Former Diamonds mentor Lisa Alexander opens up on brutal realities of coaching

Long-serving Australian netball coach Lisa Alexander knows all about the challenges beyond the final whistle.

If you think it’s tough being a male coach losing your job and your mojo, try being a woman on one-fifth of the wage.

Lisa Alexander, the former Australian netball coach who led the Diamonds to 83 wins from 102 Tests between 2011-2020, knows all about the challenges beyond the final whistle following her split from the role 10 months before the end of her contract.

She admits she had “a breakdown” after leaving her job. “There were a lot of challenges,” Alexander says from London, where she is high performance head of the London Pulse.

“People forget that women coaches get the double dose because they are not being paid as well as the men and I didn’t even know whether they (Netball Australia) had the money to pay me so there was financial stress as well. The 24-7 responsibility is the same as (ex-Australian cricket coach) Justin Langer, but he was being paid a lot more.”

Lisa Alexander knows all about the challenges beyond the final whistle. Picture: Eugene Hyland

While Langer was reported to have been paid about $800,000 a year, Alexander’s contract was $150,000.

“After the Australian job I had a breakdown. Not that anyone would know but I did. I had vertigo and a few bits and pieces. Anxiety and other issues. But I don’t want to say woe is me because I did not go to hospital or see anyone,” she says.

“I got through it with the help of my husband and family and the community who were quite beautiful. It could not have been much fun being my husband.”

Alexander and her husband Malcolm had just moved to the small town of Avoca in Victoria’s Southern Highlands and her stress levels soared as Covid shut them off from their community as well as the wider world.

Alexander had a decorated career as Diamonds coach but, much like the New Zealand All Blacks, her team was so good that their losses were occasionally bigger news than their victories – with the 52-51 loss to England in the 2018 Commonwealth Games final on the Gold Coast still a painful memory.

Lisa Alexander admits she had “a breakdown” after leaving her job.

“It’s not life and death – it’s sport – but it doesn’t mean you don’t feel it and that pain is still there today,” she says.

“I sat with my performance analyst after the girls had left and we were both in tears. Were just devastated. We worked very closely together as a team on the strategies and tactics in the team and we missed something along the way. We were five goals up with five minutes to go in the game. It’s a very emotional recollection.”

In 2015, after Adelaide Crows coach Phil Walsh was stabbed to death by his son, the AFL asked Alexander to speak to their coaches and her message was about life balance. “I did a speech about looking after yourself. They have to be less obsessive. Prioritise your big rocks – your family and yourself – and realise you cannot be a good leader if you are a workaholic. It can’t just be all football.”