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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Coles MiniRoos Program Opens Football Pathway for Children aged 4 to 11 across Australia

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Football Australia’s Coles MiniRoos program is welcoming new participants across the country, offering children aged 4 to 11 a structured and inclusive introduction to football through local clubs and schools.

Now one of Australia’s largest grassroots sporting initiatives, MiniRoos operates across two streams designed to meet children at different stages of their footballing journey. Coles MiniRoos Kick-Off, available to children aged 4 to 11, provides a non-competitive, skills-based entry point for those new to the game, using short game-based sessions of 45 to 60 minutes to build confidence and basic technique. Coles MiniRoos Club Team, open to children aged 5 to 11, moves into small-sided club football- formats of 4v4, 7v7 and 9v9- designed to maximise touches, involvement and opportunity for developing players.

Both programs run for between four and twelve weeks and are delivered by local clubs and schools, keeping participation embedded in the communities where children already live and learn.

The program’s structure reflects a broader shift in how junior sport is being designed. Small-sided formats give younger players more contact with the ball and more meaningful involvement in each session, addressing one of the most common reasons children disengage from team sport early: the experience of spending more time watching than playing.

The timing carries particular significance. With the AFC Women’s Asian Cup currently underway and women’s football participation in Australia at record levels, the pipeline that will sustain that growth over the next decade is being built now, in programs like this one, in communities across the country.

Coles MiniRoos is approved by Football Australia and open to children of all abilities. Registrations are open now through local clubs and schools.

Filopoulos: Football Must Move Beyond Campaigns to Win Fans for Good

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Image Credit: Perth Glory

Global marketing and advisory firm Bastion has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Peter Filopoulos as Managing Director, Experience. This decision brings one of Australian football’s most influential administrators into a new phase of the sports business landscape.

Filopoulos, who has held senior roles across Football Australia, Football Victoria and Perth Glory, will lead Bastion’s experiential and partnerships division, applying a football-informed lens to brand engagement.

Drawing on his time in the game, Filopoulos emphasised the importance of cohesion in building meaningful fan connections.

“For me, the biggest lesson is that fans don’t see brand, content and experience as individual silos, they experience it all as one connected ecosystem,” he said.

“At Football Australia, the work resonated most when everything was aligned; the team, the narrative, the partners and the matchday experience all working together to feel cohesive and authentic. That’s when engagement moves beyond interaction and becomes something far more meaningful.”

He added that too many organisations still treat fan engagement as short-term.

“Where a lot of organisations fall short is treating fan engagement as a campaign. It’s not, it’s an always-on system.”

Filopoulos’ move reflects a broader shift within football, where commercial growth is increasingly driven by experience-led strategy.

“At Bastion, we put experience at the centre—because it’s where the brand comes to life, where partners integrate in a way that adds real value and where fans genuinely connect,” he said.

“Our focus is on building platforms that bring fans closer to the brand… Get that right, and you’re creating something people actively want to be part of.”

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