Black Swans Head Coach

Netball Australia is calling for expressions of interest (EOIs) for the role of Head Coach of Netball Australia's First Nations national team, the Black Swans.

BACKGROUND
The Black Swans program is a landmark First Nations-led Netball Australia (NA) initiative focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athlete pathway excellence, cultural engagement, and social impact through netball. The role is more than just coaching technical and tactical capabilities and strategies in an elite pathway environment. You will be required to possess a deep commitment to creating culturally safe environments, clearly demonstrate your knowledge and awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community protocols and cultural obligations, and you are driven by a strong commitment to building trust and nurturing connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway athletes, their families and the broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Overview – The Black Swans Program
The Black Swans Head Coach will help guide and support the continued progression and development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performance athletes in NA's pathway programs. Your initial engagement will be centred on your contributions and co-leadership of program design and campaign preparation for match play against international teams. You will have substantial opportunity to design and create environments that will be crucial to delivering on the program's Key Success Factors. You will also work in partnership with NA's Pathway coaches/Talent Selectors, your colleagues in the National Institute Network (NIN) or equivalent, Member Organisation (MO) programs, and coaches/staff of the Diamonds to maximise learning and stretch and optimise growth.

The Key Success Factors For The Program Are

• Culturally centred and culturally informed program design and delivery
• Developmentally focused (for everyone involved) and nested within a broader Pathway vision and range of activities.
• Building team culture, connecting with Diamonds culture, but always centred in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural ways of Knowing, Being and Doing.
• Alignment of the program (and across the system) on objectives and intended approaches that create a launch pad for the next generation, that includes embedding skill sets to enable progression to high-performance environments.
• Selecting the best Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes drawn from NA's existing pathway programs who have the most potential to become Diamonds and can perform at the elite level, while accounting for variety and depth in the system.

About The Role
This role is central to delivering a culturally safe, high-performance program that supports the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway athletes.

Strategic Focus, Leadership, and Management

• Coordinate a decentralised athlete program by monitoring state-based training sessions to ensure consistency, quality, and alignment with NA's Athlete Performance matrix.
• Support the holistic development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway athletes through collaboration with the First Nations Engagement Manager, Pathway Head Coach, and other NA staff, and First Nations cultural mentors.
• Create and foster a culturally inclusive and safe environment in all training and competition settings, centred around cultural protocols, pathway programme values and performance goals.
• Utilise the Athlete Monitoring System (AMS) to document and track athlete training loads, performance metrics, and initiate and monitor coach/athlete feedback in line with IAPPs.
• Conduct post-tour athlete evaluations in collaboration with NA programme leadership to inform athlete development plans and ensure Member Organisation (MO) visibility.
• Develop robust lead-in campaign plans including in-camp itinerary.
• Contribute to the ongoing evolution of the programme by participating in education and development sessions.

Performance & Pathway Leadership

• Contribute to a high-performance team culture that values cultural safety, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athlete wellbeing, and competitive excellence.
• Demonstrate leadership in managing culturally respectful and athlete-centred environments across the high-performance system.
• Guide and mentor Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander emerging coaches to contribute to long-term programme capability and sustainability.
• Ability to make complex, culturally informed decisions with respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural and community protocols.

Communication and Stakeholder Engagement

• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders including NA staff, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander team mentors, families, Elders and the broader netball ecosystem and MO partners.
• Demonstrated cultural capability, including the ability to work in culturally respectful ways to enhance and embed cultural connection and understanding within the programme.
• Strong interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills, with the ability to navigate complex relational spaces across cultures and performance systems.
• Communicate with a diverse range of media partners for promotional, operational and storytelling purposes.

Finance and Risk Management

• Identify, mitigate, and report potential risks across decentralised training environments and programme activities.
• Support a safe and resource-responsible approach to programme logistics, equipment, and travel.

Governance

• Operate in accordance with NA policies, procedures and integrity requirements, ensuring best practice in all aspects of athlete, workforce and programme management.
• Maintain current knowledge of safeguarding policies and compliance requirements (e.g. Working with Children Check).

Occupational Health and Safety

• Promote and adhere to all OH&S standards relevant to travel, training, and tournament environments.
• Consult with NA programme staff on safety-related matters and respond to incidents in accordance with reporting protocols.

Who Can Apply
Netball Australia is committed to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes have access to the highest quality coaches active within the Australian netball pathway. Qualified coaches who simultaneously possess, and can demonstrate, a high degree of First Nations cultural competency, and deep respect and understanding of First Nations ways of Knowing, Being and Doing to inform holistic program design and athlete development.

As such, Indigenous and non-Indigenous coaches can apply.

Notably, the successful applicant must be able to demonstrate a high-level working knowledge of creating culturally safe pathway environments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes, provide clear examples of being able to establish and maintain effective working relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, demonstrate a high degree of understanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural and community expectations and obligations, as well as an awareness of the barriers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face within netball.

What Are We Looking For
The prioritised experience and competencies we are looking for in candidates includes:

Experience

• Currently coaching in competitions at elite level and programming elite daily training environments (DTE)
• Elite Coach Accreditation (or currently completing an Elite Coach Accreditation)
• Current Australian driver's licence
• Current Working with Children Check
• Demonstrated experience leading and working with a diverse range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and community members.

COMPETENCIES

• Building respectful and inclusive partnerships (including the ability to leverage feedback)
• Continuous learning
• Adaptability
• Driving team success

TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT
Engagement will initially be on a Services Agreement basis. Subject to upcoming funding submissions in support of this initiative, there is potential for the role to include professional development opportunities. Details can be discussed prior to, and throughout the recruitment process, and flexibility/adaptability will be a guiding principle with the right candidate(s) to ensure the best configuration for the program and the successful role holder(s).

How Do i Apply
If you are interested in applying, you are required to complete the following and upload via the job advertisement.

• Resume (no more than 2 pages) that includes netball/ other professionally relevant information inlcududing the names of two referees.
• Cover Letter that demonstrates the following key selection criteria:
• Demonstration of your cultural capabilities and competency to establish and maintain respectful, culturally informed and effective working relationships with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander athletes, communities, Elders and the broader support systems within a netball environment
• Demonstration of your understanding of cultural safety in sport, with particular attention on how you have drawn on this knowledge to ensure your coaching environment is inclusive and respectful of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes?
• Provide a detailed summary where you have previously worked with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander athletes, and where you have applied your understanding of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander cultural and community expectations and obligations within a netball environment, and what you learnt from the experience.
• Demonstration of your understanding of the barriers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience in pathway netball and evidence of actions taken to mitigate these barriers within a pathway environment.
• Motivation for involvement in the Black Swans program, with a clear vision for how your role will contribute to the long-term success and development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes in netball pathways across Australia.

The shortlist process from the EOIs will be looking for connections to the key selection criteria.

RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Recruitment will involve an initial shortlisting through EOIs, 1-2 rounds of panel interviews and reference checks.

The recruitment process's public announcement is anticipated to be completed by September 2025.

This EOI will be used to fill the position of the Assistant Coach role. Therefore, please indicate your interest in the assistant coach role as part of your cover letter.

If you have any initial questions or would like to have a confidential conversation prior to your submission, please email People & Culture at and an NA team member will be in contact.