Brad Cooper currently serves as the assistant coach for the Taranaki Bulls, who secured victory in the NPC in 2023. Additionally, he has recently been appointed as the coach for the New Zealand U20 Men's rugby team and is also the Coach Develop...

Meet Mike Hester, the Participation Development Manager at New Zealand Rugby, tasked with the pivotal role of evolving the game to sustain interest and involvement in rugby. Balancing the weight of tradition with the evolving needs of today's y...

This yarn with Sean Graham is a great listen for leaders in the youth sports arena seeking innovative strategies to captivate and involve young athletes in the world of sports. Sean is Director of Rugby at St Joseph’s Nudgee College in Queensla...

Ray Everest served as the Weightlifting coach for New Zealand at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, transitioning into the sport after falling into it while living in Doha. A former school teacher turned principal at the age of 26, Ray and his wife C...

Kane Jury serves as the Talent Development Manager at the Highlanders Super Rugby franchise, where he is responsible for overseeing talent identification, recruitment, and the development of the academy program. Additionally, he recently comple...

Pablo is the Mental Skills and Skills Coach for the Yacare XV who play in the Super Rugby Americas League. He also coaches the Paraguay Women's 7's team on their quest to make the HSBC World Series. We have connected over the past ...

Russell (Rusty) Earnshaw is a world leader in the coaching / coach development space. He is a former professional rugby player, representing many clubs and teams including Bath and England 7's. He later went on to coach the England 7's, England...

Michael Magriplis (affectionally known as Grips) is Head of Community Coaching at Rugby Australia. He oversees the direction of coaching in Australia in collaboration with the 8 Members Unions. He is on a mission where all players get a...

Charissa Barham (affectionally known as Reecy) has approximately 30 years coaching experience across many levels, including the New Zealand Secondary Schools Netball team. She is deeply passionate about youth sport and enabling youth / player v...

Nigel Hotham has been the mastermind behind Hamilton Boys High School Rugby, Touch and 7s programmes for the past 20 years. There is not likely a school or coach in the country (maybe the world) who has tasted as much success as in the Secondar...

Victoria Grant has just recently been named Head Coach of the Hurricanes Poua for the upcoming Super Rugby Aupiki 2023. She has also coached the New Zealand Mens Under 20s, NZ Black Ferns 7s Development, NZ U18 Girls 7s, Bay of Plenty Women's 7...

Jesse Rawlings is head of the Pre-Academy with the Wellington Phoenix Football Club (New Zealand’s sole professional Football Club). He brings a fresh approach to how Youth Academies run, where he keeps the players journey as the focus, rather ...

Leigh Gibbs is an absolute legend in Netball and New Zealand sporting circles. She played 61 tests for the Silver Ferns (NZ National team), including captaining the team to win the 1987 World Champs. She then coached the Silver Ferns as both a ...

Dave Dillon is the newly appointed coach for the Highlanders rugby team. He has also coached others professional teams including Kobelco Steelers (Japan) & Bay of Plenty Steamers, led player development at the Chiefs. Dave has a background ...

Mark is the current Video Analyst for Waikato Rugby. He has also been the analyst for the Fijian Drua, Chiefs, Canada National team and Bay of Plenty Steamers. As well as his analysis role, he is an assistant coach with the Waikato Men's Rugby ...

It was great yarning with the energetic, charismatic, legend of the South Jimmy Sinclair. Jimmy has made a huge impact in coach development where he worked for Canterbury Rugby, done consultancy work for New Zealand Rugby (including being the f...

Simone works at Aktive in the role of 'Sports Manager,' where she works with and consults sporting organisations within the wider Auckland area. She also consults with Sport NZ on the Good Sports National Parents Project. We yarned about Good S...

Zane Winslade is a Mental Skills Coach and founder of Flow Sport. We chatted to Zane about 'Coaching Confidence.' This is a topic many coaches get in touch about. You know..."In my team, some kids are really confident, where other kids ...

Dave is Coach Development Manager for New Zealand Cricket. He has also worked for Volleyball NZ, Harbour Sport as well as being a Director of Sport at a Secondary School in Ireland. He also has his own business, Coaching Unleashed where he faci...

Jay is National Coach for Golf NZ. He is also the host of Coaching Performance Podcast, so it was nice to get him on the other side of the microphone.  We touc...

Sam McKenzie currently works for AFL in the coach development space. Formally he worked in coach development with Auckland Rugby where he completed research based around the 1A 1st XV competition. His research is titled: Secondary schoo...