Paddy Steinfort appointed as Performance Director of Football Australia

Liam Watson
Paddy Steinfort is a highly credentialed and experienced addition as the new Performance Director at Football Australia.

Football Australia has announced Paddy Steinfort as the new Performance Director.

Steinfort is set to take up his role from July 1, 2021 and will arrive as a highly credentialed and experienced addition from Major League Baseball team Boston Red Sox, where he most recently held the position of Senior Performance Coach.

His impressive career features several sporting organisations and high-performance environments in Australia and the United States, with his previous roles including Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Eagles and Adelaide Football Club.

He was also the Managing Director of Leading Teams New Zealand, where he played a vital role developing high performance cultures, teams and leaders across a number of sports around the globe, delivering innovative and tailored programs to organisations in leadership and high performance development.

At Football Australia, Steinfort will oversee the High Performance of all national teams, including the Socceroos and Matildas.  His appointment highlights Football Australia’s strategic shift from a more administratively focused role to one dedicated towards working with the organisation’s highly experienced and skilled national team staff to enhance the high-performance environments around the national teams.

Football Australia CEO James Johnson identified Steinfort as a perfect fit for the strategic direction the organisation is heading in.

“Following an extensive recruitment process, Paddy was the stand-out from a highly competitive and global set of candidates. He brings an outstanding set of skills, cutting-edge global experience and high-performance knowledge and acumen to Football Australia,” Johnson said.

“Our national teams face some very unique challenges – players are located across the globe, they only gather a handful of times during the FIFA windows, qualification for major tournaments in Asia requires significant travel, and our players compete in some of the most demanding leagues and play for some of the most high profile sporting organisations in the world.

“We believe that Paddy is the ideal person to help us meet the challenges of modern-day international football and at the same time develop and implement innovative performance strategies for our teams and players.  He will work in close partnership with our very experienced coaches to play a vital role in enhancing a culture of high-performance for our teams to perform at their optimum as we enter into a crucial period for our national teams.”

Head of Technical Direction, Pathways and Coach Education, Trevor Morgan applauded the appointment – who sat alongside James Johnson and Board member Amy Duggan on the recruitment panel.

“We are genuinely excited about the appointment of Paddy. He is an excellent communicator who understands the needs of elite athletes through experience he has developed across a range of professional sports at the highest level,” Morgan said.

“His appointment is well timed for our organisation and the strategic direction we are taking with our high performance and national teams.

“Paddy’s expertise and diverse skillset will help us evolve our practices with the cutting edge initiatives to improve performance on the global stage as we embark on a busy schedule of national team activity going forward.”

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Bentleigh Greens and Metricon Bring Local Business Community Together Through Networking Initiative

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Image Credit: One-Nil Media

Bentleigh Greens FC has reinforced its commitment to supporting its community beyond football, partnering with Metricon Homes to host a business networking evening designed to strengthen relationships between local businesses, sponsors and club stakeholders.

 

A unique setting for meaningful connections

Held inside one of Metricon’s display homes, the Bentleigh Greens Business Networking Night welcomed around 60 local business owners, club partners and community leaders for an evening focused on connection, collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Rather than a traditional function space, Metricon opened the doors of one of its display homes, creating a unique networking environment that highlighted how the space could be transformed into a premium venue while providing guests with a relaxed setting to build professional relationships.

The event reflects a growing trend across community football, where clubs are increasingly positioning themselves as platforms for business engagement and local economic development, alongside their role in delivering participation opportunities on the pitch.

Guests also heard from strategic futurist Marcus Barber, who delivered a presentation examining the growing influence of artificial intelligence on modern business. His insights encouraged attendees to consider how emerging technologies are reshaping industries and the importance of preparing for future change.

 

Creating value beyond sponsorship

While commercial outcomes were never the primary objective, the evening was designed to create long-term value by fostering meaningful relationships between businesses connected to the Bentleigh Greens community.

Early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with several attendees already establishing new contacts and beginning discussions around potential collaborations.

The initiative also highlights Metricon’s broader commitment to supporting local communities beyond residential construction. By partnering with Bentleigh Greens and providing the venue, the company helped facilitate an event that encouraged learning, networking and stronger community connections.

 

Football clubs as community business hubs

For community football clubs, initiatives such as these demonstrate how partnerships can extend beyond traditional sponsorship models. By creating opportunities for local businesses to engage with one another, clubs can strengthen their commercial networks while delivering tangible value to sponsors and the wider community.

As football clubs continue to explore new ways of engaging stakeholders off the field, events like the Bentleigh Greens Business Networking Night illustrate how sport can serve as a catalyst for meaningful business relationships and long-term community growth.

Football NSW builds life‑saving network as cardiac safety push expands

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Image Credit: Football NSW

Football NSW has distributed 20 defibrillators to associations and regional clubs through its Every Beat Matters campaign, part of a broader push to improve cardiac emergency preparedness across the state’s football network.

Sixteen of the devices were presented to participating associations at the inaugural Football NSW Association Championships in Mudgee. A further four went to regional clubs: Cowra and District Soccer Club, Westside Panthers, Yerrinbool Bargo Soccer Club and Narooma Football Club.

The rollout builds on the Heartbeat of Sport AED Mapping Project, which is mapping defibrillator placement at sporting facilities across NSW with funding from the Minns Labor Government. Twelve football associations have joined the effort, including Eastern Suburbs, Manly Warringah, Granville, Southern Districts, Nepean, Northern Suburbs, Football Canterbury, Bankstown, Hills, Sutherland Shire, North West Sydney Football and Football South Coast.

Data collected through the mapping project is being fed into NSW Ambulance’s GoodSAM emergency response system and NSW Health’s public AED map, enabling first responders to locate nearby defibrillators in real time.

The initiative responds to a gap that had gone largely unexamined. More than 2,400 defibrillators have been deployed across NSW sports facilities through the Local Sport Defibrillator Grant Program, which offers grants of up to $3,000 to eligible organisations. But a device not registered in emergency response systems provides significantly less value than one that is accurately mapped and immediately locatable.

The urgency is not abstract. At Doyalson Wyee Football Club, a 70‑year‑old player survived a sudden on‑field cardiac arrest because an AED was available on site. Survival rates drop by about 10 per cent for every minute without defibrillation.

Football NSW is also establishing a long‑term defibrillator register to track equipment distribution, access and maintenance across all 636 clubs and 31 associations. The Every Beat Matters campaign, supported by Toyota and St John Ambulance, aims to raise about $240,000 through a raffle to fund an initial rollout of 65 defibrillators to clubs currently without access, prioritising regional and lower socio‑economic areas.

The #HeartHealthMatters Program is delivering CPR and AED familiarisation training to sporting organisations, with a particular focus on regional communities where ambulance response times are often longer and volunteer bases smaller.

The ambition, in the words of project organisers, is straightforward: that no preventable death occurs on a football ground because the right equipment was not there, or could not be found.

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