Half Time: a podcast for coaches and officials (DLGSC)

Umpire Development with Daniel Gibbons

Daniel is the Umpire Coaching and Talent Pathway Coordinator with the West Australian Football Commission. Daniel has also worked with Rowing WA and was the Match Officials Manager with WA Cricket as well as working in Cricket Operations.

Daniel has also umpired both Australian Rules Football and Cricket to high levels, having started at grass roots level as a teenager.

In 2020, Daniel was awarded AFL National Volunteer Award Umpiring Service

Daniel Gibbons started umpiring in 2002 at age 13 and has since umpired seven grand finals, which is now the record for the most consecutive number of grand finals. Daniel is a polite, well-spoken, humble young man.  He is well respected by his umpires, parents, peers, club presidents, volunteers and WAFC staff who have week-to-week dealings with him.

As Umpire Manager, Dan imparts his knowledge of the rules of the game onto the umpires to ensure that they are well skilled and confident. He guides and supports the Umpire Coaches, mentors each week at training and attends games in support. Using his network, he organised AFL Umpires, Brett Rosebury and Dean Margetts, to umpire a junior football game.

Daniel is a match day coach for the Hendrie/Margetts Development Squad. Many of the umpires in this squad have benefited from Daniels coaching as they have come through the ranks of the Demons’ District.

Jamie lives in Bunbury and has been coaching for over 20 years. His strength and conditioning coaching experience is across multiple sporting codes including mixed martial arts, rowing, netball, basketball and AFL. Jamie works as the South West Talent and Coaching Manager for the West Australian Football Commission (WAFC) and has been coaching athletes on the Australian Football League (AFL) talent pathway for over 10 years. He is also the AFL Program Manager and Coach for the South West Academy of Sport (SWAS). The SWAS program managed by Jamie is recognised as one of the premier regional football talent programs in WA.

This podcast is applicable for all sporting codes and guides coaches through practical ways to introduce game sense and constraints led coaching approaches to your own coaching set up.

Jamie highlights the many benefits of this coaching philosophy and provides examples of how he utilises these principles in his day to day coaching in the WA football pathway programs he is involved with.

Resources to assist your learning:

Planning and workload management with Jamie Douse 

Jamie lives in Bunbury and has been coaching for over 20 years. His strength and conditioning coaching experience is across multiple sporting codes including mixed martial arts, rowing, netball, basketball and AFL. Jamie works as the South West Talent and Coaching Manager for the West Australian Football Commission (WAFC) and has been coaching athletes on the Australian Football League (AFL) talent pathway for over 10 years. He is also the AFL Program Manager and Coach for the South West Academy of Sport (SWAS). The SWAS program managed by Jamie is recognised as one of the premier regional football talent programs in WA. 

This podcast is applicable to all sporting codes and guides coaches through practical ways to not only plan your next coaching session but the whole season and beyond. Planning is more than preparing for your next session, especially so with athletes in talent pathways. Workload management requires coaches to have a level of understanding of the physical side of youth maturation and what considerations need to be given for fitness preparation and other factors.

Michelle Wong is currently part of the Curtin University Autism Research Group and was a TEDx Speaker in 2021.

Recently Michelle was described as the 'name that is everywhere', in the context of improving community sport participation and inclusion outcomes in the Peel region of Western Australia.

Michelle works with state and a local government, as well as alongside sporting clubs to improve outcomes for all members within the club.

Through her Bust-a-Burpee business, Michelle provides hands on workshops in the coaching and inclusion sport space.

Coaching skills are an essential part of the coaches role. However, if the participants are not engaged or enjoying their sport, the skills training is redundant.

This podcast is applicable for all sporting codes and guides coaches through practical modules to support engagement, retention and community building at your club. If the kids are happy, the parents are happy, the coach is having a good time and the club community will thrive!

A link to Michelle’s website which also has a great workbook which will assist with your development around Coaching Kids is below: