Briony Akle Edit
Fri, 8/6 6:45AM • 34:47
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coaching, netball, great, sport, athlete, people, team, playing, bit, players, important, swift, maddie, girls, words, environment, scoreboard, giving, question, learning
SPEAKERS
Paul Barnett, Briony Akle
Paul Barnett 00:00
Good morning Briony arkell and welcome to the Great coach's podcast. How are you today?
Briony Akle 00:05
I'm great. Thank you. Yeah, it's a bit of a Dell Sydney day here today. So yeah, it's great talking to you. So you're in Sydney and what have you been up to so far today? some goals and fun stuff like that for the Swiss for next year, I've done a bit of housework of cleaning, probably more housework than my actual job. But that's okay.
Paul Barnett 00:29
Well, we're happy to take a little bit of your time away from the housework and to talk about all things netball and coaching. Jim and I have daughters and we are both looking forward to coaching netball one day ourselves. So very much looking forward to this discussion. And if I could, I'd like to start by taking you back a little bit. Brian, you've had some firsthand experiences some great coaches, Lisa Alexander, Julie Fitzgerald, and of course train Robinson through your work with the Sydney roosters. I'd like to start by asking what is it you think the great coaches do differently?
Briony Akle 01:02
It's a great question and one that I think I search for sort of an answer all the time. It's been fantastic in my coaching career to be able to have access to people like Julie, who obviously was my coach when I play for the Swift. So I've had that relationship with her for a long time. But being around someone like Trent Robinson, who is a bit of a different coach, he's really knowledgeable in terms of worldly stuff, not just sport. And I love that he sort of brings in, you know, the history of war back into sports and relate things like that sort of crazy concept, that you wouldn't think he would relate to the roosters. But he does. But those sort of coaches I think, have taught me that it's not just about coaching an athlete per se, on the field or on a netball court. But more to the point of being a holistic coach, which to me probably means knowing the athlete inside and out not just on the court. So what's important to them, what makes them tick, what drives them, why they even want to play netball, like finding out those sorts of things. So I think once you know how an athlete teach, you can definitely get the best out of them. And being around different coaches and their different styles, you sort of learn to take bits of those great learnings and put them into your own coaching. So I think great coaches probably embrace difference in their environment. And I probably quickly learnt when I started coaching at the Swift's that, I probably had a really great focus on getting to know my goals in my environment, every netballer can probably have the same skill set. But for me, it's probably digging a bit deeper asking lots of questions and know about how did they grow up? How were they discipline when they were younger? Do they have siblings if they you know, all those sort of things that you don't think really relates to anything that I do on a netball court. But it's absolutely bought my team together in terms of if someone's not perfect, why aren't they perfect? Well, I know their background and what's been important to them. And yeah, I think embracing different specially high performance sport like ours, where I've got different people from different nationalities, different countries, different states. And I think great coaches learn to work with those differences and really work them into into your training sessions into your off quarters, the team.[PB1] So really important to get to know your people inside and out what makes them tick. And a great coaches surround themselves with really good people. And I don't mean just the players, but I have a really great we call them a performance team. So that's obviously my assistant coach, our strength conditioner, our sports, psych. And I really believe that you have to embrace those strengths and not think that you've got the answers as head coach that you can run every single part of that, so I don't micromanage I very much let them do their thing, and embrace them to have the confidence to be able to, you know, instill what we need into the sweeps environment.
Paul Barnett 03:46
In preparation for today. I was reading a lot about you. And you know, the article, say, credited with creating a family like mentality in the locker room and all these kind of great statements. And then I watch a video on Facebook. When you're in the hub up in Queensland, and you've got the tape in your lounge room, there's a dinner party, the team sing happy birthday to your son. So I could see the words actually coming through. But when you talk about being close to the players, understanding them and creating this family like environment, but isn't there a danger that you can get too close to the players? How do you balance being close to them, but also being able to stand back and hold the line and be disciplined and make the tough calls?
Briony Akle 04:24
It is a really good question. It's probably one of the most popular questions that get asked to me, but I think it's it absolutely depends on the group that you have in front of you. And the group that I have at the Swifts, as I said, come from the other side of the world. They come from the other side of Australia. So most of these athletes don't have parents around them. They don't have their family units around. So when I took this role, it was probably my husband is part of the reason why this works as well might sound a bit weird, but we joke around with the team that I'll say would you like to come for dinner and their response to me as well? Are you cooking? And I'll be like, Well, no. And they're like, Well, sorry, my husband is cooking, they're like, we'll be there in a flash. So it's sort of this team effort, they come over for dinner, because obviously they don't have their parents to cook for them. So any free meal, they come along to my house, I think for them having a sense of family and a sense of normality, because most of them live together, they train together. And just coming into a normal household with four crazy kids and getting a home cooked meal has really put us in a good stead in terms of their connection. And an example of that was in finals last week, last semi final, and my time for family do we have in they came over? Did it on a Thursday night, we put on the side for us as a unit knowing that we've connected Yeah, we've done all the stuff off the court. But that connection is really important. And it sort of hops back to the factor. How will I know them? Good question about when you know, I think I've been described as a mama bear that has her cubs around and knows when to scold them or say, get back into line. So my team very much know when I put that mother voice on that not happy or the outcome needs to be a little bit different. So very much like parenting and sort of setting boundaries. And they know when it's time to work hard. And we also play hard. So yeah, I think it's just knowing each other them having the respect for me, and I've got the respect for them.
Paul Barnett 06:19
I've read articles where you've said you always wanted to be a coach, what do you like most about it?
Briony Akle 06:24
Oh, there's lots I think what I love is interacting with these really intelligent, great athletes that challenge me just as much as I challenge them. I think having a problem and trying to solve it in terms of an opposition. And when something comes off a new game plan works or just one little piece of instruction to the athlete works. And they implement that and success comes from I think that's what drives me every day to be a coach[PB2] . I'm a people person, I love people. And I definitely always coaches and even when I was 1415. So although I played at a high level, I wasn't the best player, but I always put out strategize in my mind against an opposition and think those little victories and that competitiveness in me definitely drove me to keep coaching while whilst I played and pursue the coaching role,
Paul Barnett 07:09
I would probably just challenge you on not being the best play, he did play in a championship team in the National League. That's a pretty good outcome, Ronnie, but if you wanted to ask, but anyway, was there a person or event I mean, you said you were coaching as a teenager was there any person or sort of gave you the courage to step up and be a coach, first time,
Briony Akle 07:31
the first time I coached I coached with my best friend Bonnie. And we both sort of thought it would be great fun to take a team of 10 year olds and implement what we knew to them and have some fun. So I'll probably just stem from the fact that it was a challenge for my best friend and it sort of coached younger kids and was quite surprised people that we were going back and giving back to the sport. So I think same thing, just watching them grow as little people and get better each week. And whilst having fun with my best friend was the ultimate. So I think there wasn't probably a specific moment. But I think that definitely coaching with a friend and seeing how much fun you could have with a bunch of great girls was Yeah, what's probably what set me on that vision for coaching,
Paul Barnett 08:11
Laura guides was for those that don't know, is one of the great captains of these of Australian netball team. And she said of you, she's so calm, and I like the way she empowers her players. How would you describe your coaching style to someone who's meeting you for the first time?
Briony Akle 08:27
That's another good question. coaching style. I think sometimes I look really calm, but I'm probably like a duck underwater just trying to survive at the moment. But I think for me, my coaching style is probably creating an environment where the athlete has just as much say as what I'm trying to help them with. I learned pretty quick that if you didn't listen, you must listen a lot when you're coaching, not just sort of thinking you're the one with the directive and the answers and I think my philosophies as I gain their feedback and their buy in by asking lots of questions around Do you think this is going to work against this player? Or what's the best strategy that we can both go in with because there is nothing worse than coaching someone that they do all the right things and they nod their head like they understand everything, but it doesn't follow through on to the court. So definitely listening, gaining their trust by actually implementing if it doesn't work, who cares? At the end of the day, it's a game and we always say that we just how amazing we get to turn up every day and throw a little white ball around. So I think for me, the atmosphere has got to be good. You got to play for that little girl that you started playing for when you were eight years old.[PB3] And that's really important in my philosophy that everything we do at the end of the day, we've got to enjoy it because we're there for hours we're probably with each other more than with our own families at times. So yeah, I think setting boundaries and knowing when the right time is to you know get stuck into them is the key because I don't think anyone especially at our level, you know if you've stuffed up you know if you've done something wrong, you don't necessarily need a finger pointed at you and basically scolded so yeah, just creating a really great positive environment to learn[PB4]
Paul Barnett 10:01
Premiership player coach from a very young age. And then you work your way along coaching under age teams and progressing and moving forward with the career. And then in 2018, you take over the Swift's, and in that first season, they finished sixth. But the following year, you win the Premiership. And so I wanted to ask you, what were some of the first things you did when you took over that fuel that result,
Briony Akle 10:25
I think, I wasn't sure if I was ready to coach at that level. But I knew what had to be done to win. And obviously, having played winning those two premierships I knew what a twist walked in, I have a choice about how to listen a lot, and not necessarily just come in and change the world because the Swiss have a great winning legacy. And I knew there were a young team. And I had to set a very clear vision of what it looks like for this team and a part of how to get there. So having clear direction and having small goals along the way that we would basically off the back of coming six. What did that mean for us? And I think we were really happy coming six in that first year, because I think we'd want to double the amount of games than they had the year before. So we'd set that little milestone, oh, we've just missed out on the finals. But we had to redefine what good look like in our environment. And what we wanted to turn up like every day. And I'd say to them, I put them in after a training session or just in the middle of one drill. So I'd say so does that look like a championship team? Is that how a championship team trains. So it could have been good, it could have looked great To the untrained eye, but the morning excellent all the time with this team and drilling into them that even though a young while we going to listen to that rhetoric of people telling us that you probably won't win a Premiership for another two or three years. So when I came in, I was like, no change to your language and the language that you use every day that filters down the line into the playing group, we lived positive energy and positive words. So I think one of the mantras or why can't we do it this year? What Why can't it be asked in 2019? Standing on that podium? What are we waiting for? So I gave them that confidence, even just to individual players to say, Why can't you be the world's best shooter? What's stopping you, and you can sort of see her body language just grow in terms of well, no one's ever asked me. So just questioning players around their own ability and me giving them the confidence to sort of let's go do this. Let's chase it this year, wait two years[PB5] , I couldn't get that mentality of judgment from others. And then listening to that, and then playing like that. I think another good thing would within this playing group was sort of learning how to have hard conversations. And I think that was a big thing for us moving forward of if I tell you something, don't take it. Personally, we're a netball team that needs the same common drive in the same goal. So we had a lot of role plays, and just having hard conversations around someone saying something to your netball court was possible. Like that could be the most simple thing that I think people at this level who a lot of them have high egos and high expectations. So we've sort of changed the language and really tried to sort of say, Well, if I'm giving you feedback, it's probably harder for me to give it then for you to receive it. So for us, it was I think that changed our world in this way. Can and that no conversation was hard. It was just a conversation. And we just wanted to be better than we were yesterday[PB6] . So yeah, I think it's really important that you have a vision for your team or your whoever you lead and back that with a really good How to, I think a lot of people just wish for things to happen. But I had to give them those skills and instill that confidence in them that I knew that they could be world's best and I knew that we could win the suncorp Super netball So yeah, I think it was definitely just a change in mentality a change in language, even how we started training, how the champions stand? Do they stand with their shoulders high? Do they get over if you make a mistake, how quickly you get over that, and move on and not dwell in those situations. So all really good, coachable moments, and giving feedback in the moment, I think really helped this playing group to achieve that championship that year.[PB7]
Paul Barnett 14:02
Brian, one of the things that comes through in all of these conversations is that league teams have elite ways of giving and receiving feedback. It just seems to be a habit or a routine that they've embedded in into their team. Can I just ask you a little bit more about those role plays that you talked about? And could you just maybe just give us an example of how they played out because I think it's actually a really strong idea.
Briony Akle 14:25
We have a terrific guy that sort of helps us with our culture and sort of His name's Andrew and he started these role plays and putting us in uncomfortable positions. So other mantra was being comfortable in the uncomfortable, which you hear lots of coaches talk about, but we had one player that definitely thought she could never speak in front of people. So each of the girls, I was taking a step back, everyone had a topic that he had to talk for four minutes, I think it was which is a long time. And the whole idea was that I would get up if it was me. I would get up and speak and the girls couldn't start with Oh, you're amazing. That was the best speech and only give positives. So they actually had to say thank you for giving that speech. I found it a tad boring in parts. But I think you could do this to improve it. And you couldn't say because our girls are people pleasers, they love being liked. So those sort of conversations were really hard. But the more each we had 10, or 12, girls do it. By the 12th. They were ruthless. And it became easy that we knew the feedback was coming from a place of love and not fear and anger. And you're only trying to say this to me, because you don't like me or everyone walked away as friends. But the second part to that one of our players, Sarah, who hates public speaking, started off great. She probably spoke for a minute and then just decided that what she was saying is probably boring to everyone, and she just stopped. So our team would normally step in with laughter or try and save her this time, they weren't allowed to do that. They just had to sit in silence and let her decide if she continue. So I reckon it probably took 17 minutes to do like a four minute speech. But we didn't save her. So we still gave her the gave her the feedback. And hers was a bit different because I thought we felt quite emotional that she stood up and finished the speech because she was so petrified of public speaking. But we kept doing those sort of role plays and giving feedback when it's really uncomfortable and learning that as I said, it's much harder for me to give you feedback then for you to hear it. So yeah, constant little things like that, that I think definitely have helped us.
Paul Barnett 16:33
I read an article in the press that said respect accountability, love and freedom underpinned successful suncorp Super nipple campaign for the Swift's in 2019. So I'd like to firstly ask whether these were, in fact, the team values. And if they were, if you could talk to me a little bit more about love and freedom.
Briony Akle 16:51
Yeah, you've done your homework. Wow, they're not exactly our values. I think when I came in as well, sort of when you walk into someone's business, and you see their mission statement, and I had to sort of write that stuff and go blah, blah, blah, because you probably don't know it, and you've probably never read it again. So our team wanted to come up with values or words that meant really meant something personal to us. So we have one of our words is honest, me, honest, me goes back to having those hard conversations that goes with made that word up, by the way. So whenever we have high conversations, it's about performance, and about being accountable for your actions. So when we're having these discussions every day, we live that word, we speak that language every day, and I might start a really high conversation going. All in the theme of honest me, we're going to have these chat today. And that already sort of breaks down a barrier, have a hard conversation. And the girls love it. Because they use it with each other. We probably joke about it sometimes. But having that sort of word. Another word is being grateful for the journey that we're on together and playing as I said before, I feel for the 10 year old self and if you're not doing that you're not enjoying that. And I think people that comes across when you're doing any job right? You can tell if you go the shop and people hate their job and they don't say hello and customer service is terrible. So sandpit, another one is flood, which is refers to emotion and listening and having respect. And flood means tears, it means happiness, whatever interpretation you want from the word floods, so, but more dealing with emotions and respecting each other's emotions and living in that environment. 24 seven, especially under pressure, I don't think many jobs are out there to be scrutinized every time you play. And there's a review of how everyone played. So yeah, so honestly, flat and sandpit are out our words in Swift's the love and freedom that come from that feedback. And that everything we do, and in every challenge that we have, or hard situation is my could say, well, in terms of practicing, or just there's things like that, it's basically everything is coming from a good place in our team, whether it's from the athlete to athlete, the coaching staff, to the athletes, and vice versa. It's having that respect that I'm saying this for the good of our team and for you, and it's not coming from a bad place. I'm not trying to trick you, I'm not trying to bully you or anything, any of those negative words that sort of come along with that certain situations so that the team speaks that language to which I love that they will, if they're doing an interview, I quite often hear the players so to say that we've embraced this commentary around communicating with each other, to be yourself and that you're unique and think we have a team, at least half my team a perfectionist. So that's pretty hard. And I swear I've just tried, I've been trying to get rid of that mantra around perfectionism. And that because perfection doesn't really it doesn't exist really. That's in my opinion, you work towards being great, but if you driving for that perfectionism, what comes out of it what constitutes a great game for a player or there's my feedback and if you've got players that are always striving what wasn't good enough, you aren't good[PB8] . As a person, so value you first we say that a lot of the Swifts and I will say is you are enough, just those words. So I think it's really important when you get a team together that have probably been the best in their sport all the way along the pathway. They're the best at school, lots of the markers, they strive to be the best in every aspect of their life. So I think having that freedom to be you, I think is it allows for you to grow in an environment that Mr. Who cares if you make a mistake, and mistakes, bring learning moments and learning moments bring new new ideas, a new way to do things. And Briony,
Paul Barnett 20:38
I just want to go back. You said something fascinating in the answer there. And it's fascinating because it talks to resilience. And I'd like to just ask you a little bit more about when you talked about the words on the wall saying your enough. Could you explain to us where that came from?
Briony Akle 20:52
Yeah, absolutely. So it basically came down to we sort of realized really quickly when we were giving feedback. Or I might say to an athlete, I thought you had a great game today. And every single time they come up No, no, I don't think so. No, like it was this constant negative pushback around performance. And we have a lot of people that come into this environment. And and I love that with different learnings and different values and different words, and what do we take from that. And I think I've done a lot of reading into that resilience, I've read it somewhere to where it was, but you are enough. And it's sort of summed up my team perfectly, because they were always striving for that perfection and that perfect performance. So I'm like, What is perfect, you played the best that you could on that day. And to me, that's what's important. So just checking in with them, I could be in the middle of a game and someone just shakes their head at me and goes, now I'm not I'm not good today. And I'll go you are and that's you as a person are enough. So we all have people that we go home to and that love us. And as if you don't perform well, every single week, but you've got another opportunity next week. So just building that mental toughness and that self esteem piece, if you don't believe in yourself, then who else is going to do that for you. And, and that's probably really important any aspect of life. [PB9] And I say that to my kids as well that you've got to build yourself up and ask for help when it's needed. And that's obviously where my coaching comes into it with my team. But yeah, I think it's a super powerful just one liner to say, You're okay, no matter the outcome will be fun.
Paul Barnett 22:23
briny Europe, Premiership coach, Premiership player, your mother to four boys. And you again, when I was researching and preparing for today, I read some fascinating views on the fact that sometimes in children's sport, particularly in your part of the world and New South Wales in Australia, that I've put scores up on the board, they deny kids that opportunity, and you had some very strong views on that. And the role of the scoreboard in helping people build skills in handling adversity. Could you explain a little bit to us the situation? And you're on the scoreboard?
Briony Akle 22:59
Yeah, so I was approached by one of the papers in Sydney who were doing a piece on, I think they've only just discovered that under 12 still in place semi finals or play for points. And oh, yeah, I'll talk about this. My kids play soccer and that he can't, there's no score sheet. I'm like, What do you mean, there's no score sheet like you play a game with an aim of giving high end points is that of someone so definitely believe that? 12 years old? I'm like, What? That's crazy. Like, of course, they know the score, they keep the score in their head. So I just think if you don't have that scoreboard, not everything's roses, and not everything's perfect. And losing probably teaches you more than winning does. And, you know, I see a lot of kids, I spend a lot of Saturdays at soccer, there's no netball, but there's definitely a lot of soccer and cricket. And it always blows me away that that we have this rule here in Sydney. So do we ever win gracefully lose gracefully? There's so many learning moments for kids that winning and losing teaches you and if you don't have that, like I just think it's crazy. Crazy. So yeah, you've got to be able to handle walking away. But there's a better team on a day there's a better team on the day practice harder. So there's so many life learnings in that that[PB10] . Yeah, what do you what are you doing for your don't you move forward to high school and there's so many things I think is crazy that you don't have a score and there's no winner and loser because they don't think they know it? Yeah, crazy. I don't know if it's like that in your part of the world now, but it's definitely here and we're trying to change it.
Paul Barnett 24:26
I mean, I think in Central and Eastern Europe, they are a little bit harder for when their code Yeah, it's a little bit more direct. I think it goes back to communist times. And I talking to my friends at work, there is nobody who doesn't have a scoreboard. But what was interesting in that article was what Ruth anicet who's twice been psychologists for the Australian Olympic team. She was supporting you and she said she can't find any peer reviewed research that suggests taking the score away on from the scoreboard is helping so I thought it was a very strong thought and I think it also ties into this flow. You've got around helping athletes build resilience, which is such an important skill for all of us to develop these days with everything that's going on around us.
Briony Akle 25:08
Yeah, absolutely. And especially all of us in this crazy time of COVID, like life has changed. And the way we did things even throughout the period where we were supposed to be prepared for a competition that we didn't know was going ahead. So every part of life sort of leads you to different places and choices and how you handle different situations. And yeah, I think it's, again, the language and the the mindset that you have in different situations, whether good or bad, and definitely learning those skill early is definitely a great thing. And it can be Tz whatever the situation tears of happiness, whatever, but I think it's how you handle and handle yourself in those situations.
Paul Barnett 25:46
Brian, a, you've got a great Captain at the swift Maddy proud. She's very articulate. She's a great player. She's very courageous. And I'm wondering what advice you have for other coaches when it comes time to choosing a captain?
Briony Akle 25:59
Yeah, good question. I think we've done it a few different ways at swift and Maddie is we have Maddie proud. We have Paige Hadley who was the vice captain. So they formed our leadership group at the New South Wales Swift's and they're both very different. And as you said, Maddie Pratt is very articulate, very comfortable with the media very comfortably talking, and is a leader in a different way compared to pages and pages. Not that person that loves the media. She's good at it. But you know, obviously doesn't love it. Her actions on court and her training and her work ethic are what makes her great. And I think choosing the leadership group at the Swiss we, we basically had a weekend of really sort of hard yakka different situations and on and off the court throwing them in uncomfortable situations. And we basically decided that we would observe, I think what you need to know it within your own group, what do you want from your leaders? What do you need from your leadership group? What do you as a coach bring to the group is as a leader and how you complement each other. And I definitely think you need to have someone that has bought in to what you're trying to achieve at the organization.[PB11] And Maddie was one of those people that she got voted in, right, we did a vote system here at the Swift's that may change in the future. Who knows, but it worked for us. And it probably backed up what we had as coachy, or as our performance team has thought of her leadership, and she's constantly learning in her leadership role. And that's probably what I love. I don't think you pick the loudest person all the time, I think that's probably some people just choose the person that's the loudest, the funniest, the most popular. But I think at the switch, we've got a really lovely combination of Maddie who is Is that fun person who is a great communicator, and works beautifully with paigey, who is hard worker through her actions, not necessarily her voice. So I think it's really important that your players or your work group do have a same leadership because I don't think there's it doesn't work well, if the group hasn't got that same buy in. And we definitely did a lot of those tasks to make sure that Maddie was the right fit for the leadership and in saying that the sweeps have got some really great leaders that have come before us like that Liz Ellis and Kath Cox, who have gone to have great careers in the media and have left a great legacy. So I'm probably trying to instill that in them that what's come before us what was their legacy as leaders and you know, obviously, they both went on to Captain Australia. So yeah, learning from the past and learning, learning new ways of doing things every day I think is super important in leadership.
Paul Barnett 28:26
Ronnie nipples been a pacesetter for women's sport for a long, long time that female participation in sport is still lagging behind males at the junior level. So I'd like to ask you, what can coaches do to encourage more female participation?
Briony Akle 28:39
I thought about this question. And I sort of tried to translate to my boys and why they love playing sport. And I think most girls started out playing because mom and dad enrolled them and then they have fun doing what they do doesn't matter if it's netball, tennis, gymnastics, whatever sport that is. And I think there's a couple of reasons why they pull out and I think it's, it's interesting through COVID that we noticed that we were sort of saying here in Australia that we had to get Junior sport back up and running, especially for that 1415 age group. Because then there was a thought that those girls especially would not go back to sport after that if they just gave up for whatever reason, and I think you've got to maybe not everyone plays obviously to win a Premiership people love to play just to be with their friends and and have great fun and keep fit. And I think reinforcing that it's not all about winning and it's why we do an activity at all. So I think for me, it's really important that an emphasis is is just on participation and staying healthy. And another thing for me I think it is body image is definitely an issue. I think once I know netball spoken about the attire that girls wear and that some girls don't want to wear skimpy little netball uniforms so that puts them off they don't play sport again. So I think it's just being a bit more creative of what that looks like. And if we want girls to keep playing sport having positive body images of you know girls that you may not look like every girl from the Swiss because Cuz I train seven days a week. But who cares the fact that you're out there having a go and encouraging everyone to have a go, I think is super important. So having a different range of role models is really important in sport and especially female sport, because I've worked in rugby league as well and seeing the impact that rugby league players have on boys and they're their idols. And I'd really love to see women embracing that as well. It's really strong, confident female mentors in girls lives[PB12] . And I think with the introduction of not only you know, professional cricket here, and AFL there's a much broader choice for girls to get involved and stay involved, especially if it's playing. If it's a being a coach umpire running a club, I think just encouraging that every facet of sport that you can get involved in is super important to keep people involved and especially just like I did when I was 13, or 14, if I didn't want to keep playing I could have just kept coaching right and not played. So different opportunities for different people and, and having getting out in the media and showing what fantastic role models that these female cricketers netball is basketball is whatever sport and I think there just needs to be shown in their light, their male counterparts are
Paul Barnett 31:11
brighter. You've got such positive energy and such great body language, which you've talked a lot about in this interview. If I could wind the clock back and take you back to talk to that 1314 year old who was first coaching those under 10s. What advice would you give her? Oh,
Briony Akle 31:27
great question advice I'd give her probably just to see, don't sweat the small stuff in terms of worrying about things. I think when I was that 13 year old kid, I probably just like probably say to my boys about what it means to be successful. Success is different, right? I might we might not want any games. I didn't remember if we'd won games as coaches back then. But the fact that why we were there and to keep the enjoyment in anything that you do. And that's probably something that I would say to my 13 year old self that don't stress about the small stuff like last grade, right? We're playing sport, we're going to school, probably a bit different now with social media. I feel sorry for kids of this generation with social media. But I just think the little things in life are the good things and to have fun with your friends and in life is good.
Paul Barnett 32:16
Probably one last question, then you are very still very early in your coaching crea almost went back to back Premiership you see it got very close and quite get there, which gives you the goal to go forward. And I read that you said that you weren't interested in the Australian job at this time. So there's still a lot ahead of you from a coaching point of view. So I do feel a little strange asking this question, but I'm gonna throw it out there anyway, because you did start coaching a young age. So yeah, what's the legacy you think you've left? so far? As a coach,
Briony Akle 32:46
I probably gone back to the past with the Swift. So I've tried to teach these girls. And it could be any environment, especially in this environment, to have the respect and the knowledge of what's come before you. So I've very much instilled the belonging in that community and that you're actually not playing for yourself, you're actually playing for the red dress, we call it the red dress. And that every day that we're in public every day that you're on TV, or you go and coach a 10 year old that when you wear that red dress, what does that mean? And it's being proud about even wearing the red dress[PB13] . And I think I've probably reinstalled that we have really good, I'm surrounded by great people, my team are amazing. I love being around them. As long as each of us are getting better and better than I was yesterday in coaching and assist. Let me know that by the way, it goes two ways. Yeah, I just think a great environment that people want to turn up to Work Day in, day out, and they want to come. So we might not have got the Premiership this year. But yeah, I'm already excited about what the future holds. And I love sport and I love the club. I love the people I'm surrounded with. So yeah, probably leaving the red dress in a better place.
Paul Barnett 33:54
I don't normally do this, but I'm going to jump back in and challenge you. Okay, I think you're also leaving a legacy where you're building confidence and a sense of belief in your athletes. And I get the impression that that little ripple that you're creating, just as you played for the swift and now the coach, I've got a feeling that that might be something that your players talk about as well in years to come, but I could be wrong.
That would be lovely. If they did Thank you. That would be lovely. I hope so.
Brian Jaco, it's been wonderful chatting with you this morning. I wish you all the best for the offseason hope he gets some some rest after juggling family life and coaching up in the bubble and I look forward to watching on from afar next year as the Swift's in the red dress. Hopefully go all the way and win the Premiership.
Thank you so much. It's been great chatting. Thank you.