How Manly Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold and CommBank CEO Matt Comyn help each other do their jobs

Sitting in the coach’s box with Anthony Seibold as the Sea Eagles blitzed the Roosters on Sunday was the boss of Australia’s largest company, CommBank’s Matt Comyn. Find out how they help each other do cutthroat jobs.

Matt Comyn and Anthony Seibold have become friends – with intellectual benefits.

The boss of Australia’s largest company, CommBank, and the Manly Sea Eagles coach have struck up a brain-based bromance since being introduced by a mental skills and leadership guru, Sydney’s Andrew May, who works with both men.

Comyn met Seibold while observing a “mind gym” session May ran for Manly in December, which included Sea Eagles players having the chance to ask questions of another client, boxer Tim Tszyu.

Seibold then visited Comyn at CBA’s Darling Harbour HQ in late January. The two had so much to talk about they ran out of time.

In a text exchange later that day, Seibold asked Comyn if he wanted to join him in the coach’s box during a game.

Mental skills coach Andrew May, boxer Tim Tszyu, CBA CEO Matt Comyn and Manly Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold.

Comyn said yes – “it was too good an opportunity to pass up” – and was there for last Sunday’s victory over the Roosters at Brookvale Oval.

Comyn said he knew rugby league was fast when compared to other forms of football he’d observed live such as NFL, “but it’s an even faster game from the coach’s box.”

He was also shocked by how little time Seibold had to deliver key messages at halftime.

“It goes very quickly,” he said.

Communicating effectively to get the best out of people in such situations is one of the things the pair had been discussing.

Seibold, who has a Masters in Education, employs “science of retrieval” techniques he learned while defence coach for the England rugby union team in sessions with US teaching consultant Doug Lemov.

There can only be two or three messages for players, not 10. And they aren’t new things.

It’s a reiteration of words that had been delivered multiple times at specific points in the lead-up to kick-off.

Seibold said he was interested in how Comyn looks after his own wellbeing in a public, high-pressure role, including strategies for being your best every day.

To that end, he said Comyn recently shared with him an episode of the world’s number-one health podcast. The episode was the “Science of Mindsets for Health and Performance” from the Huberman Lab.

“We want to keep that connection going forward,” Seibold said.

May said he’d had a “feeling there would be a good connection” between the two because of personality similarities.

Both are highly competitive, results-driven, super curious and students of their craft.

But the most important thing they have in common, May said, was “Olympic-level work ethics.”

Another reason he brought Comyn and Seibold together was that it can be “lonely at the top”.

Comyn (pink shirt) in Manly’s change rooms after their win over the Roosters. Picture: Manly’s Facebook page

“It can be quite hard for them to know who they can trust and share with,” said May, who also mentors the NSW Waratahs rugby side and has previously helped the Australian men’s cricket team and Parramatta Eels.

Comyn was a union fan growing up, but said he had converted to league over the past six or seven years.

As a resident of the eastern suburbs, he said the Roosters were the natural choice to be his team.

But his heart – and mind – have now been captured by the pride of the northern beaches.

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Originally published as How Manly Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold and CommBank CEO Matt Comyn help each other do their jobs