Our Great Coach on this episode is rugby's Alana Thomas.

Alana was the 88th player capped to play for the Australian Women’s Rugby team, the Wallaroos representing them between 2006 to 2010.

She then transitioned into coaching, progressing through coaching club and state representative teams. Winning the Victorian premiership with Melbourne Unicorns in 2017. An achievement that led to her winning the Rugby Australia Community Coach of the year.

In 2017 she was appointed coach of the Melbourne Rebels team in new National competition, the Super W, and she is still in that role today. 

In addition she has coached Australia A teams and in 2020 was also appointed as an Assistant Coach for the Fiji Women's Rugby team to help them prepare for the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup.

Key topics she discusses include:

• building a team culture, and how the team came up with the words “I want to be a rebel like her” to describe it.

• the importance of knowing the athlete as a person first, because if you don't know the person, you won't know what motivates them.

• that it used to be that you had to perform to feel like you belonged in a team, whereas now you have to feel like you belong in order to perform.

• creating sustainable pathways and opportunities for others to follow.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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