The title of professional athlete is an alluring aspiration for many Australians. Our culture recognises and rewards those at the top of their game. But is the bad behaviour of our elite athletes proof that they aren’t taking their salaries seriously? Join our panel of guests, former Australian swim coach Denis Cotterell, former head coach of the Wallabies John Connolly, agent to the sporting stars Michael Blucher, President of the Queensland Jockeys’ Association Mary Collier, Wallaroo’s prop Lindsay Morgan, ABC NewsRadio’s Debbie Spillane and Mark ‘The Ear’ Oberhardt, for a Sunday sports showdown.
Michael Blucher @ThirdHalf_
Michael Blucher is the Director of The Third Half, a boutique training company assisting athletes with the transition from professional sport to main stream life. He is also a published author, releasing Perfect Union the joint biography of Wallabies Tim Horan and Jason Little in 1995. Michael writes a weekly column for Brisbane News and can also be heard 4TAB on Friday mornings.
Mary Collier @mtc01
Brisbane born and bred, Mary Collier starting talking very early in life and hasn’t stopped since. After her university days studying law at QUT, Mary embarked on an employment journey across the retail, broking and human resources fields. But she returned to the law and has spent the last decade trying to effect real change for Queenslanders through her work in legal policy and law reform. Mary is also a passionate sports administrator. She was a Director and Chairman of the Brisbane Turf Club and is currently the President of the Queensland Jockeys’ Association. Mary also hosts the breakfast show on 4BC.
John Connolly
John “Knuckles” Connolly is a rugby union coach and the former head coach of the Wallabies. As a rugby player, Connolly played hooker for the Brothers club in Brisbane. In 1989, Connolly took up a coaching position within the Queensland Rugby team and with the inception of the Super 12 competition in 1996, he continued his position at the Queensland Reds. During his time with Queensland, the side won the Super Six in 1992 and the Super 10 Championship in 1994 and 1995. In 2006 Connolly was appointed as the new head coach of the Australian team. In his first Test in charge, Australia defeated England in the first of two games in Australia. Australia then finished second in the 2006 Tri Nations Series and made the quarter finals of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Denis Cotterell
Denis Cotterell was instrumental in the formation of the Miami Swimming Club in 1976. He has held the position of Head Coach since its formation, and has guided 17 swimmers into berths on the Australian representative teams including Grant Hackett . An internationally recognised Master Coach, Denis has also been part of the Australian coaching team, attending Olympic and Commonwealth Games, PanPacific Games, World Championships, and other international events.
Lindsay Morgan
ACT prop, Lindsay “Mad Dog” Morgan, has represented her country in Women’s Rugby Union fourteen times since 2006. Her latest sporting achievement was scoring three tries last October at the 2010 Women’s World Cup. This helped the Wallaroos to improve their world ranking from seventh to third best in the world. Lindsay holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the Australian National University and is a mad keen Brumbies fan.
Debbie Spillane
The ABC’s first full-time female sports broadcaster (back in 1984), Debbie has since managed to meander a path between sport, comedy, music and news on both radio and television. This has including stints as co-host of Triple J’s ‘Hard Coffee’, Sportsbitch on ABC-TV’s ‘Live and Sweaty’ and sideline reporter on ABC TV rugby league. Debbie is the breakfast sport host on ABC NewsRadio.
Facilitator: Mark ‘The Ear’ Oberhardt
Mark ‘The Ear’ Oberhardt is a journalist with The Courier-Mail, writing a weekly column to cover the world of sport.
