Managing The Matildas General Manager Gina Rees

The Tillies are the Australian football team taking the country and the world by storm.

But behind every football team, there's an amazing team of experts working behind the scenes.

Incredible women who help to manage the Matildas.

On today's episode, we meet Gina Rees.

She's the team manager at the Tillies, who's responsible for what she calls

as rolling out the red carpet for her players.

Gina and her team are the ones booking flights, inspecting pitches

and making sure everything rolls as smoothly as possible

so the players can focus on doing what they do best.

My name's Sophie and I'm the producer here at the Female Athlete Project.

This episode proves that there are so many roles and opportunities

for passionate sportswomen, both on and off the field.

So we hope you enjoy the second episode of this mini-series,

Managing Them.

Matildas.

Gina, welcome to the Female Athlete Project.

I'm excited.

I'm very excited.

I listen to your show religiously.

Oh, thank you.

You didn't wear your merch today, which I'm a little bit flat about, but I'll forgive you.

I've got a jumper, got a long sleeve.

Love it.

I love that.

I wrap it all the time.

It's very cool.

At the Tillies, I wrap it a lot, actually.

Oh, thank you very much.

Okay.

Only when we turn up and leave, because obviously we're in gear the rest of the time.

But when I turn up, I've often wrapped the hoodie.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

That's all right.

I love what you do.

It's great.

Thank you.

We go a fair way back.

I'm trying to think what year it was, back at Rugby Sevens.

2016.

Just before you won the glorious gold medal.

Thank you for dropping that into conversation, just to remind people.

It's okay.

You don't say it anymore when you do your intro.

Oh, my intro on the wrap.

You removed it.

I know.

I'll just pop it in there for you.

I feel like I sounded a bit full of myself every time.

I'm Chloe Dalton, Olympic gold medalist.

Well.

Maybe I'll do it again.

I'll bring it back for you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Can you take us back, Gina, and tell us where did you first find a love for sport?

Since I was little, always, always playing.

I actually used to play tennis quite competitively.

I had a rating and everything, so I was pretty decent for a while.

I kind of regret giving that up, but then I find playing hockey.

My mum used to play netball.

Not a fan of netball, so I went and played hockey, but used to sit on the sidelines watching

her, so it was always around.

My dad played football, and I was of the generation where I got told at 12 I couldn't play football

anymore.

Wow.

So I played all day through school.

I would say I was a star midfielder.

Not sure if that relates to how I play football now, but back then I thought I was.

And then left primary school and was like, I will go with all my boyfriends to play,

and they said, no, you can't play.

So off I went, did a bit more tennis, and then found this sport that was really good,

it was exactly like football and tennis combined, called hockey.

Nice.

Yeah, I went down that route, but got into it pretty late, I was like 16, and then yeah,

just played as much as I could, worked my way up a little bit, but sort of club level.

Just loved it.

It's like playing football, but with a hockey stick really.

Seems harder than that.

Yeah, it's a little bit harder, but it's the same sort of way of playing.

It's very, very similar.

Yes.

I was heavily involved in hockey then, and moved to Australia, because Australia's where

everyone was winning.

Yeah.

So I thought, right, let's go over to that country and see what they're doing over there.

Join the winners.

Win the winners, yeah.

That's the way to do it.

Where did your idea to have a career off field in sport come from?

Well, originally I thought, actually my first job in Australia was coaching football, so

that was just coaching kids football really, so nothing high level, but I was kind of on

the...

When I went through to uni, it was coach education and sports development, so still just...

I was like, I can't be an athlete, I'm not good enough, I'll just be in sports somehow

and just be around it.

Everything I love about all the values you learn, everything is just so key to me.

I just think that everyone should play sport.

And so yeah, went down that pathway, went down teaching, and then knew I didn't want

to be a teacher, because I didn't want to teach people that didn't want to be there.

That was the key.

Got, yeah.

Wait, why did you do it in the first place, or you worked that out halfway through?

Because it was easier.

Yeah, because it was an easier route, and I was good at it, so I was like, oh, I'll be

sweet, I'll just do this module on teaching and I'll be fine.

And they were like, oh, you're going to be a great teacher, and I was like, yes, be fine.

And then eventually it was like, oh, I'm going to go do this Australia thing, so I'll take

a year out from teaching, and then came over to Australia and then started coaching, and

did all my pathways through that, and then was in this football coaching company and

decided to set up Silo.

Yeah.

So those are like, we did a lot of multi-sports coaching, and then I thought, oh, I'll bring

hockey in, so still sort of linking my background in hockey to that, but loved the development

side of things as well.

I loved building pathways for kids to be able to get to where they wanted to get, and so

went into hockey doing that space.

So I was game development manager at Hockey New South Wales for a while, and that's how

I got into, I guess, the work side of sport, if you want to call it that.

And administration, and then touched a little bit on high performance, had a mini role as

like sort of high performance with Hockey New South Wales, but it was just, you did a

bit of everything in hockey.

And then that's how I went into coaching, was doing some state stuff, and team management

just popped in there.

I happened to be coaching an under-13s team in the same place as the Open women's team,

and they needed a manager.

And it's like a combination of all your skills, you do the administration part, but you're

also within the team environment and trying to, you know, create a culture for staff and

players.

So I ended up dabbling in team manager, and you just do everything as a team manager,

like especially at hockey, like compared to what we do at football, you do a bit of everything.

You do a bit of nutrition, you do a bit of sports science, you do a bit of coaching.

So it kind of fitted with, I guess, my background.

I could do a bit of everything in that space.

And yeah, I settled in on the team manager.

I did a bit of management stuff, but all the while needed a kind of career, I guess.

And that was where I leapt from that game development space into, I guess, the well-being

space, which is probably where I met you.

Rugby Union Players Association.

Yeah.

So I was doing that.

I was actually with NSW at the time.

If you remember, I was doing a split role.

Yes.

I think it was three days at NSW and two days with you, or vice versa, I can't remember.

So I'd just pop in for like a few days, dine it now.

Dine and then leave again.

It feels like a lifetime ago.

It does.

Yeah.

I just even think, I always relate to you guys in that program.

And we're at the moment going through, you know, we need a home of football.

We've got a home of Matildas in Melbourne.

We need a home of football for the Socceroos.

We're talking about that.

And I always bring it back to, rugby sevens won a gold medal out of a shed.

We were in some pretty unimpressive demountables.

It was, yeah, very unimpressive.

All squished in together.

I mean.

And I don't know, in many sports, they can say that their wellbeing manager sat right

next to the head coaches.

Yeah.

Do you think we were all in that one little area?

There wasn't a lot of space.

There was not a lot of space.

And then you guys, you know, male and female in the one communal area.

Yeah.

Sharing lockers and things.

Didn't have showers.

No, no, no, no, no.

Just got by grunt work, character building.

Yeah, it was.

It was interesting.

So I always refer to that when we always talk about, we want brand new facilities and we

want all this.

And I think it's really great.

And you need facilities, of course, but you also can have a really, you know, well run

program.

Coming out of the side of cars, really.

You guys used to get changed in the back of your cars.

Some people were sleeping in the back of their cars at one point in time.

I think Elliot Green was sleeping in the back of the car.

Many times.

He'd be knocking her on just to get her awake to go in and go meet or something.

Yeah.

It was incredible.

And incredible.

I don't know.

So coming from, and Swiss, so obviously I've moved from Hockney.

So.

Went into the end Swiss world of what was called then personal excellence.

I think it's probably the most name changes a department has ever had.

Cause you had, it was originally athlete wellbeing and it was personal excellence.

I think it's back to athlete wellbeing and engagement, maybe now.

And so I was in that space with then Swiss for quite a bit doing, I mean, I had 400 athletes

that you have to sort of look after.

That's a huge amount.

Yeah.

So your touch points are pretty, pretty low.

So it's more about like the programs you put in place and sending.

And then obviously when the Rupert with the rugby union playstation came up, I was like,

oh, this is amazing.

One, like two teams, one sport, 50 athletes, max, like imagine what you can do in there.

And then it sort of started three days and then I think I was full time for a year and

a half before I left and saw a huge transition happen in that.

So from you guys winning, yeah, winning that medal.

And then.

And then boom, new facilities, changing coaches, just loads of different, just, you just saw

a complete sort of shift in, in how that went.

And you know, it happens with money and funding and all that kind of stuff when you win.

So it was a good time to come in.

That's for sure.

Absolutely.

A hundred percent.

I remember you guys coming off that bus with those big gold medals and I'm stood on the

steps.

It's like, wow, I can actually see a gold medal.

It was amazing.

It still feels quite surreal that moment.

Yeah.

Fast forward then.

When did the?

When did the first conversation happen and the opportunity to work with the Matildas

come up?

Yeah.

So I, I left, um, Rupert based on, I was really honing in on, I think I want to be a team

manager.

That's where my strengths are.

Um, and if you remember you guys, it was the Commonwealth games.

Um, and.

2018.

Yeah.

We had Chucky, uh, sorry, James Stannard, he got king hit, do you remember?

And it was really awful.

One of the Australian men's sevens players.

Sevens.

Yeah.

And I, um, I'd happened to take leave the week before to go and do hockey at the Commonwealth

games with the hockey reason, the South African team, I was sort of helping out there.

And that clash for me of the two Olympic sports that I was kind of trying to progress in was

something that I sort of said to myself, like, I need to try and pick, like you got, it was

a point where I was like, you want to go to the Olympics yourself, you've got to pick

what, how you want to get there.

And so, um, I've wanted to go to the Olympics since 2014 when I made the decision, I'm going

to be a team manager.

Initially it was the hockey ruse.

So, uh, that goal's shifted.

Um, and for me, I think that's important.

You have goals, but you can shift in terms of how it looks.

So when I made that goal, that was sort of going down the route of the rugby and, and

Swiss and it all sort of, it's all, it's all been happening as, as I've gone on that journey.

Um, but yeah, that for me was a moment where I said.

Oh, I need to focus here.

I've got my job and then the kind of area that I'm trying to progress in, um, through

hockey.

And that was when I decided to leave rugby and focus on hockey and be a team manager

there.

And I got roles with hockey ruse here and there, and I was the new under 21s, Jilla

ruse manager.

So I was planning on going to a junior world cup and it was all happening.

And, and then suddenly I get a call from, uh, a guy that I'd worked with the hockey

who was with Sharon's sports commission.

And they were, it was May, 2021, right before the Olympics.

I get a call saying there's an opportunity coming up.

They need a female team manager with the Matildas.

And I was like, whoa, but it's only like a small role.

It's only the Olympics.

Only the Olympics.

Right.

And I was like, but they weren't going to offer you a contract after all this different

information.

I was like, oh my God.

Wow.

Okay, cool.

I need to speak to my family.

Literally.

My partner's pregnant.

We're about to have a baby.

Hmm.

What am I going to do here?

Like, so anyway, I went back to them.

I said, yeah, let's just like F it.

Let's go for it.

I was working at a school.

I thought they'll give me leave for the Olympics.

And I think I can sort of balance it.

I was actually working at your school, Pimble Ladies College.

Oh, shout out.

Always comes back to you.

Always.

Weird.

And then, um, it ended up falling through.

They ended up going with someone within their system, which I think was the right idea because

I would have just been blown away, um, to come into an Olympic games during COVID.

And all that stuff that's happening.

So I think they did the right move.

Um, and then unfortunately that ended up not working out for that, um, that team manager.

And they opened up the roles at the end of that year.

And so I thought, I'll just put my name in the ring for an assistant team manager role.

It was, I was like, it wasn't even the Matilda's role.

And I got that role and I thought, right, foot in.

I was like, really, I kind of want to know what's happening with this Matilda's role

because I was being sent to the Asian Cup in 2022.

Um, as an assistant team manager, it was going to be a couple of us.

And so I think it was a trial.

Let's be honest, see how it goes.

Throw you in the deep end, major tournament, away you go in India during COVID, um, two

weeks into my role.

So, um, yeah, it was full on.

And then I came out of that tournament, the manager of the Matilda's, so obviously did

soak right.

Um, yeah, been there two years, World Cup, back to the Olympics.

So, full on.

Are you talking about the Olympics?

You've talked about the difference in your role now to when you first started doing team

management in hockey.

What does your role now involve?

Um, everything.

So, um, I guess I'm the, um, I'm the one that organizes all flights, accommodation,

operations of the team.

So I get them everywhere.

Um, I'm the main point of contact for the players in terms of finance, payment, commercial,

media.

But it really goes to Anne now because I pass it on, um, and I'm that main contact for all

the staff in terms of contracts, payments, finance, um, equipment, uh, ordering.

I can't even, yeah, the list goes on.

I do, I do all, all the little bits and then also try to engage in the sort of leadership

and culture of the team a little bit.

And.

And ensuring that staff are happy, uh, getting what they want to be able to do their job.

I think my job is to facilitate everyone to be able to do their job on and off the field.

I think if you can capture it in a nutshell.

Yeah.

What on earth is the stress of a job like that?

Like, can you even articulate that?

You can probably see it on my face.

There's a few wrinkles that I can put to key tournaments.

Um, yeah, high level stress, high level stress.

You know, you've got to get the right flights if you haven't got the right, the right schedule

and you haven't booked the right transfer and you haven't, like, it all goes to wrong.

The training venues, it's up to me.

I'm now a pitch expert, which I was not before.

Good skill.

Yep.

I'm pretty good at that.

Um, so if that's wrong, that's my fault.

Like, you know, and you've got to take that on and be like, right, I've, I've messed up

here or I've not done my due diligence in checking that and it should be at this standard.

Yeah.

We're talking like the quality of the grass to make sure that it's up to scratch.

Yeah.

Everything.

Quality of the change room, showers, everything.

Hot water doesn't work.

My fault.

Wow.

Yep.

That's a bit harsh to say my fault, but like, I'm the one that fixes it, right?

Yes.

I'll be the one that leads the group to the right.

You're going to go do this.

I'm going to do that.

We'll go fix that.

So yeah, it all comes back to that, that single person to make sure everything's right.

I'm, I'm very fortunate.

I have really good staff that I can delegate things to and be like, that's your area.

You fix it.

But then it come to me if you need me to support or you need me to push something or you need

me to run and go to the shops for you and get something.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, that's what I see the team manager role is, is you supporting all the other staff

as well.

What is the biggest challenge in your role?

Time zones.

Getting 50 people across the world in the right way in within budget and keeping a high

level of high performance.

So we have certain standards we have to keep to, do you wear like a CBA across the sports?

So you have certain aspects that you have to do.

Sometimes you're just in a situation where you're like, I can't get that five star hotel.

I can't get that flight.

It's been canceled.

It's been delayed.

Like there's levels that you just like, you just can't, you can't get to.

And that you want to make sure that everything you do doesn't affect performance.

So we have got a pretty strong match from my head coach around.

We roll the red carpet out for the players and everything we need to, we do needs to

ensure that it's perfect for them to perform.

And so that's kind of what we all do really, whether it's, yeah, various different roles

within the organization.

What has it been like to be a part of a team and the culture of a team that's so iconic

in Australian sport and Australian culture?

Yeah.

When I'm walking around, I always get this moment where I'm walking around at the end

of the game in the field and I'm like, I feel like the Taylor Swift manager.

Sometimes like the amount of attention that they get and it's incredible.

I've had things thrown at me for pulling a player away from the fans.

Like they are nuts now.

Yeah.

They're crazy.

These, these fans just absolutely adore them.

And I think part of it is amazing because you're like half those people would even know

like football, but they're obsessed with the brand of the Matildas are.

And I, and I think that is amazing.

But what?

We've done in terms of we're playing amazing football.

Don't get me wrong, but we're also creating icons, I guess, as well.

They're creating themselves as well.

So I think, I think that's been the biggest eye opener is like, wow, we are, we're, we're

in charge or we're managing a group of extremely professional athletes that are now seen as

stars, which is crazy.

Crazy.

How do you get that balance right from a player welfare perspective?

Yeah, we have to set clear boundaries for performance.

So whether it's after a game, giving them a certain time on the field before they get

in, we also have to manage the, the relationship between the player and the fans as well.

We have to be the bad guy.

Hence why I've had things thrown at me because they can't be seen as that.

That's my job to be like that or a security manager's job or the staff that helping out

like the players can't be the ones that have sort of got to say, oh, I've got to go like,

you know what I mean?

Like they have to keep that progressing their brand and our brand as a football team.

And so you have to balance that high performance level.

And, but also there's an element of, we do still have to do the commercial to get the

money to give you the high performance standards that you want.

So we will have to do those windows where you're not going to be a football player.

You're going to be a media personality for a little bit or photographed or handshaking

certain people.

So I think that's key.

Um, to, I guess, balance it out.

What is your favorite failure?

Um, well, I think we'll probably just stick on some failures as a team manager because

there's quite a few.

And as I mentioned before, if you fail at that role, it can actually have quite dramatic

effects on the team.

Um, so we're two, I'm two weeks into the job.

We've just, uh, we're in the Asian cup, um, in India.

Um, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,

So what we're done, we had a pre-camp in Dubai and then from Dubai, India, we were

getting a charter flight and then we had the tournament in India and then we had to get

a charter flight from India back to Dubai.

The reason was a whole lot of COVID stuff happening.

Getting our gear in and out of India is impossible with, um, all the quarantine and things that

you have to go through.

So it was, it was easier for us and more practical from a high performance level to get a charter

in and out.

Yeah.

And then from Dubai, obviously a major hub, we can get everyone back to Australia.

various different clubs across across the world um so obviously that decision was made two weeks

in the row i've booked the charter flight and you have to book the return dates so i'm looking at

the draw and i'm thinking an animal and remember this because uh probably on the field after we

lost the game was quite a bit of confusion so we're in the tournament and unfortunately we get

knocked out around what was around the final round wasn't it quarters quarter finals we get

knocked out previously when i've looked at the draw and i've booked the return flight i've gone

we've got to pick three dates that we can bomb out so i go group stage just in case

semi-final and final right yeah you know but not the quarter final

but not the corner quarter final i also look at the draw and i'm thinking

when i'm booking it oh it's okay i think we've got like a playoff afterwards

not realizing because i'm

two weeks into the job, that that playoff is actually for the teams

that need to play off the World Cup.

We're the hosts.

We don't need a playoff.

Or you got a spot in the World Cup.

Correct.

So I didn't book the return charter flight from the quarterfinals.

As you know, in a tournament, once you end, see you later, get out.

You've got 24 hours to sort of get out.

They even fuck you out of the hotel because if you've not moved on

to the next round, you're gone.

And I literally, I remember sitting on the bench on the game

and we were literally about to lose.

And I think, we don't have a charter flight home for another two days.

Oh, okay.

So then I'm going around, I'm just checking with everyone.

Do we have another game after this?

No, no, that's it.

We're out.

Oh, God.

Okay.

So no one else knows at this point in time?

No, I'm a security manager.

In fact, obviously, me and my security manager did it in terms of,

we both consulted on the times that we had to pick the three.

And so, yeah, we literally, I was just on the field going,

I think I was just not even there.

I don't even know what happened after that game.

I got players coming up to me going, oh, is that it?

And I'm like, oh, I need to just check to make sure we don't have another game.

Like, just trying to bide my time.

I then go straight up to the match commissioner and just to double check.

Like, this is it.

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

You've been knocked out of the tournament.

Okay.

And then literally we get back to the hotel.

And of course, the players are just like done, you know, get food.

They just want to get out of there.

And I literally had to lock myself into a hotel room with my security manager,

with my flight agent on the phone, all of our international relations people

trying to move our charter flight date to an earlier date.

But of course, it's India, very difficult to come in and out of.

And it was a right mess.

We ended up having to move hotels for a night because we couldn't get another slot.

They have a slot location and that's your slot and that's it.

So I think we managed to move it one day earlier, but that meant we had to move hotels.

And, you know, we move hotels and you've got, we're transporting people with COVID.

So there's just so much.

It's a hazmat suit.

There's private vans.

Oh, there's everything going on, everything going on when you're in a COVID tournament.

And so that was probably my biggest failure, funniest as well.

I've had some, I could write a book, stuff that we've gone through that's in the background of behind the team.

A team behind a team is probably the funniest spin-off show there probably could be to any kind of documentary.

That's for sure.

Yes.

Should we flip it and go to career highlight?

Yeah.

Awesome.

I mean.

Yeah, you can't go past the, the world cup as, as you probably are aware of how big that was.

I probably, it's, it's a funny way.

It's my career highlight in terms of the pre-camp that we did for the world cup and the way that I was able to control pre-camp part one and all of the base camp, like where we stayed, everything we set up for the players in Brisbane.

Yeah.

It was definitely one of the, I think the best things I've ever been a part of doing.

And I can't say it was just myself.

We had our marketing, marketing team help, um, chef, uh, system team manager, all the people

in the ops that made that work.

I think it was just seamless in terms of the setup we had from a high performance point

of view, fields being, you know, close by, um, being like all the things that I have

to go through and tick off is my kind of to-do list to get right to then say to the players

like, here you go, perform basically.

I think was, was awesome.

The, the base camp set up we had was amazing.

Um, and how we managed and transported everyone through the tournament I thought was, was

really good.

Um, seamless few issues here and there, but, um, nothing that the proudest thing I can

say is that when the players know nothing, like they didn't know anything, that's when

you know, you've done your job because they've just gone through that tournament with, and

afterwards often you can have a drink with them.

And sort of say, oh yeah, do you know this happened in the background?

Do you know our freight wasn't going to arrive for a few days?

Did you know we almost didn't have uniform, like all the things that happen that they

just know zero about.

It's always funny to see that sort of faces afterwards.

And then they're obviously very grateful for all of the staff that do everything they can

just to get them on the field and, and get them where they need to be.

So.

What role do you think that plays in their performance when they can just not have to

worry about those things?

I think it's a huge one because, um, I think, um, I think it's a huge one because, um, I'm,

um, you'll know as the personality of an athlete, that control of how you want everything

to be.

If we can kind of say, we've got this for you, just go and perform.

I think it makes a massive, a massive difference.

And it comes down to them trusting the staff around them.

And you've got to think like they put their trust in me to get them across the world,

the physios to help them get back, the doctors to, to make sure they're getting, you know,

the right treatment.

And.

To obviously honor that and, and make sure we do it the right way.

So I think it's a huge relief if they have the support around them to be able to do what

they need to do.

Sometimes we get it wrong, often, um, but hopefully they understand we're all human

as well.

And we're, everyone's doing everything in the best manner to get a medal, which will

hopefully be the career highlight that you asked me another time when we meddle at the

Olympic games.

Yes.

That's it.

I want to chat about Paris.

Mm-hmm.

Before we get to that.

What has it been like to be in that inner circle of a team that gets to go to a world

cup and now to the Paris Olympics too?

Yeah.

Pretty, it's pretty incredible to think that I was a spectator for a bit of the Matildas,

like for a long time I was, you know, criticizing how they played and, you know, oh, what's the

coach doing here?

And what's going on over here?

Like, do you know what I mean?

Or why is he playing that formation?

And then suddenly you're in it and you're like, oh, wow.

It's so, um, odd to think.

Yeah.

You put these teams up and you think, oh, I could never be a part of that.

And then suddenly you're part of it and you're, you know, eating dinner with them and sharing

all their stories.

And, you know, we built an amazing space to have players come in with their children and,

and you're there and you're actually a part of all of that.

And I think, um, yeah, it's been quite the, quite the journey.

Cause it's just, I feel like I haven't stopped and really thought about it, if I'm honest,

I've had the chance to really go, wow.

Like look what we've done.

And the moments I get to do that, I usually have the game and you sort of look around

and see a full stadium.

And then afterwards you're doing it and you think, wow, like you've been a part of this,

which is pretty awesome.

And then when you have friends that know nothing about football going, I'm going to the Tilly's

match.

And you're like, wow.

Like that's what, yeah.

Like that's incredible because that's what's, what's, what's been created.

And it's, um, it's that it's everyone's part of it.

And I think it's, yeah, pretty awesome.

A couple of players with some young kids.

Yeah.

You talked about creating safe spaces for them to bring their kids in, but you've also

got a daughter of your own.

What has that been like managing that as a family?

Yeah.

My daughter was two and a half.

So she was three months when I got the job.

So she's been there the whole time as my partner has.

Um, and I'm very fortunate to have a partner that basically lets me go for two weeks every

six weeks.

Oh, that's a lot.

Yeah.

That's the minimum.

And then I was away for 10 weeks for the world cup and I saw them at games.

That was it.

So how many games do we have?

Five.

So yeah.

So out of 10 weeks.

Yeah.

So seven.

Um, it was a blur.

Yeah.

It was a real blur.

Um, so yeah, it's, it's one of those things that I'm very fortunate to have the support

that I've got from a partner.

Um, my daughter is amazing.

She's, she loves watching the Tilly's.

She calls it.

Um, and every time I put something on that has football Australia, I'll show you, you

want to go see the Tilly's?

Yeah.

So she's, yeah, she's very aware of everything.

And I'm, um, really grateful that the staffing group and everyone are really supportive of

that as well.

And we obviously have kids come in camp with us, um, which I'm also so proud of the way

we've done that.

And that was a whirlwind of how are we going to do this?

There wasn't a blueprint there that said, here you go.

You know, this is how you have children in camp and how you're going to ensure that that

player is performing.

Cause that was the biggest part of how we developed the policy was how are we going

to help the player perform, but also be a mum.

And that's what you have to keep trying to remember is I can do that.

Um, and there are some tweaks that we have to, when it's a friendly, it's different to

when it's a competition and we have to make some tweaks on how that looks because we have

to protect the high performance environment for players that don't want kids in camp.

Right.

So there's a real balance of how we do that.

Um, and, and then also we try and ensure that staff have that space to talk about their

families, um, see them at games, that kind of thing.

And I think that's really important.

And a credit to Tony head coach, who's kind of fostered that more family friendly approach.

Um, haven't been a part of that much, um, before.

I mean, it was crazy to think that we had it at rugby sevens with.

Oh, Nicole Beck.

Yeah.

And I mean, her little girl was just wandering around everywhere.

Everywhere.

Like literally on the sidelines of training.

Yeah.

And so a little bit of that, where we took, I took a little bit of that experience seeing

that and seeing the good and the bad.

And then how we do that within a national team where they just come in for two weeks

at a time.

It's not, it's not a centralized program.

So, um, yeah, lots of learnings across that.

And I think we've done it really well.

Um, I'm sure my, as I said before, my partner's probably like, yeah, when are you done?

You're probably, you're probably done soon Gina.

Um, because yeah, going away a lot.

And I want to see my, my little girl play football and coach her and, and go and see

her every, pick her up at daycare every day and that kind of stuff.

So there'll be a time when I step back a bit, but it's the Olympics.

Olympics.

It's happening.

Olympics.

How are you feeling?

You walked in.

I want to say disheveled, but there's a lot going on.

Yeah.

There's a lot.

There's a lot of, um, late night meetings with Europe.

Um, there's a lot of, the Olympics is a, a, a different beast because you've got almost

two organizations running it because with football, you're not centralized in the, in

the village, um, where you've got, where you just basically in there and everyone takes

care of you from that point of view, you're just in there.

Ours is, um, a remote program, um, decentralized where we have, we're moving around France.

So we actually don't get, go in the village unless we top the group.

Right.

Yep.

And then, or go to the final.

So if we top our group, we will play our quarterfinals out from the village and that we're all around

Marseille, Nice, Lyon, you know, around France.

So it's almost like an, a separate tournament itself, but you're still then bounded by AOC.

Regulations and rules.

You've got FIFA and then you've also got IOC Paris 24, the LOC.

So I've got three competing.

Yeah.

So there's a lot there that you're administration wise trying to manage, but then, um, you know,

still trying to push the level of performance standards that we need in a tournament.

There's probably not same level as what we're used to.

So, um, there's a little bit going on.

Sounds like it.

I can't wait to watch.

I'm counting down.

Yeah.

No, it's going to be amazing.

And the state I went to, we did a visit, um, just, I can't remember when I'm not gonna

lie.

My brain's gone.

Um, I think it was May, April, May.

Uh, we did a visit to all the venues and the stadiums are just fantastic.

So from a, from watching football, if you're over there, try and get to some football games

because stadiums are amazing.

Um, and I think it will be.

Yeah.

If you just look at the teams competing, I mean, look at our group alone and then mammoth

matches.

So, and that's every group.

There's no, there's no easy group in the Olympics, which I think is amazing.

And it's amazing that we got there, um, to put ourselves in a position where few wins,

few draws, and you never know where you're at.

Right.

So.

Piece of advice for a young girl or woman wanting to get involved in sport, more in

an administrative or off field role.

Um, you definitely have to dedicate your life to it.

It's not, um, it's not something you do half heartedly.

And I think I relate to that, to an athlete as well.

If you work, if you're an athlete, you've got to dedicate your whole life to it.

I think anyone you speak to in sport, working in sport, it's their life.

It's what they get up and, and do and, and revolve around with.

And it was actually interesting.

I was having a really low day the other day.

And I put on your podcast.

And you were chatting to Holly, the water polo player.

Yeah.

Holly Lincoln-Smith.

Yeah.

Wow.

Incredible story.

Incredible.

I was crying too, as well.

I was a mess during that episode.

Yeah.

And I was driving somewhere.

I can't remember.

Probably going to the shed to pack gear.

And I think I was just like, oh my God, what am I doing with my life?

Like, this is too much.

And just hearing her story and just hearing her sort of say like, it's hard, it's not

easy.

Mm.

But from a staff point of view, it's not easy to get to an Olympic Games as a staff

member.

You have to sacrifice your family for seven weeks that you're away.

You have to put the hard yards in doing jobs that you don't want to do, not getting paid,

not getting the right recognition maybe even.

But if that's what you want to do, then you've got to put the hard work and you've got to

do it.

And I think it just helped me.

I remember listening to it going, oh God, I need that.

I'm not an athlete at all.

And I'm sure you guys go through way more stress on your bodies than what we do as staff.

But in terms of the hard work you've got to put in, it just reminded me that working till

1am each night at the minute is going to be worth it.

Yeah.

And I think we have a lot of stress, but you guys have the stress, but don't get as much

glory.

So I think that's why I'm really glad to have the opportunity to do this mini series with

the three of you.

Because I think it's really important to share your stories as the people behind the scenes

that work all hours into the night to make it happen, to allow the athletes to perform

at their best.

Because I do think you guys deserve a lot of credit for what you do.

I think there's one moment in the World Cup which sums up the level of, I get what you

say, we don't reap the benefits, but that goal when Sam Kerr scored against England,

and I thought, oh my God, we don't have to move back to Brisbane again.

We're going to be in Sydney and going to play there.

You saw, I think there's a video of me, I fly off the bench with my clipboard, fist

pumped through the air, and you could, that was just pure relief of, oh my God, we might

operationally not have to leave the cities again.

Obviously, unfortunately, we didn't end up winning that game.

But that was, I think there is aspects of when we do succeed that all the staff really

feel it.

I love that.

It was a key moment.

That's great.

It's been really lovely to catch up again.

We haven't caught up for a long time.

And thank you for your insights and your stories.

It's been a lot of fun, and I think amazing to get that behind the scenes look into what

your role involves.

So thanks so much, Gina.

I appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

You get to listen to your own podcast.

Oh, I don't know about that.

I might skip that one.

Thanks so much for listening.

If you got something out of this episode, I would absolutely love it if you could leave

it in the comments below.

And I'll see you next time.

Bye.

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