you anywhere, so no matter how big the challenge is, or how hard the obstacle ahead of you may seem, if you just work hard there
is always a way around it.”
Now, Brennan also finds inspiration from another source — her partner Olivia, who co-owns property development companies Armitage Jones and Dynamic Property Group.
“I’ve always admired Olivia and the way she goes about her businesses,” Brennan says. “Her and her business partner Sonya are working on some incredible projects and they continue to break down barriers in a largely male-dominated industry.
“That inspires me, but also the person she is inspires me. She’s a beautiful soul.”
But finding inspiration in others can only take you so far. The fuse that drives Brennan’s determination to be successful in her own right was lit long ago.
“From a young age, I learnt to be quite independent and I learnt some really amazing lessons that hard work takes you to beautiful places,” she says.
“I think it even goes back to when I was 14 years old when I used to just run our road — we lived out in the country and so it was this windy road and I used to run about 6km every single morning. It was my release and I was so determined.
“Just seeing that my dad was thriving in business, my sister playing state-league netball and my brother an aspiring musician, being the youngest and being so close to them all, you really see what it takes to succeed. I knew I had to mirror their actions to hold my own.”
A gun forward-midfielder and former Western Bulldogs captain, Brennan signed AFLW’s first two-year contract in April and will play for Richmond in its debut season next year.
On the field, she’s a dynamic physical presence with a perfect blend of skill and athleticism. Off the field, she’s a humble and sincere person who hasn’t let her footy fame impact her character or values.
She aims to be a positive influence and role model on those she meets and a beacon to inspire health and wellbeing in others.
“Empowerment for me is being able to get someone else to believe in themselves,” she says. “It’s giving someone strength and courage to pursue whatever it is they wish to do, whether it’s physically or mentally or in everyday life.
“If I empower a young girl, she looks up at me and she thinks I can do anything that she’s doing and beyond, and I think that’s really powerful.
“You can learn something from everyone.
“I’ve always been a student of life. I love reading books, I love listening to podcasts and I think that’s where I gain a lot of my life lessons from.”
Physical education and health were Brennan’s favourite subjects at school and she and older brother Paul enjoyed the great outdoors that the country offered.
“My brother and I used to pack our lunches and take the football down the paddock and have an Esky with all of our water, our cordial and our lunch and we’d literally play in the paddock all day,” she says. “That was where not only the football dream (started), but it was also just being active and being healthy.”
Brennan studied exercise and sport science at the University of Queensland before transferring to the Australian Catholic University when she moved to Melbourne to take her football to the next level as a 20-year-old in 2013.
Once she finished her degree, while juggling a job as an accountant’s assistant, Brennan could barely wait to make her dream a reality.
“I would ride my bike in (to work), I would wait for as long as I could before getting changed out of my activewear — I’d be sitting at my desk having breakfast in my Lycra and my bike shoes and the boss would be like, ‘C’mon KB, it’s time to get changed’,” Brennan says, laughing.
“So I’d get in my (work) gear, then I’d get out of my gear and go and train at lunch for an hour — I’m like the worst nightmare an accountant’s assistant — then I’d come back and have a shower and get changed back into my work clothes, and then I’d ride my bike to football training or home. I was just going crazy sitting at a desk. I knew it wasn’t for me.”
For this big dreamer, you get the feeling this is only the beginning, that Brennan’s impact as an empowering, positive role model has many more places and people to reach.
“I don’t find it’s overwhelming, I find that you’re just grateful for the opportunity and the privilege to be able to directly and indirectly influence people,” she says. “I think when you’re authentic and you live your values and you live what you preach, then there’s no pressure to be felt because you’re just being you.
“So if you’re just being yourself and you’re living the way you want to live and doing the things that make you happy, then you’ll inspire other people to do the same.
“I learnt that lesson early, that football can’t be everything because if you get injured, it’s kind of like your identity gets stripped away from you, so we’re in a really unique position as female athletes that we can do what we love outside of football and set ourselves up for the future.
“You’ve got to get the balance right with the time we have, and it’s a constant experiment, but creating this space has been one of the best things I’ve ever done and I can’t wait to see what it will be in years to come.
“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt is that nothing comes easy, you’ve got to work for it.
“But one step before that is you’ve got to dream big with no fear.”
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