As we come to an end of the Southern Hemisphere rugby season with the Autumn internationals concluding this weekend, a number of coaches have reached out and discussed the transition and transformation in the Wallabies’ senior side team culture, showing plenty of pride in being part of the group. From us outsiders looking in, how has this been developed? What has changed; solely the re-introduction of former exiled players, post COVID era so genuine gratitude to be able to play again on a global scale or something more? Coming back to the opening idea, what does the village look like in HP sport or individuals such as the Wallabies environment?

Last week, I was fortunate to be part fortunate to be part of Sport and Mental Health forum as part of Australia wide Mental Health month. In line with the National Mental Health Month's theme this year on 'Mental Health: Post Pandemic Recovery Challenges and Resilience', the Mental Health Foundation Australia has planned a Sport and Mental Health Forum. The forum focused on crucial periods for managing mental wellbeing in sport, including aspiring to transition into elite sport, dealing with external pressures, transitioning out of the activity and the limelight and building understanding for coaches and parents. One of the side topics discussed was the mental wellbeing of coaches, a somewhat overlooked subject in many sports. While even my research addresses and focuses on the motivations and engagement of athletes, an area of increasing awareness and concern is the wellbeing of coaches, looking at causation of burnout or mental fatigue from being involved in HP sport. This article addresses are we as coaches being offered or offering psychologically safe environments where we can express ourselves, show emotional awareness to see and display skills such as humility and gratitude while having the support and freedom to grow and develop?

With the AFL Grand Final completed over the weekend, attention now shifts to the NRL Grand Final. For two of the great coaches of the game, one shall be chasing a record breaking NRL Premiership with three different clubs and one shall be wondering what went wrong, missing out this year after being part of 9 of the last 14 Grand Finals. Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy, having coached nearly 1400 top flight games between them and with 34 years and 18 years experience coaching high performance teams respectively, what’s their points of commonality and what sets them apart from other coaches in the NRL? With ten premierships and counting between them, how do the one-time master and his former apprentice still continue to be trailblazers in their sport after many years? On the build up to NRL Preliminary and Grand Finals, there is plenty of technical and tactical analysis yet it’s been some reports off the field which have grabbed my attention around the how and why they maintain player motivation and focus.

Team environments offer layered complexities, having potentially multiple coaches, players and socially dynamic groups within so let’s explore how leadership strategies and roles of individuals and the team inside these groups affects cohesion and performance. Good teams recognised to have good leaders have strong social connectedness, which goes hand in hand with task leadership, as displays higher level of collective efficacy (Fransen, 2015). The quality of social support received is critical to group success and player satisfaction; while important to receive social support from coach-athlete relationship, the increased pressure to ensure the player does not let down their parts within the relationship can lower autonomy and intrinsic motivation through perceived controlling behaviours. What different styles affect the social dynamics of the group as well as team cohesion and success? What ways have been used to develop young leaders (or leaders of all ages)? Understanding these, let’s try and understand how does leadership and coaching influence each other?

As highlighted by athletes such as Biles, Osaka and Keary over the past few months, prioritising their mental well being over measures of success or performance based outcomes takes a lot of support from their support network both within and outside their sport yet asking the difficult questions amongst coaches reading this; how can we identify and support athletes going through these tough periods? What factors or coaching methodologies can assist positive developmental experiences? How can our coaching connection and communication engage and interact to understand and support any difficult or overwhelming experiences?